Cindy Woolf and Mark Bilyeu are bringing Ozarks folk songs back home 90 years after they were first recorded.
As the first Artists in Resonance with the Smithsonian Folklife Center, the folk duo known as The Creek Rocks spent a week in Washington, D.C., in December 2024,
where they listened to Ozarks folk music recorded in 1936 and 1937 by ethnographer and folk music collector Sidney Robertson Cowell.They will perform some of the songs, which feature on their new album "Wonderful Days, Wonderful Country," at the Historic Fox Theatre on Aug. 15. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and the show starts at 7:30 p.m. During the show, Bilyeu and Woolf will also play some of Robetson Cowell's field recordings.
Tickets are available online at historicfoxtheatre.org.
At the show, The Creek Rocks will have new merchandise, including stickers and shirts, as well as a CD and downloads of "Wonderful Days, Wonderful Country" available for purchase.
A vinyl pressing of their album is currently in the works.
Album pays homage to Robertson Cowell, Ozarks culture
In creating "Wonderful Days, Wonderful Country," Bilyeu and Woolf went beyond just choosing songs and arranging them. The pair studied Robertson Cowell's personal correspondence, including with Ozarks folklorist Vance Randolph; her work, and her time in the Ozarks.
Despite only spending about two months collecting recordings here, Robertson Cowell cultivated a love for the area, visiting it at various points before her death in 1995. The album's title is a phrase from one of her letters in the 1980s, in which she was reminiscing about the Ozarks.
"She had a real fondness for the area," Bilyeu said. "She talked about it wistfully quite a bit in her later years."
The music is not only representative of the area, but also a particular time. Because the recordings have not been digitized, few people have had access to them.
"It's exciting because it's this chapter of the area's musical history," Bilyeu said. "This is before World War II, things were different back then and the music was different back then. Most people haven't heard it."
Sharing this music is an important way to preserve the area's cultural heritage.
"This music is something of what you can point to to say this is what makes this area unique, makes it different from these other areas," Bilyeu said. "I think it's important to grasp onto that stuff and know your past, what it is that makes you different from all the other places around you."
'Wonderful Days, Wonderful Country' to be 'unexpected and different'
For this album, Bilyeu and Woolf recorded in their home, effectively turning their living room into a studio.
While Bilyeu had to spend some time learning new technology and construction nearby limited when they could record, recording at home also had its benefits, like greater creative freedom and the ability to record without worrying about studio time.
"It's gone pretty well and I really like what we've created with these old songs," Woolf said. "I think it's going to be unexpected and different."
Those who have listened to "Wolf Hunter," the Creek Rocks' debut album, shouldn't expect more of the same.
While the collection of songs from folklorists John Quincy Wolf and Max Hunter has a stripped-down, acoustic feel, "Wonderful Days, Wonderful Country" features more instruments, including a field organ, drums and keyboard.
"A lot of records in the genre, you have a lot of acoustic instruments, but this one is really filled out on the bottom and the top end. There's a lot of bass, a lot of sparkle ..." Bilyeu said. "It's not dance music by any stretch, but we tried to work in good grooves. I don't know if we succeeded, but maybe it has some sort of appeal for people who don't listen to this kind of music."
The resulting songs could fit easily on a Fairport Convention album. The similarities are not accidental. Both Bilyeu and Woolf were inspired by, and are fans of, the British folk-rock band that helped popularize traditional English ballads.
Some of the songs also sample from the 1930s recordings, either by incorporating performances into the arrangement or, in one case, dropping Bilyeu and Woolf into a recording.
"There's a singer named David Rice, also from Springfield ... he sings a sweet little song and we, through the magic of technology, sang with him," Bilyeu said. "We harmonized with him and made it so our voices blend in with the sound quality of the time, so it's as if we were in the room with him."
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Springfield folk duo to debut 2nd full album at Historic Fox Theatre
