OHR Presents: Newberry & Verch

This week, international Oldtime string band and Ottawa Valley step dance duo Newberry & Verch recorded live at the Ozark Folk Center State Park in Mountain View, Arkansas. Also, interviews with this dynamic musical duo. “Joe Newberry grew up in a family full of singers and dancers. He took up the guitar and banjo as a  teenager and learned fiddle tunes from great Missouri fiddlers. April Verch grew up listening to her Dad’s country band play for dances in the Ottawa Valley. She started step dancing at age three and fiddling at age six. Both Newberry & Verch became masters of their traditions and tour the world with their respective bands and projects. Yet they never forget the roots of their music, that connection to the people in the audience, on the dance floor, to the community sparked by a good song. For these veteran performers who come from distinct traditions and parts of the world, their collaboration is fueled by their kindred passion for bringing people together to celebrate traditional music. Blues and ballads stem into Canadian regional styles and originals. Their voices blend in harmony, their tasteful instrumentals prove that these masters have nothing left to prove, and then their feet kick up the dust in perfect rhythm…and together, they make you remember why this music existed in the first place.” http://aprilverch.com/about/newberry-verch/ In this week’s “From the Vault” segment, musician, educator, and country music legacy Mark Jones offers a 1976 archival recording of his famous father, Grandpa Jones, telling the classic joke “Surprise Aunt Marthy.” from the Ozark Folk Center State Park archives. From his series entitled “Back in the Hills,” writer, professor, and historian Dr. Brooks Blevins profiles prolific Ozark musician Slim Wilson of the Ozark Jubilee, one of America’s first nationally-broadcast Old Time barn dance country music television shows, based in Springfield, Missouri.