OHR Presents: Don Edwards

This week, consummate cowboy balladeer and Grammy nominated performer Don Edwards performs live at Ozark Folk Center State Park. Also, interviews with Don. One of America’s best loved and most enduring cowboy singers, Don Edwards is indeed an American treasure. His love and passion for traditional cowboy songs is second to none and has earned him a fan base worldwide. He knows the songs, the stories, and even some of the old trails that made the old West famous. Accompanied by his trusty guitar, Don takes us on a trip back in time when cowboy singers and songs echoed through the trails, taverns, and cattle drive camps of yesterday. In this week’s “From the Vault” segment, musician, educator, and country music legacy Mark Jones offers an archival recording of the mysterious Jesse Wright, singing the classic Jimmy Rodgers song “The Orphan Child,” from the Ozark Folk Center State Park archives. From his series entitled “Back in the Hills,” writer, professor and historian Dr. Brooks Blevins presents the second of three episodes on Ozark regional ballads. This episode features a recording of the traditional Ozark ballad “Lee Mills,” sung by husband and wife Berry and Clementine Sutterfield of Marshall, Arkansas on August 1, 1963. The recording was made by folklorist John Quincy Wolf, and is preserved in Lyon College’s “John Quincy Wolf Collection.” http://web.lyon.edu/wolfcollection/songs/sutterfieldlee1279.mp3