This week, Ozark original multi-instrumentalist, composer, educator, audio engineer and OHR host, our very own Mark Jones recorded live at Ozark Folk Center State Park. Also, interviews with Mark as well as with his long time friend, country music superstar Marty Stewart.

Anyone who listens to Ozark Highlands Radio will be familiar with the fun loving and friendly voice of Mark Jones, the keeper of our “Vault.” In August of 2021, we lost Mark to Covid-19. His passing was a profound loss to all of us, both professionally and personally. Please join us as we pay tribute to the life and legacy of our dear friend, Mark Jones.

Mark Alan Jones was born in 1955 to Country Music Hall of Fame & Grand Ole Opry performers Louis "Grandpa" Jones and Ramona Jones in Nashville, Tennessee. As a young man, he toured across the country with his famous parents making appearances on the Grand Ole Opry and the television show "Hee Haw.” He performed with numerous other artists including the Willis Brothers, the Wright Brothers, and Jimmy Driftwood's Rackensack Folklore Society. He also worked as a sound engineer for the Statler Brothers.

Mark toured with renowned guitarist, Doyle Dykes, playing in churches throughout America. He was a regular performer at the Grandpa Jones Dinner Theatre in Mountain View, Arkansas, and was a founding member of the Arkansas Beanfest. Mark spent several years playing banjo and running sound and lights at Silver Dollar City and Shepherd of The Hills Outdoor Drama in Branson, Missouri. He also worked as a performer and sound engineer at the Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View, Arkansas.

Throughout his life, Mark taught private music lessons helping to preserve traditional folk music. Even though his life was deeply engrained in music, he enjoyed working with the intellectually disabled and often used his musical talent as a therapeutic tool. Mark is a 2021 inductee of the George D. Hay Society Hall of Honor.

In this week’s “From the Vault” segment, musician, educator, and country music legacy Mark Jones offers archival recordings of himself and a few of his friends demonstrating his true passion, the clawhammer banjo. Hear Mark playing the tunes Mountain Whippoorwill, Cripple Creek and John Hardy, 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. This week, Charley celebrates 50 years of the Buffalo National River. This episode recalls early efforts to conserve and protect America’s first national river. Featured is an interview with long time area resident and photographer Ed Alexander, who’s father, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission biologist Harold Alexander was one of the early pioneers in seeking to protect the river.