Music–the Heart and Soul of Eastern Arkansas
Listen to the interview on the Lowell Thomas Award winning travel show “Journeys of Discovery with Tom Wilmer” featured as a weekly podcast on NPR.ORG Check out this episode!
Eastern Arkansas was long ago the land of cotton, but today soybeans and rice fields are common. This is the realm that incubated the classic Delta Blues tradition. It was the home of Johnny Cash and Levon Helm, Charlie Rich, Albert king, and many more blues legends.
This is where BB King, Elvis, and a litany of other 20th century music icons tested their mettle in roadside, Eastern Arkansas Juke Joints. This is also where Ernest Hemingway hunkered down at her wife Pauline’s family home in Piggott, Arkansas to write portions of A Farewell to Arms and numerous short stories. Come along and join the conversation with Arkansas Parks & Tourism Travel Writer, Kim Williams. Kim specializes in the evocative Eastern Arkansas Mississippi Delta Region. She shares her passionate insights about the region’s history, with a special emphasis on the Delta Blues tradition and some thoughts on the Johnny Cash Boyhood home in Dyess Colony. Rosanne Cash adds personal thoughts about the region’s incredible contributions to American Music and her involvement in the restoration of the Johnny Cash boyhood home in Dyess Colony, Arkansas.
http://arkansasheritagesites.astate.edu
