Free music show is 6 p.m. tonight on the square

Award-winning musicians Junior and Cody Marriott will perform a free music show at 6 p.m. today (June 3) on the square in Gainesville. The show is sponsored by the <em>Ozark County Times</em> and the Ozark County Historium.

In case of inclement weather, the event will move to the First Christian Church on Highway 160 east of the Gainesville square.

Junior Marriott, who operates Marriott Music in Ava, won first-place honors last year at the Grand Lake National Fiddle Fest in Grove, Okla., a nationally sanctioned competition in the National Oldtime Fiddlers' Contest circuit.

His son Cody, of Lake of the Ozarks, has won Missouri and Texas state fiddle championships and, like his dad, ranked high at the national fiddle-playing competition.

Junior Marriott grew up on a farm in the Versailles area; his dad, Bunne Mariott was "a livestock trader," Marriott said, "and he played the fiddle."

His uncle, Goodson Merriott (spelled differently but still related) was a former Missouri state champion fiddler player, Marriott said.

"Junior grew up playing drums in high school and then moved to the fiddle, and he's an accomplished guitar player too," said Marriott's friend, Ralph Brown, owner of Bryant Plastics north of Gainesville. The two men when Brown "had a fiddle I needed to have set up. I took it up there to Junior, and we hit it off," Brown said. "He's like an auto mechanic except he's a fiddle mechanic."

Brown has accompanied Junior and Cody to several fiddle-playing competitions. He and Marriott began as partners in the Ava music store. Now Junior is "buying me out," Brown said.

Marriott, who also plays and teaches guitar, bass and mandolin as well as fiddle. He teaches more than 20 lessons a week from his Ava store. Many of his students take lessons from home via Skype video connections on their computers.

Junior has been asked to serve as a judge for the Grand Masters fiddle competition this year in Nashville and for other fiddle-music events as well.

Junior and Cody are well-known for presenting crowd-pleasing performances throughout the region. "Junior and H.K. Silvey put on a heck of a show at Hootin an Hollarin one year, and I know Junior and Cody will do the same Friday night," Brown said.

Concessions and 50-50 raffle tickets will be sold to raise money for the Historium, a nonprofit member of the Ozark County Community Foundation. For information contact Sue Ann Jones (sueann@ozarkcountytimes.com; 417-679-4641) or Janet Taber (janettaber@gmail.com; 417-265-3372).

Junior Marriott, right, and his son Cody Marriott, left.