SHSMO Center for Missouri Studies
605 Elm St.
Columbia, Mo.
Join us for a free noon concert by the Ozarks folk musical group "The Creek Rocks" led by banjoist Cindy Woolf and guitarist Mark Bilyeu. These longtime musical collaborators worked together on Cindy's three albums of original songs that began in 2005 and continued after the couple married in 213 and established The Creek Rocks in 2015. Mark is a founding member of Ozarks family Big Smith, with whom he toured and recorded for 16 years. Their debut release, Wolf Hunter, is a collection of 16 folk songs from the Ozarks, drawn from the collections of folklorists Max Hunter of Springfield, Mo., Mark's hometown, and John Quincy Wolf of Batesville, Arkansas, where Cyndy grew up.
Cindy is well-known for her singular singing voice and enchanting performances of her original songs while Mark is applauded for his distinct guitar sound and clever turn of phrase. Together, they perform a mix of Ozark-inspired original songs and truly unique arrangements of traditional Ozark folksongs from the fun and frivolous anthems of the hills to the hair raising and harrowing ballads of the dark holler.
The Creek Rocks are the proud recipients of the 2024 Artist in Resonance Fellowships from the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. They are currently researching song collector Sidney Robertson Coswell and her 1936-37 trip to Missouri and Arkansas. A musical project based upon his research will be released this year.
This live performance of The Creek Rocks is co-sponsored by the State Historical Society of Missouri, the Budds Center for American Music Studies at the University of Missouri School of Music, and Missouri Folks Arts.