It rolls through the hills, flows along the Delta, drifts through the streets.
Arkansas' music traditions are as varied as its landscape and very much a part of our character, culture and history. Spread over, there are groups hard at work preserving and promoting these musical traditions, encouraging the interest of younger generations and drawing tourism dollars to their communities.
Here is a sampling of what the state has to offer:
ALL THAT JAZZ
It has been called "America's original art form." Since 1992, the Hot Springs Jazz Society has worked at keeping the improvisation-heavy musical style going on and on.
President and founding member Shirley Chauvin says the society exists "to preserve, perpetuate and promote the jazz music art form."
They do that through annual events such as the Hot Springs JazzFest Labor Day Weekend and smaller shows like Jazz Night, 7-10 p.m. Thursdays at the Ohio Club in downtown Hot Springs. October through February they present programs at the Hot Springs Library; on the fourth Friday of the month April through August, they present the Arkansas Jazz Experience at the Quapaw Bathhouse.
The society raises money through grants, sponsorships and membership dues ($35).
JazzFest brings in internationally known musicians such as Jonathan Butler and Bill Huntington, but the society also recruits Arkansas musicians and groups such as Calle Soul to perform.
The society awards annual scholarships to send students to Jazz Camp at the University of Arkansas at Monticello.
Helping students also helps the society, which, Chauvin says, has struggled in attracting new members. While events like the library concerts are often standing-room only and the society has more than 400 members, that number fluctuates and most of the members are older.
"Our biggest struggle is getting young people involved," she says.
To attract young people, the society has put extra effort into using social media. They also promote their activities through ads, a newsletter and posters.
Chauvin says she believes the society "has had an economic impact and a positive influence for people who don't know about Hot Springs. I think if they're interested in jazz, 'Oh, jazz is going on in Hot Springs, Arkansas?' They come."
Visit hsjazzsociety.org.
HAPPY FOLK
On any given day, the galleries of the Arkansas Arts Center house collections of fine art. People walk through and admire in a dignified, hushed manner common to libraries.
But on the first Monday of each month, fiddles, banjos, dulcimers, harmonicas, guitars and the people who play them pile into the Arts Center to celebrate a very different kind of art form.
This is the monthly meeting of The Rackensack Folklore Society, dedicated to "the preservation and performance of the old-time music of the Ozarks."
With a name like The Rackensack Folklore Society, one would be forgiven for associating it with Mountain View. The home of the Ozark Folk Center is a mecca for all things old-world and folksy, from the traditional mountain crafts to the appreciation for folk music played on a stage or on the town square.
Actually, the society did originate in the small mountain town during the folk music renaissance of the 1960s. In the mid-1960s, Arkansas Gazette cartoonist George Fisher created a Pulaski County chapter in Little Rock. It has been playing ever since.
According to the society's website, "Rackensack" is a word that has been around since at least the mid 1800s, "a humorous twist on the mispronunciation of 'Arkansas.'"
There are a few rules.
"It's all acoustic instruments," says the group's media coordinator, Denise Blessing Hurd. They try to stick with music dated before 1940, the year the first real electric guitar took off.
The meetings are jam sessions like one would find on Mountain View's Courthouse Square. People show up and, if they feel like sharing a song or story, they sign the list. After a brief hoedown, they work down the list.
Hurd, a fiddler, says that if she has a song to perform and she needs backup, "I'll go early and grab a bass or banjo player. If they don't know it, they'll figure it out. That's the Rackensack way."
Over more than 50 years, Rackensack has had its ups and downs when it comes to membership and attendance. Lately, Hurd says, they've been going through a "considerable growth spurt."
A lot of that is due to social media. The group keeps up Instagram and Facebook accounts and makes the rounds at folk festivals. It also keeps its doors wide open. Memberships are $10 a year, but participation in the monthly music sessions is open to the community for free.
Hurd is a second-generation Rackensacker -- her father was a founding member -- and she attributes the group's longevity to its focus on the music.
"We put the music first. It's not about people or individuals. It's about enjoying, sharing and talking about music. Everyone leaves feeling better than they did when they got there."
Visit rackensack.wixsite.com/rackensack.
A CLASSIC
When a group of friends began meeting in each other's homes to discuss classical music in Little Rock, they couldn't have known their little gathering would start a decadeslong tradition.
Now in its 64th season, the Chamber Music Society of Little Rock works "to provide intimate and unique musical experiences to people in central Arkansas and to foster younger audiences to become music enthusiasts," says Executive Director Amanda Curcio.
Every year, the society sponsors four or five concerts at venues around the city, each featuring an internationally recognized performer. This year's lineup includes violinist Miroslav Ambros on March 15.
"When it first started, we really didn't have a lot of things like that in Little Rock as far as bringing in artists from all over," Curcio says. "Right now we have some local quartets that play, but nobody's coming from outside. It's still a niche and that's why it's survived."
It also survives thanks to sponsorships, donations and money raised from concert ticket sales and from the dedication of the society's supporting base.
Education is a big part of the Chamber Music Society's mission. Curcio says every artist it brings in spends time with students at local public schools.
It has recently taken over the kid-focused Faulkner Chamber Music Festival, a summer program where children work with professional instructors to learn to play in ensembles.
"The leaders of that program were going to leave and didn't want it to fall apart," Curcio says.
There are concerns for the future.
The society applies for grants every year from the Arkansas Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, but that is an uncertain income source.
The society is turning to corporate sponsorships to try to fill anticipated holes.
Another problem is demographics: Most of the regular sponsors are older.
Younger children may get involved thanks to school activities and private lessons in classical music, but there's a gap for the college-age and young-adult groups.
The society is pumping up its social media presence with Instagram, Twitter and Facebook and publicizing the wine and cheese receptions that follow each concert.
"We try to make it a more social networking thing," Curcio says.
Visit chambermusiclr.com.
BUOYANT BLUES
It started as just a party in a field near Helena in the 1970s, inspired by Woodstock. Just a group of men who liked blues music and knew how to cook.
"We started out having no idea," says Bubba Sullivan, one of the founding members of the Sonny Boy Blues Society and owner of Bubba's Blues Corner record store. "We knew there was history here but had no idea how big things would get."
In 1986, that informal party officially became the King Biscuit Blues Festival, a downtown Helena celebration that draws international attention.
The Sonny Boy Blues Society (named for blues musician Sonny Boy Williamson II) was formed to oversee the festival.
Legal issues in 2005 forced the society to change the festival's name to the Arkansas Blues and Heritage Festival. Sullivan says that was upsetting at the time, though he says that fellow founder Robert Lockwood said, "Hell, Bubba, you could call it the Bubblegum Festival and 30,000 people are going to show up in October!"
In 2010, the festival regained its original name. This year's King Biscuit Blues Festival, which was held Oct. 4-7, featured James "Traildigger" Jones Band and Bob Holloway & The Southern Sons.
Beyond the festival, the Sonny Boy Blues Society's purpose is to preserve the legacy and share the history of blues music. They sponsor Blues Aid, which raises money to help with expenses when a blues musician or relative passes away. Sullivan says they have bought headstones for people including Frank Frost, Sam Carr and the sisters of Sonny Boy Williamson.
Through the Blues in the Schools program, the society supports and encourages local music students, some of whom go on to earn college music scholarships.
But, Sullivan says, "I went up on stage and looked out over the crowd last year and there were not 10 people under 40. We all got together and said, 'We've got to go after a younger crowd.'"
The society is trying to attract younger performing groups and has added children's areas and activities.
"That's the future of music. You've got to help the young kids," he says.
Visit kingbiscuitfestival.com.
. . .
The efforts of the state's music societies have many benefits: preserving history and bringing attention to not only their music but to their home towns.
"That's how the state survives," Sullivan says. "Tourism is clean dollars. You don't have chemicals going up in the air."
Just tunes.
Style on 11/05/2017