Category Archives: Music

Still time to nominate for Arkansas Country Music Awards

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Arkansas CMAAs Bonnie Montgomery says, “The first annual Arkansas CMA was huge and the Second Annual is gonna be on fire – mark your calendar for June 3!”

Nominations for 2019 are open now until Jan 28 and people should submit their favorite and hardest working musicians from the Natural State!

Categories are:

  • Lifetime Achievement
  • Entertainer of the Year
  • Female Vocalist
  • Male Vocalist
  • Americana Artist
  • Bluegrass Artist
  • Country Artist
  • Inspirational Artist
  • Acoustic Act
  • Vocal Group
  • Album of the Year
  • Song of the Year
  • Songwriter of the Year
  • Music Producer of the Year
  • Sound Engineer
  • Promoter of the Year
  • Video of the Year
  • Radio Station
  • Radio DJ
  • Publication
  • Venue
  • Young Artist
  • Bassist
  • Drummer
  • Fiddler
  • Guitarist
  • Steel/Dobro Player of the Year

With the exception of the Lifetime Achievement Award(s), these awards are to honor the INDEPENDENT performers in country music and other genres that fall under the country music umbrella.  Performers are eligible if they meet one of the following statuses:

  1. Born in Arkansas
  2. For a substantial period of time resided in Arkansas
  3. Have proven on a solid, regular basis an Arkansas presence through their live performances.
  4. Please note:  artists should be currently touring/performing and/or with newly recorded output within two years of the closing of nominations.

Performers are not eligible if they have had a recording contract with a major label in their known musical field OR had ‘Top 40’ success as a recording artist on either the primary Billboard Country Albums Chart or the primary Billboard Country Singles Chart. * Artists are either COUNTRY, AMERICANA or BLUEGRASS.  Artists can only fall into one of these three categories.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT 

This Award(s) is open to anyone who was born in Arkansas OR for a substantial period of time resided in Arkansas that as a recording artist, songwriter, producer, engineer, disc jockey, promoter or anyone else who has fostered country music.  Their initial known achievements must have occurred at least 25 years prior to the award show year.  

Nominate here 👉🏽 https://arkansascma.com/eligibility

New schedule changes for KUAR take effect today

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KUAR is bringing two new programs featuring science and storytelling to its central Arkansas airwaves and making several changes to its local and regional music programming schedule beginning January 5th and 6th, 2019.
Starting Sunday, NPR’s Hidden Brain will join KUAR’s programming schedule, airing from 11 a.m.-12 p.m. weekly. Hidden Brain is science and storytelling that reveals the patterns that drive human behavior. Listeners who regularly tune to NPR’s Morning Edition will likely have heard host Shankar Vedantam’s regular segment, which highlights social science research.
Also beginning Sunday, The Moth Radio Hour will debut on KUAR. It will air from 12-1 p.m. weekly, following Hidden Brain. The Moth is an hour of true stories told live. It’s a mix of celebrity and unique voices from communities across the country. The Moth comes to KUAR just in time to give listeners a taste of the great storytelling they can expect at The Moth Mainstage event February 28.
Locally and regionally-produced music programs will move further into primetime slots beginning this Saturday starting with Ozark Highlands Radio (OHR). Which will add a weekly airing 5-6 p.m. on Saturdays just in time for the start of its fourth season which will feature exclusive live recordings of Taj Mahal, The Secret Sisters and John McEuen and the Seldom Scene, among many others. OHR has expanded rapidly in four years and is now aired on over 80 public radio stations across the country. KUAR was one of the first stations to air OHR and wishes it continued success!
Additionally, KUAR’s Not Necessarily Nashville, which features “the best of the rest of country music,” moves one hour forward to air 6-8 p.m. weekly on Saturdays. From Albion and Beyond, “a weekly jaunt along the highways and byways of traditional, revival, contemporary and roots based music with a slight English accent,” will also move one hour forward on Saturdays, from 8-9 p.m.
If you have thoughts or questions, please reach out at comments@ualrpublicradio.org.

18 Cultural Events from 2018 – TROUBLED ISLAND produced by Opera in the Rock

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Little Rock native William Grant Still was the leading African American composer of classical music throughout most of the 20th century.  In 1949, his composition, Troubled Island became the first grand opera written by an African American to be produced by a major company.  It premiered with the New York City Opera in 1949.

On May 4 and 6 Opera in the Rock presented a rare fully-staged production of Troubled Island.  It was at the UA Pulaski Tech’s Center for Humanities and Arts.  The work is being performed by a cast of local and regional operatic talent.

The libretto for the opera was written by Langston Hughes and Verna Arvey.  The story is set in Haiti in 1791.  Jean Jacques Dessalines declares himself emperor of an independent Haiti. Corruption, revolution and assassination ensue.

Ronald Jensen-McDaniel sang the role of Dessalines.  Others in the cast included Jordan Murdock, Jannette Robinson, Charles Moore, Nisheedah Golden, Anthony K. Valley,  and Chris Straw.

18 Cultural Events from 2018 – OXFORD AMERICAN celebrates 50 years of TRUE GRIT

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Image result for true grit 50 oxford americanThroughout April, the Oxford American magazine haled a series of events to mark “50 Years of True Grit.” It culminated with programs over the weekend of April 20-21, 2018, to celebrate the anniversary of the publication of the beloved novel by Charles Portis, one of the magazine’s most acclaimed contributors.

The festivities included panel discussions, readings, tours, museum exhibits, film screenings, and a special Saturday-night variety show, featuring comedy, music by Portis’s fellow Arkansas native Iris DeMent, and appearances and performances by the book’s notable fans.

Published by Simon & Schuster in 1968 (after it was first serialized in the Saturday Evening Post), True Grit earned immediate popularity and critical praise as a rousing frontier adventure tale in which fourteen-year-old Mattie Ross seeks to avenge her father’s murder with the aid of a down-at-the-heels federal marshal named Rooster Cogburn. Over the past half-century, readers of all ages have come to treasure the book as a classic of American literature. The book has inspired two award-winning films-the 1969 version, which earned John Wayne his sole Academy Award, and the 2010 remake by Joel and Ethan Coen starring Hailee Steinfeld and Jeff Bridges.

“So few books stand the test of time but True Grit’s literary reputation and its popularity have only grown in fifty years,” said Jay Jennings, a senior editor at the Oxford American and editor of the collection Escape Velocity: A Charles Portis Miscellany. “We thought the book’s landmark anniversary deserved a big celebration in the state that is the setting for much of the book and the home of both the author and the magazine.” Portis has published a number of humor pieces in the Oxford American and in 2010 was awarded the magazine’s inaugural prize for Lifetime Achievement in Southern Literature.

In October it was announced that the Oxford American was the 2019 recipient of the Arkansas Arts Council’s Governor’s Arts Award for Folklife.

18 Cultural Events from 2018 – 2nd FUSION: Arts+Humanities at Clinton Center

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3.  In February , the Clinton Presidential Center presented the second annual Fusion: Arts + Humanities Arkansas, a program that promotes heritage and culture and celebrates human achievement by weaving the arts and humanities together to provide a unique and engaging experience. The theme of Fusion 2018 was Exploring the Louisiana Purchase and its Impact on Arkansas.

There was a public symposium of Fusion: Arts + Humanities Arkansas which featured interactive conversations with historians and subject matter experts; a Cajun-Creole musical performance by Grammy-nominated fiddler, David Greely; and members of the Early Arkansaw Reenactors Association who participated in-character.

An accompanying exhibit, The Great Expedition: Exploring the Louisiana Purchase and its Impact on Arkansas, included original documents from the Louisiana Purchase, and was on display at the Clinton Center from February 2 to March 4, 2018.

The Great Exhibition: Exploring the Louisiana Purchase and its Impact on Arkansas included the following objects which are on loan from the National Archives and Records Administration, unless otherwise noted.

  • The American original of the treaty between the United States of America and the French Republic ceding the province of Louisiana to the United States, signed for the U.S. by Robert Livingston and James Monroe, and for the French by Finance Minister François de Barbé-Marbois
  • The exchange copy of the convention for payment of sums due to U.S. citizens signed by future French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte
  • The American original of the convention for payment of 60 million francs signed for the U.S. by Robert Livingston and James Monroe, and for the French by Finance Minister François de Barbé-Marbois
  • William Dunbar’s journal, eyeglasses, compass, and other objects from the Dunbar-Hunter expedition of Louisiana and Arkansas (on loan from Ouachita Baptist University)
  • Napoleon Bonaparte death mask (On loan from the Tennessee Historical Society Collection at the Tennessee State Museum)
  • A portrait of Napoleon by John C. Grimes (On loan from the Tennessee Historical Society Collection at the Tennessee State Museum)
  • The “Aux Arc” keelboat, which is a forty-foot-long replica of the boat used during the Dunbar-Hunter expedition, will be displayed in the Clinton Center’s fountain (On loan from the Early Arkansaw Reenactors Association)

Additional objects on display in the exhibit were on loan from the Arkansas State Archives, Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, and Historic Arkansas Museum.

FUSION is spearheaded by Kaki Hockersmith and Stephanie S. Streett.

Tonight at South on Main, John Willis and his Radiohead tribute

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For the final show in his December Sessions, John Willis is bringing his incredible Radiohead tribute show back to the South on Main stage. Concert starts at 8 pm. Purchase advance tickets for $12 or pay $15 at the door. Tickets do not guarantee you a seat. Please call (501) 244-9660 to reserve a table.

ABOUT JOHN WILLIS
John Willis is a singer, songwriter, pianist, composer, arranger, and musical director based in Little Rock, Arkansas. He currently performs on his own and as one-sixth of the multi-vocalist synth-pop group Silver Anchors. His most recent original release, “Try Again,” can be found on all online music outlets. In addition to performing, writing, and arranging, Willis spends a lot of time in the theatre, both playing and directing for musical theatre. Recent credits include Hedwig and the Angry Inch and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, both at The Studio Theatre in Little Rock.

Willis is thrilled to celebrate his birthday month as well as the holiday season with great shows each Wednesday in December at South on Main. Catch Willis himself fronting a veritable Little Rock all-star tribute to the music of Radiohead to close out this month’s Sessions on Wednesday, December 26.

Little Rock Look Back: Christmas Day birth of actress Fay Templeton

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Though largely forgotten today, Little Rock native Fay Templeton was one of the leading stars of vaudeville and Broadway in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

She was born in Little Rock on Christmas Day in 1865.  Her parents were touring here with the Templeton Opera Company. Her father, John Templeton, was a well-known Southern theatre manager, comedian, and author. Her mother, Helen Alice Vane, starred with her husband.  The family of three left Little Rock a few weeks after Fay was born, once her mother was able to travel.

She made her stage debut at age three, and her New York vaudeville debut at eight. At fifteen, she married a co-star but separated after six weeks.  She made her legitimate New York stage debut at nineteen in a revival of Evangeline.

In the late 1880s and early 1890s, she spent most of her time in Europe, appearing on stage and touring shows.  By 1895, she was back on stage in New York.  She then starred in a series of shows first for the vaudeville team of Joe Weber and Lew Fields, later for George M. Cohan. She introduced the songs “So Long Mary” and “Mary Is a Grand Old Name” in the latter’s Forty-Five Minutes from Broadway.  Her work with Cohan is portrayed in the Oscar winning film Yankee Doodle Dandy and in the Tony winning musical George M!

She retired from the stage after marrying Pittsburgh businessman William Patterson. But by 1911, Fay was once again touring with Weber and Fields.  She retired again in 1913, this time staying off stage until 1926. She then played the role of Buttercup in a revival of HMS Pinafore and would be known as the definitive Buttercup for the rest of the 1920s and into the 1930s.  When her husband died in 1932, she returned to the stage.  In 1933, she starred with Bob Hope in the Jerome Kern musical Roberta.

In 1936, she entered the Actors’ Fund Home in New Jersey, but later moved to San Francisco to live with a cousin.  She died there on October 3, 1939, and is buried in Valhalla, New York.

Templeton returned to Little Rock several times throughout her life as she was embarking on tours.