Old Time Scene: Ozark Strings

Three of Arkansas’s most respected old-time musicians sit down together to talk about teaching and playing the music that has shaped Ozark community life for generations.

Clarke Buehling is one of the foremost champions of the nineteenth-century banjo, an instrument he has been playing, researching, and teaching for more than 30 years. He currently plays with the Carousel Orchestra and the Ozark Highballers, tours solo throughout the United States and Europe, and lives in Fayetteville.

Pete Howard is an old-time fiddle player from Fayetteville with more than three decades behind the bow. He teaches in the Fayetteville Public Schools, plays at Ozark Folkways jams and square dances, and performs with the White River Warblers, a string band that has played local jams, dances, and potlucks for more than 20 years.

Pam Setser hails from Mountain View, where she joined the Simmons Family Band at age five. She sings and plays guitar, auto-harp, dulcimer, and other instruments, performing with the Pam Setser Band, Apple & Setser, the Leatherwoods, and the Ozark Granny Chicks.