Free Range Conversations

Herald Editor Britt Talent, former Publisher and Historian Stan Stadler, and Man About Town Roy Phillips discuss the decades-long football rivalry between the Rison Wildcats and the Fordyce Redbugs!

People seeing ghosts? Bigfoot roaming the back roads of Cleveland County?

Those are a couple of the stories discussed in this week’s episode. With the Halloween holiday fast approaching, the Free Range Conversation hosts decided to take a look at some the spooky stories from Cleveland County.

You never know what a casual conversation can lead to. Just ask Dustin Prescott and Brian Phillips, this week’s guests on the Herald’s Free Range Conversations podcast. While watching a preseason junior high football practice this summer, Prescott and Phillips said they were remembering some of the great players who have come through the Rison Wildcat football program when they came up with an idea: why not start a Rison High School Sports Hall of Fame.

The origins of this week’s Rison in the Fall festival can be traced back to an idea by the late Bill Ripling, the former mayor of Rison. Roy Phillips, who served as the lead promoter of the Rison in the Fall Festival for about 30 years, said Ripling wanted to do something special to celebrate the City of Rison’s 100th birthday after it was formally incorporated in August 1890. He appointed a committee to create an event and a two-day celebration was held that year.

However, Phillips said people liked the celebration so much that they wanted to do it again, and the next thing he knew, it became an annual event. Phillips, along with the current festival organizer Douglas Boultinghouse, talk about the history and the future of the Rison in the Fall Festival. The festival saw success for many years. However, interest in the festival began to wane. First the street dance was eliminated, and eventually the pageant, which was one of the festival’s biggest draws. Even the barbeque cook-off, which had become the backbone of the festival, dwindled to only a handful of competitors. In preparation for the 30th anniversary of the Rison in the Fall Festival that next year in 2019, Phillips enlisted the help of Douglas Boultinghouse, who had some connections to the Nashville music scene. Boultinghouse reached out to Tayla Lynn and Tre Twitty, the grandchildren of country music stars Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty, to headline the 30th anniversary festival in 2019 and it was a huge success. Since then, there has been an increased focus on entertainment. The episode (and past episodes) highlight the entertainers scheduled to perform Saturday including Matt Wilkerson, Marybeth Byrd, BIAS, Rissi Palmer and Charles Esten!

Charles Esten is the star of many of your favorite movies and TV shows, but after his upcoming visit to Rison, he may just be the singer of one of your favorite songs too. The acclaimed actor, singer and songwriter sits down for the latest episode of the Free Range Conversations podcast, joining Festival Director Douglas Boultinghouse, Festival Co-Founder Roy Phillips and Cleveland County Herald Publisher Britt Talent. Esten is known for his roles as Deacon Claybourne on "Nashville," Ward Cameron on "Outer Banks," Josh on "The Office" and more including his improv comedy days on "Who's Line Is It Anyway?" But he's made quite a name for himself in music. He's played the historic Grand Ole Opry 178 times and is a 2018 Guinness World Records title holder for the “Most consecutive weeks to release an original digital single by a music act” after delivering 54 original songs once a week for 54 straight weeks. He released his debut album "Love Ain't Pretty" earlier this year and heads to Rison, Arkansas October 12 to headline the Rison in the Fall Festival.

During this week’s episode of the Free Range Conversations podcast, GRAMMY-nominated country music star Rissi Palmer recalls her first performance in Arkansas as she prepares to head to Rison as one of the featured performers at the Rison in the Fall Festival, Saturday, Oct. 12. Palmer chats with Festival Director Douglas Boultinghouse and Cleveland County Herald Publisher Britt Talent and remembers her time performing at the Arkansas State Fair, one of her first singing jobs, and how she returned years later to perform at Walmart headquarters to celebrate the release of her debut album. During the podcast, Palmer talks about her musical influences, songwriting, the new music she's working on, ice cream memories and more... including how she was almost cast on the TV series "Nashville" opposite Charles Esten who will headline the Rison in the Fall Festival.

The guest on this week’s episode of the Free Range Conversations podcast may be making a name for himself on television and in Music City, but he grew up just a “hop and a skip” from Rison. Grant Bias, known professionally as BIAS, is a White Hall native who competed on the 2023 cycle of NBC’s The Voice making the Top 9 under the coaching of mentor Gwen Stefani. Bias joins podcast co-hosts Douglas Boultinghouse, Britt Talent and Roy Phillips for the latest episode in advance of the Rison in the Fall Festival on Oct. 12 where the musician will take the stage at 4 p.m. During the podcast, Bias shared his journey from graduating high school and attending the University of Mobile in Alabama, an arts school where he studied music, traveling the world in an acapella group. After leaving school to pursue music full time, and getting married, he and his wife settled in Chattanooga where he served as a worship leader. One night while watching television, the idea to audition for The Voice hit him. He said, “What the heck? Why not?” and submitted an audition tape. Since the recording of the podcast, Bias won the Unsigned Only country category for independent songwriters with his single “Lake of Fire.” His next single, “Bent But Ain’t Broken,” is expected to be released ahead of his performance at Rison in the Fall.

RISON - As the Rison in the Fall Festival draws near (Oct. 12), rising star Marybeth Byrd joined in on the latest episode of the Free Range Conversations podcast to share some of her musical origins, and what she is looking forward to at this year’s festival. Byrd chats with Festival Director Douglas Boultinghouse, one of the festival’s founders, Roy Phillips, and podcast host and Cleveland County Herald publisher Britt Talent, in this episode. Byrd is a 22-year-old singer songwriter from Armorel, Arkansas who won the Arkansas Country Music Award for Female Vocalist of the Year earlier this year. She is known by many for the adventures she set out on at age 17 as she was preparing to graduate high school. In 2019, she made the top eight semifinals on Season 17 of NBC’s The Voice with the help of her coach, John Legend, and mentors Usher and Taylor Swift. Trying the audition process again, she made the top 10 on Season 21 of American Idol in 2023. The singer will perform new music at the festival from her upcoming EP featuring collaborations with Callista Clark and Linda Davis. She also discusses her other adventures in photography and vocal coaching.

One of the newcomers at this year’s Rison in the Fall Festival, Matt Wilkerson of the band Last Call, joined in on the latest episode of the Free Range Conversations podcast. Wilkerson, a White Hall resident, joins host Douglas Boultinghouse, who is the director of the festival, and festival founder and podcast co-host Roy Phillips. Rison Shine President Celeste Beatty fills in for host Britt Talent in this week’s episode as a special guest. Listeners learn that it was a text message from Beatty to Boultinghouse that brought the rising local talent to this year’s festival. Beatty was scrolling Facebook and came across a video of 22-year-old Wilkerson singing at a Pine Bluff laundromat and sent it to Boultinghouse suggesting they track him down. That viral video has since garnered over 20 thousand views. Wilkerson first got the music bug when his father, also a musician, pulled him up on stage at the age of two during a concert at the Pine Bluff Convention Center. “I was obsessed with the drums,” he says. “That’s where it started.” At the age of 13, just before his father passed away, he was gifted a guitar and has been playing ever since. Wilkerson draws his inspiration from the sounds of artists like Waylon Jennings and Merle Haggard, but even ventures outside of classic country music to play a little rock from Nirvana and The Eagles, and even current acts like Luke Combs and Cody Johnson.

Rison Mayor Charles Roberts sits in to discuss all things Rison - past, present and future. Podcast host Britt Talent is joined by co-hosts Roy Phillips and Douglas Boultinghouse. Reflecting on growing up in Rison, Roberts and Phillips recall a time when there were five restaurants on Main Street, and just as many grocery stores. There were multiple service stations downtown and along the highway. In his second year as mayor, Roberts has been active in community development, both in local organizations and statewide meetings. “We’re in a period of improvement,” he said. Roberts said the city has improved both major city parks, and is currently working on improving wastewater facilities to handle more housing. Roberts shares other projects in the works and his hopes for the future of Rison.