Ozark Highlands Radio is a weekly radio program that features live music and interviews recorded at Ozark Folk Center State Park’s historic 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, Smithsonian Folkways artists and award winning Boston, Massachusetts progressive folk trio “Lula Wiles” recorded live at the Ozark Folk Center State Park. Also, interviews with these bright Boston bards.

Lula Wiles is a Boston based progressive folk trio consisting of Isa Burke, Eleanor Buckland, and Mali Obomsawin. Their blending of instrumental virtuosity, intricate three part harmony singing, and visionary songwriting has quickly ushered them to the forefront of modern American contemporary folk music. With the recent release of their Smithsonian Folkways album “What Will We Do,” the trio now joins the ranks of America’s most important folk artists.

“Long before they were in a band together, the members of Lula Wiles were singing folk songs and trading fiddle tunes at camp in Maine. ‘All of us were lucky to have access to the folk music community at a young age,’ Burke says. “The music traditions that we’re drawing on are social, community-building traditions.” On those warm summer nights, playing music was just plain fun. But the members of Lula Wiles carry those early lessons of community and the meaning of shared art with them to this day, as they seek to create music that questions cultural virtues, soothes aching wounds, and envisions a better world.

“Lula Wiles came of age in Boston, in the practice rooms of Berklee College of Music and the city’s lively roots scene. In 2016, the band self-released Lula Wiles, a sensitive, twang-tinged collection of originals. Since then, they have toured internationally, winning fans at the Newport Folk Festival and the Philadelphia Folk Festival, and sharing stages with the likes of Aoife O’Donovan, the Wood Brothers, and Tim O’Brien.

“Now, the release of What Will We Do on Smithsonian Folkways Recordings places the group squarely in line with some of its deepest influences, from the protest anthems of Woody Guthrie to the trailblazing songs of Elizabeth Cotten and Hazel Dickens. (Even the band’s name is a twist on an old Carter Family song.)” - http://www.lulawiles.com/bio/

In this week’s “From the Vault” segment, musician, educator and country music legacy Mark Jones offers a 1983 archival recording of Ozark original fiddler, Roger Fountain, performing the traditional tune “Saint Anne’s Reel,” 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. In this episode, Charley speaks with environmentalist and author Richard Mason on the question “What’s Worth Keeping” from our past in the rapidly evolving culture of our present.