OHR Presents: "The Roe Family Singers"

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, Ark. 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, Minnesota Old Time quartet “The Roe Family Singers” perform live at Ozark Folk Center State Park. Also, interviews with the Roe Family Singers. The “Roe Family Singers” are led by the husband and wife duo of Quillan and Kim Roe. With traditional old time instrumentation (guitar, auto harp, and claw hammer style banjo,) the group performs a wide variety of traditional old time tunes. What separates them from similar bands are the exceptional vocal harmonies and high energy of their song interpretations. Prolific folk musicians Aubrey Atwater & Elwood Donnelly profile influential folk music icons Jean Ritchie and the Ritchie Family, as well as explore the traditional Appalachian music and dance that the Ritchie Family helped to perpetuate into the modern American folk lexicon. This episode offers a discussion on African roots in traditional American folk music. Mark Jones' “From the Vault” segment offers an archival recording of Ozark original Barbara Sanders performing the song “Gypsy’s Warning,” from the Ozark Folk Center State Park archives.