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, 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, talented Texas trio The Quebe Sisters perform live at the Ozark Folk Center State Park. Also, interviews with the Quebe Sisters. Mark Jones offers an archival recording of Ozark original Betty Copeland singing a rare traditional gospel classic, “Life’s Railway to Heaven.” Writer, professor, and historian Dr. Brooks Blevins profiles the last in a series of three Ozark regional ballads, “Little Johnny Lee.”

Masters of Texas style swing, fiddle and three voice harmony, the Quebe (kway-bee) Sisters bring it like few can. Like other family and sibling performers we’ve featured on Ozark Highlands Radio, the Quebe Sisters (Grace, Sophia and Hulda) have formed a sound and style that is both traditional and familiar, yet all their own. Each sister an accomplished fiddle player and singer, the trio specializes in western swing tunes with their signature three part harmony.

In this week’s “From the Vault” segment, musician, educator, and country music legacy Mark Jones offers an archival recording of Ozark original and family music legacy Betty Copeland singing a rare traditional gospel classic, “Life’s Railway to Heaven,” from the Ozark Folk Center State Park archives.

From his series entitled “Back in the Hills,” writer, professor and historian Dr. Brooks Blevins presents the last of three episodes on Ozark regional ballads. This episode features a recording of the traditional Ozark ballad “Little Johnny Lee,” sung by Bessie Owens of Batesville, Arkansas on April 6, 1958. The recording was made by folklorist Mary Parler, and is preserved in the Ozark Folksong Collection of the University of Arkansas Libraries Digital Collections.

http://digitalcollections.uark.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/OzarkFolkSong/id/3286/rec/5