Fine Folk: Eureka Springs to Host Ozark Mountain Music Festival

Courtesy Photo
Festival attendees get into an impromptu jam during the 2014 Ozark Mountain Music Festival at the Basin Park Hotel in Eureka Springs, Ark. All guests are encouraged to bring their instruments.

The weekend of Jan. 22, the Ozark Mountain Music Festival will return to the hills of Eureka Springs, Ark., and try to bring with it the atmosphere — and attitude — of a summer music festival.

Coming in on its second year, Ozark Mountain is looking to become the next great Eureka Springs festival. The music is all about the indie-folk genre. The style of bluegrass has grown in popularity in recent years at music fests such as Mulberry Mountain’s Harvest Fest. The music is a kind of bluegrass and folk that calls upon several influences and brings the kind of jam band energy that gets the people stompin’ and hollerin’ along.

Unfortunately, January is pretty cold. So, the festival is hosted completely indoors at the Basin Park Hotel with two stages located in the Ozark room in the hotel and the Basin Park “Barefoot” Ballroom. The attendance is expected to be about 250 to 300, making for a close-knit weekend, said Jack Moyer, general manager of Basin Park Hotel.

“We thought it was a really great fit for people that live and come to Eureka Springs,” he said. “This is high energy, up-beat indie folk with a little bit of grunge. It’s intended to be like an indoor festival ground. It sort of fills that gap for everybody who’s planning on going to Wakarusa or Harvest Fest. It gives them something to do in January.”

Tickets are on sale at ozarkmountainmusicfestival.com. Three day all-access passes are $55, and lodging packages for the weekend start at $459 including a food voucher and other fees. Single day tickets can be bought as well.

Courtesy Photo
Fayetteville folk band 3 Penny Acre played the Barefoot Ballroom at the 2014 Ozark Mountain Music Festival.

The Barefoot Ballroom has a rich history of live music, and Ozark Mountain is a new tradition for the venue. The ballroom hosts the annual Eureka Springs Blues Festival, and it also hosted a 10 year reunion show for rockabilly legends The Band.

Despite the various other music festivals Eureka Springs hosts, Moyer said Ozark Mountain brings a unique festival experience to the city.

“The style of music (for Ozark Mountain Music Festival) is a little different,” Moyer said. “It’s younger, more dynamic. The Eureka Springs Folk Festival in October is more traditional, old-school.”

This year’s lineup features lots of great talent from the region, and two of Fayetteville’s very own. The featured headliners consist of Hooten Hallers, Hosty Duo and Fayetteville’s Shawn James and the Shapeshifters. Also on Friday night, Fayetteville jam-grass band Foley’s Van will be playing.

“Hooten Hallers are a blues three piece and they have the craziest energy. I’m looking forward to seeing them live. In their videos they’re always jumping around,” said Mary Howze, activites director for Basin Park Hotel. “Dime Trip is a local five-piece band that’s up-and-coming that people should check out, too. They sold out Chelsea’s on New Year’s Eve.”

Courtesy Photo The Hooten Hallers, a blues, soul and rock n’ roll band from Columbia, Mo., will be one of the headliners for this year’s Ozark Mountain Music Festival. The band is known for their rowdy live shows.

The festival starts on Thursday, Jan. 22 as a locals kick off night with Mountain Sprout at 8 p.m. followed by an open jam session for all with an instrument. Anyone who brings an instrument Thursday night gets in free, as well.

“We’re just going to jam until we need to close it down,” Moyer said. “That’s sort of the style, we want this to be really locally embraced. This is where you blow off some steam and jam in January, and come camp inside for three days.”

In general, guests are encouraged to bring their instruments with the intention of spurring impromptu jam sessions at the hotel. After the headliners finish their set each night, there will be group jams scheduled for everyone to join in on.

On Sunday, there will be a noon bloody mary show with music by Brody Buster of Lawrence, Kan., who’s been called a harmonica prodigy.

The setting at Basin Park also makes for easy on-foot access to the 21 bars of downtown Eureka Springs to visit in between sets at attendees’ pleasure.

“We hope we can recreate the festival vibe inside the basin park hotel in the winter,” Howze said. “When it gets cold a lot of people want that just like we do. It’s an intitmate feel that could cater to the festie life. The way I describe ‘festie’ is an adult playground, where you can completely be yourself and feel the music and be right there in the moment.”