Charley SandageAround Mountain View, Arkansas, even with Winter hanging on, folks are popping open their instrument cases, browsing seed catalogs, and thinking about Spring. The Ozark Folk Center’s evening musical programs will open for the year on festival weekend (April 15, 16, and 17) and the town square/pickin’ park scene will start as soon as weather allows. I’ll be helping the proprietor of TJ’s barbecue place, just up highway 5 in Calico Rock, with a monthly Bluebird Cafe-style songwriter event on the second Saturday night in each month, and TJ will be building toward booking songwriters into his place every Saturday night. Planting gardens and playing music- that’s Spring for us around Mountain View.
Several years ago, I began to read about a bizarre moment in Arkansas history when two men had actual militias fighting over the governor’s office. Fellow songwriter Charlie Crow, Arkansas Tech Theatre Director David Eshelman, and I have developed a script portraying those events in a musical; perhaps it will one day find a stage. Quite an experience for a songwriter and amateur historian!