KASU to Present Concert Celebrating 10th Anniversary of ‘Arkansas Roots’
JONESBORO – KASU, the public media service of Arkansas State University, will present the “Arkansas Roots 10th Anniversary Concert: Celebrating Arkansas’ Musical Heritage” at 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 2, in Riceland Hall of Fowler Center, 201 Olympic Dr.
KASU program director Marty Scarbrough, station manager Mark Smith, and former station manager Mike Doyle announced the concert during today’s broadcast of Arkansas Roots.
Dec. 2 will be the 10th anniversary of the premiere of what has become KASU’s flagship locally-produced radio program, Arkansas Roots. The show began as a music program featuring songs by Arkansas-connected musicians from the past and the present in virtually all musical styles and genres.
While the show today still includes music, it has evolved into a magazine-type program with multiple features regarding Arkansas’ music, arts and culture. Arkansas Roots is heard from noon to 1 p.m. weekdays and from noon to 3 p.m. Saturdays on 91.9 FM and at KASU.org.
The concert to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Arkansas Roots will feature a dozen of Arkansas’ most talented musicians performing songs made famous by other Arkansas musicians from the past and the present.
The first half of the concert will feature vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Brad Apple, fiddler and multi-instrumentalist Tim Crouch, guitarist and vocalist Danny Dozier, bassist and vocalist Irl Hees, vocalist and guitarist Gary Rounds, and vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Pam Setser. This six-piece group will perform acoustic versions of songs made famous by Arkansas-connected musicians such as Johnny Cash, Lefty Frizzell, Charlie Rich, Grandpa Jones and a dozen others.
The musicians who will perform on the first half of the concert all have lengthy musical resumes with collectively well over 200 years of experience as professional musicians. Members of this ensemble have performed on television programs including The Tonight Show, Late Night with David Letterman, Austin City Limits, Hee Haw, Nashville Now, and the Jerry Lewis Labor Day MDA Telethon. They have also performed on radio programs such as The Grand Ole Opry, the WoodSongs Old Time Radio Hour, Ozark Highlands Radio, and At Home in the Country.
The Lockhouse Orchestra will perform on the second half of the concert. This seven-piece electric band formed in 2006 to initially perform at the Lockhouse Restaurant in Batesville. The group has since performed throughout the region, presenting numerous tribute concerts to musical acts including the Beatles, Elvis Presley, Fleetwood Mac, and The Rolling Stones. The band presented a tribute concert to the music of Levon Helm at a KASU-sponsored event in Jonesboro in 2014. The group has also played at the Beatles at the Ridge festival in Walnut Ridge and at the Levon Helm Jubilee in Marvell.
The members of the Lockhouse Orchestra are bassist Jerry Bone, guitarist Danny Dozier, keyboardist Mike Foster, drummer Jason Moser, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist John T. Parks, vocalist Sarah Jo Sample, and vocalist Penny Wolfe.
In its half of the concert, the Lockhouse Orchestra will perform a mixture of rock-and-roll, blues, rhythm-and-blues, rockabilly and country music. The band will play well-known songs by Glen Campbell, Louis Jordan, Ashley McBryde, Conway Twitty, Evanescence, Little Big Town, The Band, Sonny Burgess, Al Green, and well over a dozen other Arkansas-connected musical acts.
This concert is a ticketed event, and net proceeds will go toward KASU’s ongoing fundraising efforts as a non-profit, public media service. All seating is general admission. Individual tickets are $20 plus applicable fees. Tickets may be purchased at the Central Box Office in First National Bank Arena, 217 Olympic Drive in Jonesboro, or by calling (870) 972-ASU1 or (888) ASU-FANS. Tickets are also available online by clicking on “Fowler Tickets” at Tickets.AState.edu.
For more details, one may contact Marty Scarbrough, KASU program director, at (870) 972-2367 or at mscarbro@AState.edu.
