Page 8 - TR Explore Stone County 2020

8SS SUNDAY, JUNE 21, 2020
ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT TO THE THREE RIVERS EDITION OF THE ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE • EXPLORE STONE COUNTY
MEET
YOUR NEIGHBOR
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Dave Smith
HOST OF OZARK HIGHLANDS RADIO
WHAT IS OZARK HIGHLANDS RADIO, AND HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN INVOLVED?
Ozark Highlands Radio is produced by the Ozark Folk Center to present the kind of music we feature at our park. I’ve been involved with the show since its inception.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PART OF YOUR JOB?
I think my favorite part of the show is the Vault segment, where I go down to the Vault to discuss with Mark Jones his latest pick from the vast ar- chives of music that has been recorded at our shows since we opened in April 1973.
WHY IS FOLK MUSIC SO IMPORTANT TO MOUNTAIN VIEW?
My theory is that because Dodd Mountain lies just south of Mountain View, the town had no television signal until well into the late ’60s. Instead of watching television, folks did what generations before them had done everywhere — sat out on their porches and in their homes and played music together.
WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT FOLK MUSIC?
What I love about folk music, and old-time fiddle music in particular, is that it is playable by just about anybody. You don’t even have to read music to play it, ... and you can dance to it.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO PRESERVE THIS TYPE OF MUSIC?
It is important to preserve this music, and all music, if you think about it. Folk music is just what it says — music of the people — and we need to keep it alive and let it grow. In my lifetime, we’ve seen “popular” music and “country” music taken over by corporate guys in suits. And like I say on the radio show, you won’t hear this stuff any farther up the radio dial.
STACI VANDAGRIFF/THREE RIVERS EDITION
Betty and Jim Woods recently sold The Dulcimer Shoppe in Mountain View after owning it for 19 years. Jim built and sold McSpadden Mountain Dulcimers, and Betty handled a variety of business duties.
MOUNTAIN MUSIC Local dulcimer maker retires, sells business
BY CODY GRAVES / CREATIVE SERVICES WRITER Just a short drive from downtown Moun-
tain View is a red barnwood building, and inside, some of the world’s finest folk instru- ments are being handmade with care and attention.
is building is e Dulcimer Shoppe and the home of McSpadden Mountain Dul- cimers. For the past 19 years, Jim and Betty Woods have been the owners of e Dulci- mer Shoppe, but in April, the couple sold the business to retire.
“It’s come time,” Jim said. “You can’t go on forever.”
Jim and Betty purchased the business from original owner Lynn McSpadden in 2001. e couple lived in Plano, Texas, and Jim had become burned out at his job. He had been building dulcimers using do-it-yourself kits he had bought from e
Dulcimer Shoppe and had been selling them in Betty’s quilt shop. When they saw that the Dulcimer Shoppe was for sale in an ad in Dulcimer Player News, the couple decided to buy the business and move to Mountain View. ey had visited the town on vacation, so they saw acquiring the business as a chance to change their lives.
“I’d always been interested in musical in- struments,” Jim said. “I was building instru- ments at the hobby level at the time, and I was familiar with the McSpadden quality and reputation, so it just seemed like a good fit.”
Betty’s role in the business has been doing the accounting, ordering and retail. In addi- tion to its own dulcimers, the shop sells other instruments, such as autoharps, as well as strings, books and DVDs, local crafts, parts and accessories.
In the time the couple have owned the business, about 20,000 dulcimers have been built. e mountain dulcimer is an Ameri- can derivation from European folk instru- ments. e instrument is typically played on one’s lap. Jim said the dulcimer is “un- pretentious, so an untrained singer can ac- company himself or herself without either being overshadowed or overpowering the instrument.”
“[ e dulcimer] provides a broad pallet of music that fits the simple instrument and can be played by folks who have not studied or had training in formal music,” he said.
Jim and Betty said they have been honored to continue the tradition of Lynn McSpadden. ey said McSpadden was a dedicated advocate of folk music in the Mountain View community and was heavily involved in the