Category: Southern Rock

National Park Radio and Big Buffalo Golden Gals, a short film — Friday, June 14, 2024 at 7pm — #LiveAtTheLyric!

National Park Radio and Big Buffalo Golden Gals
Friday, June 14, 2024 at 7:00PM

Help us kickoff our 2024/2025 Ozark Arts Council Membership Drive, with a concert by fan favorite National Park Radio and a short film celebrating our beloved Buffalo River, “Big Buffalo Golden Gals” by Misty Breedlove.

Tickets are $20 and may be purchased at TheLyric.org or by clicking here!

About Big Buffalo Golden Gals and Misty Breedlove:                 

In 1837 Abraham Villines and family moved to and settled what is now the Ponca Wilderness area of the Buffalo National River. One hundred and eighty-five years later, many of those descendants are still living and making their lives in the area. Misty Langdon is one of those descendants. This year, with the help of friend Ranger Lauren Ray, she took her 75 year old mother and three of her cousins aged 73-83, on a raft trip down river to reminisce and tell stories from the women’s point of view, of growing up and living on the creek, before it became America’s first national river. In “Big Buffalo Golden Gals” we invite you to hop in the raft and paddle along with these amazing women as they share their stories and memories of days gone by.

Director Biography – Misty Langdon

Misty Langdon has lived her life on the homestead settled by her mother’s family in the 1800’s. As a small child she enjoyed stories of the old times passed down by her family and neighbors. Her love of home, the Buffalo River, has been inspiration for many forms of creativity. Her latest, the Remnants Project, showcases her love of the people, their history, homesteads & family photos, to create an historical account of life on the Buffalo River before it became the nation’s first national river. Big Buffalo Golden Gals is the first production for the Remnants Project, being accepted into and securing a win for Best Documentary 2023 at the Roger’s Short Film Festival.

About NPR, from NPR.band:

“The BIGGEST little indie-folk duo”

National Park Radio is a nationally touring indie-folk “power duo” based in the Ozark Mountains of Northwest Arkansas. With an impressive and consistently growing grassroots fanbase across the U.S. (and the world), husband and wife duo Stefan & Kerrie Szabo have made a name for themselves over the past several years with their beautiful harmonies, incredibly inspiring and relatable songwriting, and their unique and energetic live shows.

Perfect for fans of: The Avett Brothers, Caamp, The Lumineers, The Head and the Heart, First Aid Kit, Mumford & Sons

What makes National Park Radio unique?

Aside from their incredibly relatable songwriting and harmonies that connect with so many of their fans, their high-energy live shows – created by the duo bringing in a unique setup and multitasking configuration – brings a new level of sound created by just two people on stage. National Park Radio has been described as the “biggest sounding indie-folk duo” that there is, and between the two of them, many say they create the sound and energy of a 5-piece band.OAC Ticketing Link

A Tribute to Lynyrd Skynyrd — Saturday, September 16, 2023 at 7pm — #LiveAtTheLyric!

The Hedley Lamar Band
& Friends
Tribute to Lynyrd Skynyrd
Saturday, September 16, 2023 at 7:00PM

Join us on September 16 at 7:00, as Billy, Tim, and Will—The Hedley Lamar Band—have done it again: they’ve once again assembled a fantastic group of local musicians and vocalists to pay tribute to a band that survived great tragedy to influence so many. As with the Led Zeppelin tribute the band organized in 2019—the most successful concert of purely local musicians since Screamin’ Freeman’s 24-hour Guinness World Record concert in 1999—this promises to be an experience Harrison area music lovers will talk about for years, and one well worth coming from out of town to see!

Remainder of Post Still Under Construction!

local musicians.

include: .

Ticket prices: $10 in advance – $15 at the gate

OAC Ticketing Link

Eli Cook — Richest Vocals Plus Guitar Riches Equals One Fantastic Saturday! — Saturday, October 22, 2022 — Class at 3:00, Concert at 7:00 — #LiveAtTheLyric!

Eli Cook
Maybe the Best Vocals
in Today’s Blues…and the Guitar Work
is Top Notch, Too!

At the Lyric for a Class and a Concert

Saturday, October 22, 2022
Class at 3:00PM — Concert at 7:00PM

Join us on October 22 at 7:00pm, for the guitar mastery and rich baritone voice that brought the writers of Blues Matters magazine to rank him as a “top international solo artist” above Devon Allman and Elvin Bishop…before he had reached his 30th birthday: Eli Cook’s busy hands and feet (resonator and 12-string, plus tambourine and stompbox) are coming back to the Lyric this Fall!

Even Better: Join us earlier in the day, too: from 3:00PM to 5:00PM Eli Cook’s Acoustic Blues Guitar Workshop returns! Ages 13 and up with a moderate skill level and an interest in “Blues-based music” are welcome. You must bring an acoustic guitar (no electric instruments will be allowed this time). If you know basic chords and want to play the Blues or incorporate its influences into your playing, there will be something here for you; if you know more than that, there will be something here for you, too! BUT: Get your concert tickets first, so that you save $10 on this class! (More info below!)

AllMusic noted that Eli Cook “has what it takes to be the best blues singer of his generation.” Blues Matters! stated that Cook is “among the top 3 solo blues artists world-wide.” Arnie Goodman’s words in Elmore Magazine immediately make sense when you consider Eli’s main influences—John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Soundgarden, and Rage Against the Machine—

What Eli is doing is giving an authenticity to the blues, but giving it the energy a modern rock band would give it. That’s the key to it.

As Eli himself says, “Everything I do is always deeply rooted in classic blues—meaning the feeling of it and the music theory aspect of it. It’s especially rooted in what they call pre-war blues, the more acoustic, rootsy stuff.” Joe McSpadden, writing in the roots music quarterly No Depression sums it up this way:

On the seventh album of his career the phenom from Nelson County, Virginia reins in his inner guitar god and makes his most focused roots blues album yet. High-Dollar Gospel finds Cook showcasing his acoustic mojo and the result is the most satisfying record of his career.

That album—released to universally rave reviews in 2017—was a blend of Cook’s love of country pickers to blues rockers and included covers from Muddy Waters and Roosevelt Sykes that have been in his live shows for years, as well as an outstanding cover of Bob Dylan’s “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight.”

Through the years, Cook has performed and recorded both acoustic and electric blues, and his Primitive Son album (2014), contained guest appearances by Vinny Appice and Artimus Pyle (drums); Tinsley Ellis, Eric Gales, Leslie West, Pat Travers and Harvey Mandel (guitar); Sonny Landreth (slide guitar); Rod Piazza (harmonica); and Reese Wynans (Hammond B3 organ). He has shared the stage with B. B. King and other greats from Johnny Winter, Robert Cray, and Robin Trower to Shemekia Copeland and Parliament-Funkadelic, appearing every where from the Kennedy Center to the South by Southwest festival…and now we are pleased to welcome him back to The Roots Music Palace of the Ozarks, Harrison’s historic Lyric Theater!

“Everybody knows the story of the crossroads, where blues guitarists go at midnight to trade their souls to the devil for musical prowess. It’s just a myth, of course, but if it were true, firebrand Eli Cook could have bragging rights, as his scarifying solo-country blues chill like a hellhound on your trail.” –  Guitar Player (2007)

Eli Cook is a mystifying soul. He’s a keen observer and a provoking thinker…but with swagger!

Under the messy blonde hair is a passionate heart with fingers of silver and gold that recalls John Lee Hooker, Chris Smither, and Chet Atkins, mixed in with a dirty, grungy sound. It’s clean playing mind you; it’s just his fingers are covered in the dirt left over from the crossroads.

Coming from Albemarle County in Virginia at the Foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Eli Cook grew up listening to the blues, country, classic rock, and alternative rock. He grew up with no TV, but radio shows like Prairie Home Companion were his Saturday night entertainment. Life moves slowly in this rural area of the world giving him time to hone his skills with his voice and guitar chops. At 18 he was opening up for B.B. King—a few years later he’s playing in Canada the one week and then the next week he’s blending in with his hometown locals.

“It’s what was around me, and I just tried to pick up on everything and everybody, including Doc Watson and Chet Atkins. In fact, hearing Chet fingerpick made me realize I didn’t need a band.” –  Guitar Player (2007)

Tickets are available now for Eli Cook’s Saturday, October 22 performance at Harrison’s historic Lyric Theater, now celebrating its 90th year. This is a venue perfectly constructed for a performer like Eli, with the maximized ‘live’ acoustics that were necessary for the first generation of talking motion pictures—and the dedicated Lyric fans that consistently fill our seats for blues concerts will make for the sort of electric environment this acoustic blues concert deserves, so choose your seats early for what promises to be an outstanding evening!

Seats are $15 and $18 in advance or $20 at the door and may be purchased online, or by calling (870) 391-3504.

Acoustic Blues Guitar Workshop tuition is $45—but only $35 if you have a concert ticket and use the code on it when you register! In this class, we will discuss the key elements of Blues based guitar playing. This entails crucial rhythmic and melodic concepts and touches on both acoustic and electric styles as well as various finger- and thumb-picking techniques and provides an overview of what makes good Blues guitar.

Classic turnarounds, walking patterns, tricks for transitioning between chords, and signature riffs and licks will all be included and discussed from both a player’s technical standpoint and from a historical perspective, using examples from players such as Robert Johnson, Son House, Albert King, and Stevie Ray Vaughn. This class will have something for anyone who wants to play Blues guitar or just enjoys the music and wants to learn more about it.

OAC Ticketing Link

Leadfoot 65 – March 30 @ 7:30 – #LiveAtTheLyric!

Put the Pedal to the Metal and Keep on Rockin’ with Leadfoot 65!
Saturday, March 30 at 7:30PM

Join us on March 30 at 7:30, as Leadfoot 65 speeds onto the Lyric stage! If you heard them at last Summer’s Battle of the Bands or elsewhere, you know that they waste no time in getting your adrenalin flowing and keep it building throughout their set with both riffs and lyrics so solid that you not only can taste the music in the theater’s rarefied air, but chew on it all the way home and through the weekend. As the title track from their just-released second album says, there is “More than Meets the Eye” in the rock from Tomahawk!

Sean Bing’s vocals are a good match for his guitar playing.  Even in something as ‘pretty’ as the introduction to “Black Smoke Rollin’” (and later, in the melodic solo), there is an edge and you know that at any moment it could become all edge; Sean can actually both sing and growl — with both instruments — and he knows when to do each (or both) for best effect. At the same time, Skip Reed’s drum work and Nathan Popejoy’s bass are singing their own deep and steady song for Sean to play off of. This is a great rhythm section and a guitarist that has a feel for how to keep attached to what they’re playing, not just go off and show off his chops in some barely-related way. If you like rock music that puts the emphasis on both the music and the rock, you will love Leadfoot 65.

Leadfoot 65’s two albums reveal a band that is bringing in what we might call ‘The New Mainstream of Southern Rock’. That is, they display a broad set of roots and influences that include the same background as the earlier wave of Southern rockers, plus all the music that has come since then. They move easily from a Molly Hatchet-like sound to one that is clearly akin to Pantera, without ever falling into the sometime-muddiness of Dixie Witch. Southern Rock with a power groove and the soloing sensibilities of melodic and neo-classical metal without losing the focus of the main musical and lyrical intent; Leadfoot 65 is clearly ‘coming of age’ and not to be missed.

The Ozark Arts Council is pleased to welcome Leadfoot 65 back to the historic Lyric Theater on Saturday, March 30 at 7:30. Tickets are just $5 in advance, but $10 at the door; just click any of the ‘Get Tickets’ links here on our website and you’ll be taken to our ticketing page, or call Jules or Dill at (870) 391-3504 or visit Dill at the OAC office M-W-F 8:00–2:00 (or Jules by appointment).

OAC Ticketing Link