The Creek Rocks

The Creek Rocks are a folk duo from the Ozarks led by banjoist Cindy Woolf and guitarist Mark Bilyeu. Cindy grew up in Batesville, Arkansas; Mark hails from Springfield, Missouri, and was a founding member of the Ozarks family band Big Smith, with whom he toured and recorded for sixteen years. The pair began collaborating on Cindy’s solo records in 2005, married in 2013, and established The Creek Rocks in 2015.

Their debut release, Wolf Hunter, is a collection of sixteen folk songs drawn from the field collections of folklorists John Quincy Wolf of Batesville and Max Hunter of Springfield. Woolf is known for her singular singing voice and enchanting performances of her original songs; Bilyeu for his distinct guitar sound and clever turn of phrase. Together they perform a mix of Ozark-inspired originals and unique arrangements of traditional folksongs, from frivolous anthems of the hills to harrowing ballads of the dark holler.

In 2024, The Creek Rocks were named the first-ever Artists in Resonance Fellows by the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. They are currently researching the 1936-37 Missouri and Arkansas field recordings of folklorist Sidney Robertson Cowell, with a new musical project drawn from that work due in 2026.