This week, a special road trip episode featuring award-winning Owensboro, Kentucky bluegrass singer/songwriter Rick Faris and his band recorded live at the 2024 Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas.

The annual Walnut Valley Festival, now in it’s 53rd season, is one of the oldest and most respected acoustic music festivals in the world. Held at the Winfield, Kansas fairgrounds, more than 30 musical acts will perform on four separate stages, presenting over 200 hours of live music. Also, there is a dedicated contest stage where contestants vie for national and international championships in Finger Style Guitar, Flat Pick Guitar, Bluegrass Banjo, Old Time Fiddle, Mandolin, Mountain Dulcimer, Hammered Dulcimer, and Autoharp. There is a juried arts and crafts fair, exhibits by renowned instrument makers and music shops, family activities, a bevy of food vendors, a farmer’s market and even a pub! An unusual aspect of Walnut Valley is its campground tradition. Campsites are not reserved and campers line up to claim a choice campsite during the "Land Rush.” Walnut Valley Festival goers often bring their own musical instruments to participate in the sometimes all night campground jam sessions. Bands like Old Sound and Sally & The Hurts that began as "Jam Bands" in the campgrounds, have even been invited to perform at the festival.

Rick Faris is a Kansas Music Hall of Fame Member who was recently awarded the “Songwriter of the Year” at the 2024 International Bluegrass Music Association Awards making him an 8-time IBMA Award winner. In addition Rick won the coveted “New Artist of the Year” in 2022. Faris also spent 11 years with Special Consensus while the band earned two GRAMMY nominations before embarking on his chart topping solo career. The Rick Faris Band, is an International touring Bluegrass outfit playing in the US, Mainland Europe, the British Isles and Canada. They bring sibling harmony and comedic relief with brother JimBob Faris on bass and a youthful snap to their original brand of music with a couple of bluegrass thoroughbreds, Henry Burgess (who grew up with fiddle legend Byron Berline) and Gibson Davis (who is a third generation bluegrass musician following father Chris Davis and his Grandfather Danny Davis). Rick recently moved to Owensboro, Kentucky the Bluegrass Music Capital and has opened his Faris Guitar Co. - https://rickfaris.com/press-kit

In this week’s “From the Vault” segment, OHR producer Jeff Glover offers a 1988 archival recording of gospel music legends The Chuck Wagon Gang performing the 1934 J.R. Baxter song “After the Sunrise,” from the Ozark Folk Center State Park archives.

In his segment “Back in the Hills,” writer, professor and historian Dr. Brooks Blevins explores the storied history of early gospel music publishing in the Ozark and Quachita Mountains.