Editor’s Note: This is the third and last story in a series exploring the evolution of performing and visual arts in Northwest Arkansas. For other stories in the series, go to nwaonline.com.
The Ozarks have a reputation of being friendly, warm and welcoming. The same can be said about a lot of the music made here.
Dickson Street remains the primary location for live music in the area. Fayetteville-based musicians, often singer-songwriter types, simultaneously are touring the country and bearing this region’s banner.
Kelly Mulhollan of the folk/bluegrass duo Still on the Hill can testify to the split scene. He played in the band of former Dickson Street staple Jed Clampit, and many of Still on the Hill’s first gigs were on Dickson Street. Mulhollan and wife, Donna Stjerna, his partner in the band, have since moved to more listener-friendly venues as their musical styles changed.
“We slowly evolved into a listening-room band,” he said, his band producing the kind of thoughtful songs that chatter in a bar would drown out.
Still on the Hill falls squarely into a category many other musicians in the area do — something Mulhollan calls “the invisible singer-songwriter scene.”
Musicians such as Emily Kaitz, Susan Shore and Jack Williams don’t play many, if any, Dickson Street gigs. But they play gigs across the country, record albums and make Fayetteville a known music commodity. One of that scene’s longtime homes, Mike Shirkey’s house concert series called GoodFolk Productions, moved out of its beloved concert hall/house on Block Street in 2012. But Shirkey still produces folk and bluegrass shows at venues such as the Fayetteville Underground and 324 Ballroom. Other house concert alternatives have sprung up, Mulhollan said.
If there’s another trend, Mulhollan said, it’s that Fayetteville offers no better training ground for talent than the downtown Farmers’ Market. The folk and bluegrass outfit 3 Penny Acre got their start busking at the square. That group has gone on to much acclaim in the past six years.
An act such as Farmer & The Markets may be the next in success. The barely-out-of-high school quartet started covering hipster folk songs at the market. The band still plays there, but has more recently been invited to play at the Block Street Block Party and at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville.
Songwriter Shannon Wurst was a member of 3 Penny Acre before she split off for a solo career in 2010. She tours the country, combining the sounds of country, folk and character sketch balladry. While out on the tours, Wurst often hears positive chatter about the scene she calls home.
“Fayetteville is developing a reputation,” she said.
Especially in her genre, when people know about Fayetteville, it’s because of the Fayetteville Roots Festival. It attracts more than 1,000 musicians and fans to Fayetteville each August. The headliners are marquee-quality national talent, but local folk, bluegrass and American acts fill many spots on the roster. And the more like-minded acts that get together, the more likely that scene is to expand.
That’s how it worked for Wurst, anyway, who grew up in a musical household, but only started writing her own songs about eight years ago. She found her own sound “by meeting other people, and appreciating their songs. And I am still trying to grow,” she said.
As for the Dickson Street side of the equation, Adam Putman seems qualified to assess the scene. He watches about 300 shows per year as production manager at George’s Majestic Lounge or via his own event company, Forge Productions. He also owns Insomniac Studios, and he’s recorded many of Fayetteville’s better-known acts.
He sees local country act Backroad Anthem as one of the area’s most radio-ready acts. Putman has also noticed a return toward underground rock ’n’ roll. Among those acts are surf rock outfits such as Teenagers and Sw/mm/ng, and both are attracting attention and crowds. The latter of the two performed at the annual and taste-making CMJ music showcase in New York City in the fall and inked a contract with Old Flame Records of New York City.
They weren’t the only band to sign a record deal this year. Synth-pop revivalists Boom Kinetic signed a deal with Brainfuse Records, a Virginia-based boutique label, in February. They released an album of original, dance-friendly keyboard pop in November.
Dozens of other albums were released by Fayetteville bands this year, too. Blues stalwarts Earl & Them, featuring Earl Cate, songwriter and half of the duo The Cate Brothers, released a covers album, “Same Love.” It includes four songs by The Band, an ensemble that combined efforts from musicians from Arkansas and Canada into a bluesy, rootsy, critically lauded sound. The Band, anchored on drums by the late Levon Helm, played many times in Northwest Arkansas.
At one point, the sound of The Band and those like it — including The Cate Brothers — defined the sound of Northwest Arkansas. They still have their place on Dickson Street, usually during George’s Majestic Lounge’s Friday night happy hour shows. Just like many other locals bands have a home there, too.
Putman believes the other common thread of the music scene comes from the musician’s willingness to collaborate with each other.
Even with the dual scenes, Mulhollan agrees.
“I can’t think of anybody we haven’t done a gig with,” he said.