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 on a musical journey with historians, authors, and personalities who explore the people, stories, and history of the Ozark region.
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OHR Presents: Alvin Youngblood Hart
This week, renowned Mississippi blues guitarist and singer Alvin Youngblood Hart recorded live at Ozark Folk Center State Park. Alvin Youngblood Hart was born in Oakland, California in 1963 and spent some time in Carroll County, Mississippi in his youth, where he was influenced by the Mississippi country blues performed by his relatives. Hart is known as one of the world's foremost practitioners of country blues. He is also known as a faithful torchbearer for 1960s and 1970s guitar rock as well as western swing and traditional country. His style has been compared to Lead Belly and Spade Cooley. Bluesman Taj Mahal once said about Hart: "The boy has got thunder in his hands." Hart himself said, "I guess my big break came when I opened for Taj Mahal for four nights at Yoshi’s." His debut album, Big Mama's Door, was released in 1996 on Okeh Records. In 2003, Hart's album Down in the Alley was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album. In his segment “Back in the Hills,” writer, professor, and historian Dr. Brooks Blevins investigates the history of tourism in the entertainment Mecca of the Ozarks: Branson, Missouri.