Summary: Ozark Highlands Radio is a weekly radio program that features live music and interviews recorded at Ozark Folk Center State Park’s beautiful 1,000-seat auditorium in Mountain View, Arkansas. In addition to the music, our “Feature Host” segments take listeners through the Ozark hills with historians, authors, and personalities who explore the people, stories, and history of the Ozark region. This week, award winning Neo-Bluegrass & Americana acoustic singer-songwriter duo The Buffalo Gals recorded live at the Ozark Folk Center State Park. Also, interviews with these incredibly talented Buffalo Gals. Mark Jones offers an archival recording of Ozark original Kenny Sims performing the traditional song “Butcher’s Boy.” Writer, professor, and historian Dr. Brooks Blevins profiles the curious history of Dogpatch USA, a unique theme park in the Ozarks for 25 years. The Arkansas duo Buffalo Gals is comprised of Melissa Carper on vocals, upright bass & guitar and Rebecca Patek on vocals, fiddle & guitar. Both women being extraordinary songwriters as well as accomplished musicians, they bring to the stage a range of stories and down home feeling that’ll have your toes tapping and your heart yearning. Blending a classic Country music & Americana sound with a bit of humor and a decidedly modern sensibility, the Buffalo Gals’ music is at once authentic as well as intimately relatable. Rebecca Patek’s most recent album “Come up and Meet Me” was named Best Bluegrass Album for 2016, by the Independent Music Association. In this week’s “From the Vault” segment, musician, educator, and country music legacy Mark Jones offers an archival recording of Ozark original Kenny Sims performing the traditional song “Butcher’s Boy,” from the Ozark Folk Center State Park archives. From his series entitled “Back in the Hills,” writer, professor, and historian Dr. Brooks Blevins profiles the curious history of Dogpatch USA, a unique theme park in the Ozarks for 25 years. The last of a three part series, this episode chronicles the chaotic downfall of an Ozark theme park based on the famous cartoon “Li’l Abner,” created by cartoonist Al Capp.
