Staff Report
With GoodFolk Productions of Fayetteville closed, members of the artist community at the Fayetteville Underground saw an opportunity to continue the folk music legacy in their artist showroom. Bill Flanagan of the Underground said the musical performance coming up on Feb. 8 will be the first of multiple shows to be expected.
Cathy Barton and Dave Para will be in concert Fri., Feb. 8, at the Underground, located in the GCM building, 101 W. Mountain on the Fayetteville Square. The concert starts at 7:30 p.m. and admission is $15.00.
Dave and Cathy switch off on many instruments, including guitar, banjo, hammer dulcimer, autoharp, & bones, just to name a few. They are walking librarians of the folk history of Arkansas and Missouri and tell the history of tunes and songs (great harmony!) as they introduce them — and lots of funny stories, too.
Dave and Cathy have participated in the artists-in-education program for the Missouri Arts Council since the early 1980s and have done folk arts residencies and assembly programs in schools across the state.
They also created and serve as artistic directors of two annual folk festivals, the Big Muddy Folk Festival, in their hometown of Boonville, and the Boone’s Lick Country Folk Festival, in Arrow Rock, Mo.
A recognized master of the frailing banjo style, Cathy has twice won the Tennessee Old-Time Banjo Championship. The late Roy Acuff often called her his “favorite banjo player” because her playing reminded him of earlier country music sounds. Cathy can also be credited for some of the growing interest in the hammered dulcimer in the Midwest.
In the mid-1970s, she introduced it to the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kan., and has since provided a number of current players with their first hearing of the instrument.
While earning college and graduate degrees in humanities and folklore, Cathy worked as an assistant folklorist at the Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View. She also toured with Ramona (Mrs. Grandpa) Jones and played at her dinner theater there for a number of seasons.
Reservations can be made by phone, 479-409-1224 or email mshirkey@sbcglobal.net
