Roy Pilgrim

Roy Pilgrim is a Fayetteville native who began playing music with neighbors at the age of eight. An avid student of early American fiddle music, he is a co-founder of the Ozark Highballers, a string band from the Ozark Mountains of western Arkansas that has brought old-time music to square dances, farmers markets, festivals, and front porches since 2014. Their sound draws directly from the rural Ozark string bands of the 1920s and 30s: fiddle, banjo, harmonica, and guitar, played with authenticity and drive.

Roy’s fiddle playing earned him the runner-up spot for the prestigious J. Mulkey Kent Award at the 2014 Arkansas State Fiddle Championships at the Ozark Folk Center State Park. He is also a segment host for Ozark Highlands Radio, where his series “Fine Fiddlers of the Ozarks” explores the musicians and tunes that have echoed through the Ozark Mountains for generations. The Highballers have performed at the Brooklyn Folk Festival, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Stephen Foster Old-Time Week, and the Ozark Folk Center, and received the Artist 360 grant from the Mid-America Arts Alliance. At the Arkansas Folklife Festival, Roy appears with the Ozark Highballers, The Tie Hackers, and alongside Nokosee Fields and Nick Shoulders.