Review Text
Recorded live to tape in Fayetteville, Arkansas and mixed in an old farmhouse in Floyd, Virginia, these recordings bridge the gap between studio recordings and field recordings. The record captures this energizing music in a way that is pure and urgent like a home field recording, and beautifully engineered like a studio album. The songs, ballads and instrumentals on this record draw the listener in: They are poignant and transformative, challenging listeners to allow this old, "outsider" music into their present day life, alongside the music on the radio, TV and front pages of the internet. The Ozark Highballers subverts the norms of the music world in many ways. They come out of a deep and hidden history, playing music that exists outside of cities, and without regard to entertainment industry standards, or publicity requirements and cycles. Most bands are in a single age group, but The Ozark Highballers is a multi-generational band that has learned their music from family members, elder musicians in their community and field recordings buried in archival collections.
