Summary: Ozark Highlands Radio is a weekly radio program that features live music and interviews recorded at Ozark Folk Center State Park’s beautiful 1,000-seat auditorium in Mountain View, Arkansas. In addition to the music, our “Feature Host” segments take listeners through the Ozark hills with historians, authors, and personalities who explore the people, stories, and history of the Ozark region. This week, original cowgirl, singer, songwriter, actress and Country Music Hall of Fame superstar Patsy Montana performs live at the Ozark Folk Center State Park. Also, interviews with this country music legend. Also featured is the inimitable cowboy poet & humorist Glenn Ohrlin. Mark Jones offers an archival recording of Ozark legend Cathy Barton performing the song “Ebenezer.” Author, folklorist, and songwriter Charley Sandage presents a portrait of Dr. Bill McNeil, the long time archivist at the Ozark Folk Center. Patsy Montana, was an American country music singer, songwriter and actress. Montana was the first female country performer to have a million-selling single with her signature song "I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart", and is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. She was a mainstay on the National Barn Dance on Chicago radio station WLS for many years. Born “Ruby Blevins” in Beaudry, Arkansas, the 11th child and first daughter of a farmer, Patsy attended schools in President Bill Clinton's hometown of Hope, Arkansas. She was influenced early on by the music of Jimmie Rodgers, and paved the way for women in the male dominated world of country music. Born in Minneapolis, MN in 1926, Glenn Ohrlin was a veteran of the cattle industry and worked the rodeo circuit, both while being an acquisitive singer, poet, & story teller. Glenn put his extensive knowledge and years of experience collecting Western folk songs into a book, “The Hell Bound Train,” as well as performing his authentic style of cowboy poetry & prose. Ohrlin performed at cowboy poetry gatherings across America, and at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. In the 1970’s, Glenn moved to Mountain View, Arkansas, where he continued his music career, lending regular performances at the Ozark Folk Center. We at the Ozark Folk Center State Park reap the benefit of having years of Glenn’s live performance recordings in our archives. In this week’s “From the Vault” segment, musician, educator, and country music legacy Mark Jones offers an archival recording of Ozark original Cathy Barton performing the traditional song “Ebenezer,” from the Ozark Folk Center State Park archives. Author, folklorist, and songwriter Charley Sandage presents an historical portrait of the people, events, and indomitable spirit of Ozark culture that resulted in the creation of the Ozark Folk Center State Park and its enduring legacy of music and craft. This episode focuses on Dr. Bill McNeil, the long time archivist at the Ozark Folk Center. For thirty years, from 1975 until his untimely passing in 2005, Dr. Bill McNeil served as the Ozark Folk Center’s folklorist and all-purpose advisor on all things dealing with traditional Ozark culture. During his tenure at the Folk Center, Bill McNeil guided the establishment of the Ozark Cultural Resource Center, an archival and teaching facility on the Folk Center’s grounds.
