Coming soon to the Ozark County Historium

Hootin an Hollarin 2023 is now a memory but a happy one for sure! 

By all accounts I've heard visitors had a wonderful time and were very pleased with the demonstrators, food, vendors and entertainment. I guess you might say the music is at the very heart of Hootin an Hollarin, and the festival committee, headed by Paula Rose, has done a fine job of bringing high quality individuals and groups with a variety of style and backgrounds.

We at the Historium also love music, believing it is at the very heart of Ozarks culture. And that is why I'm so pleased to announce that we have two upcoming music presentations, one in October and one in November.

Thursday, Oct. 26

First up, at 10 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 26, Tom Peters will present a unique program featuring what he has collected and learned about the Ozark Jubilee. The Jubilee was a weekly, nationally-televised program featuring musicians and dancers which ran from 1954-1960. It was certainly a popular show and focused a lot of national attention on Springfield, where it originated and thus on the Ozarks.

Tom Peters is the Dean of Library Science at Missouri State University in Springfield, and we are so very fortunate he has agreed to share with us at the Historium some of what he has learned and collected. He will be showing clips of some of the original shows and talking about local musicians who performed on the Jubilee.

More details will follow, but please save the date and plan to attend this special event. We're really excited about it!

Wednesday, Nov. 15

Second of all, at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 15, we will welcome Alan Munde, who will present a program on his expertise as a professional banjo player and his 60-plus-year career as a musician. Again, we are so very fortunate to have someone of Alan's caliber to visit us, thanks in part to his wife, Kitty Ledbetter who has family ties to Ozark County. 

As an example of the level of Alan's professionalism, he won the Steve Martin Banjo Prize in 2021 - such an honor! Again, more details will come but for now, just please mark your calendars for both of these events, unlike any others we've had at the Historium.