Ozarks Notebook: A Duo of Folk Musicians Preserves Ozark Music for Generations to Come

['Kaitlyn Mcconnell', 'The Daily Yonder', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width', 'Vertical-Align Bottom .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar'] The Daily Yonder 2025-09-17 00:00:00

They represented a region – and the Ozarkers, now long gone, who recorded folk music so long ago. “It is the desire of the government to preserve the folk songs of all sections of this country,” Cowell said in the Springfield Daily News in December 1936. “One of the reasons we wanted to listen to this music was because we wanted to know what folk music from the Ozarks sounded like in 1936,” Bilyeu said. While vocals are generally important – “Ozarks folk music, as revealed by these collections, is all about the voice,” Bilyeu said – a key difference is in the way the songs sound. And that’s what folk music is all about.”RelatedRepublish This Story Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.