Nightflying: The Entertainment Guide

Eureka Springs explodes with color, sound, and celebration this Spring! Free music and more in the Park, car shows, parades, gallery walks, Yard Art, Spring Art, concerts, Kinky Friedman, and Eureka Springs Blues Weekend give plenty of reasons to come visit.
Strolling Downtown Eureka Springs is made even sweeter with free weekend music and more in the Basin Spring Park Band Shell beginning Saturday, April 19, and continuing through late October. The first weekend is loaded with some of Eureka’s best: The Awesome Possums, the Ozarks Chorale, Rachel Fields, Mountain Sprout, and Maia Archote. The Basin Spring Park’s complete schedule is listed in Nightflying’s Sound Pages if you want to look for your favorite performers.

2nd Saturday Gallery Stroll
    Did you know that Eureka Springs is one of the top 5 small ART cities in the country? Each month the galleries “Celebrate the Art of Eureka” by opening their doors from 6 to 9 pm. Join the Stroll Saturday, April 12 and May 10 to pick up one of a kind treasures.
Show Us Your Mustang, Sally!
    The Carroll County Cruisers present the 14th Annual Mustang Show and the 19th Annual Open Car Show on Saturday, April 19, 2008. The parade is huge, and the clubs will be packed with partiers requesting Mustang Sally from the band! www.carrollcountycruisers.com.

4th Annual Carving in the Ozarks
You should see the amazing sculptures a chainsaw can do in the hands of a skilled artisan! Watch them in action April 18 &19 at the corner of HWY 62 and Rockhouse Road. The event is free and fun! www.carvingintheozarks.com.

Arbor Day Celebration
    April 25, the community of Eureka Springs will celebrate the city’s involvement in Tree City USA with GREEN speakers, music, and lots of cool information about outdoor activities, gardening, etc. Everyone is encouraged to join in the fun from 10 am to 5 pm.
Mosaic Trio Presents PARADIGM
    “How can we change the current course of our world? How can we create new patterns that truly represent our greatness within? As the old world falls away… we together can create our new reality.” Delve into these topics with PARADIGM, A Revolution of the Human Consciousness April 25 and 26. Each evening begins with dinner from 7 to 9pm, and includes art, visual media and dance by Mosaic Trio Progressive Ballet Company. The group continues to outdo themselves with each production by including new talent and exciting technical design. The event is being presented at ENTHIOS Studios located at 215 CR 301 A.K.A. Green Wood Hollow Road. Further information can be obtained by calling 479-253-6830 or info@fullbloomproductions.com.

May Festival of the Arts
    Eureka Springs is home to an incredible number of artists. May, with its built in colorful backdrop, is chosen to celebrate! May Festival of the Arts kicks off this year with a big party in the Basin Spring Park on Thursday, May 1 from noon to 2pm with music by the Hogscalders, Jones Van Jones (Ask Roscoe to play Choo Choo Cha Boogie), and Jeff Lee.
The Basin Spring Park continues to be a focal point of FREE fun throughout the month with more than music. The mind-blowing acrobatic Ariel Angels will swing, leap, and eat fire May 9-11. “Art in the Park” on the 17th will feature live demonstrations and music along with a show of 12 artists’ creations. Bring the kids in your life to the Kids Art Day on the 18th.
Celebrate a magical Memorial Day Weekend in the Park with Bobby Maverick. This hilarious show starts at noon and runs throughout the day May 23-26. The Basin Park is a terrific vantage point for watching the Art Car Skateboard Festival parade on the 24th where “Extreme Art Meets Extreme Sport!”
    A whole lot of other May Festival of the Arts activities are listed at www.eurekasprings.org.

Americana House Concerts
Eureka event planners, Janet Alexander and Nancy Paddock had a ball at the latest Folk Alliance, and came back exploding with ideas! They loved the music, and are the excited about the young demographic of Americana musicians and fans. These ideas inspired a new series of concerts, among other things. On the evening of May 1st, enjoy the first of many Americana House Concerts at the Gavioli Church at 80 Mountain Street starting at 8pm featuring Noah Earle, International Blues Challenge soloist nominee performing his newest Folk creations. Check out www.noahearle.com. On May 20th the House Concerts continue with a show featuring the combined talents of John Elliot and Raina Rose (www.thehereafterishere.com/www.rainarose.com). From what my ears heard of these two, Eureka is in for a treat! Look for these performers, plus more delightful Folk Alliance discoveries at the 2008 Annual Ozark Folk Festival in early November. For more information on the Americana House Concerts @ the Gavioli call 479-253-7823.

Strange Travel Suggestions
     Join best-selling travel author, Jeff Greenwald for a night of comedy and storytelling on Thursday, May 1 at the Grand Central Hotel 37 North Main St at 8 pm. This acclaimed writer of The Size of the World and Shopping for Buddhas will deliver “enthralling stories and witty insights inspired by the vagaries of severe wanderlust.” Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at www.rareclick.com/jeff with proceeds to help establish a Travel Writing Fellowship at the Writer’s Colony at Dairy Hollow. Come early for dinner specials offered by the Grand Taverne.

Kinky Friedman
    “We're all worm bait waiting to happen. It's what you do while you wait that matters.” (From Kinky Friedman’s 1993 detective novel, When the cat's away.)
    Texas churns out some pretty large characters; one of them is the talk of the greater Eureka Springs area these days. Kinky Friedman, the cigar-puffing philosopher, writer, and musician will deliver a lecture with music on the side featuring Little Jewford on Saturday, May 10 at 8pm in the Eureka Springs City Auditorium. The show is inspired by his latest book You Can Lead A Politician to Water, But You Can’t Make Him Think.
    The former columnist for the Texas Monthly has written numerous novels prior to this newest work, but began his career in the music business. Born as Richard Friedman in Chicago to Jewish parents, he moved to central Texas with his family as a child and graduated from Austin High. He got the name “Kinky” while attending the University of Texas because of his curly hair, and it was there that he poked fun at surfer music with his band, King Arthur & the Carrots. Later, he formed Kinky Friedman & The Texas Jewboys, a name that really bothered his Dad.
    Kinky threw his big black cowboy hat into the Texas political ring in 2006 as an Independent candidate for governor, but lost. The rumor is that he plans to run again in 2010 but this time as a Democrat saying, “God probably couldn’t have won as an independent.”
    When Friedman isn’t touring he lives at Echo Hill Ranch near Kerrville and busies himself with his writing and supporting his Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch.
    Personally, I am getting in the Kinky mood by reading When The Cat’s Away, one of his detective stories starring himself. It is laugh out loud funny. I plan to get a copy of You Can Lead A Politician To Water, But You Can’t Make Him Think at the show on the 10th and have it signed at the reception that follows in the Gem.
    Tickets for Kinky Friedman’s lecture with music “You Can Lead A Politician To Water, But You Can’t Make Him Think” on May 10 are $40, and on sale at The City Auditorium 888/855-7823 or 479/253-7788 or www.theaud.org.

John Two-Hawks and Bastiaan Mother’s Day Concert
    A special show by John Two-Hawks and Bastiaan in tribute to all our Mother’s takes the stage at The AUD on Sunday, May 11 at 2pm. The concert will feature this duo’s CD, ‘Touch the Wind’ in which, “The touch of the keys and the wind of the flute become one.” All Mothers are FREE, and the rest of the tickets are $15 for adults, and $5 for children.

Eureka Blues Weekend
    Blues legend, Koko Taylor and Her Blues Machine kick off Blues Weekend in Eureka at The AUD on Thursday, May 29, 2008. The Blues Weekend is presented by The 1905 Basin Park Hotel and features 70 Shows in 15 Venues over 4 Days!
Indigenous, the Native American Ambassadors of the Blues have gained the admiration of fans all over the world. See them on Friday, May 30 on stage at The AUD. Opening the show is Rory Block, an acoustic guitar virtuoso as well as a 100th Birthday Tribute to Arkansas native, The “Jukebox King” Louis Jordan, featuring Phil Berkowitz and the Sean Carney Band.
    The Basin Park Hotel will have two stages going. Over the weekend see shows there by LZ Love, Larry Garner, Michael Burks, and one of my absolute favorite Blues stars, Deborah Coleman. I missed her last time she was here, and will not let that happen again!
    All of Eureka is participating in the Blues Weekend. Saturday will be a full day and night of shows in all the clubs in Eureka. Shawbee’s Big Dawg Saloon is setting up a special outside stage for the afternoon performance of Full House. The Basin Spring Park offers free music for all ages all day. Eureka’s poster boy of the Blues, Patrick Sweany works around the clock playing shows at the Pied Piper and Chelsea’s Thursday through Sunday. Be sure to go to the extremely helpful www.eurekaspringsblues.com for the entire list of shows. Also, look to this page in the next issue for more tidbits about performers and stuff.
    Art, blooming dogwoods, perfect river levels for floating, and abundant opportunities for music appreciation combine to entice humans like yourself to join Eureka Springs this Spring in fun and frivolity. In closing, think on these words by Kinky Friedman.
“The main health hazard in the world today is people who don’t love themselves.”

Show yourself some love by treating yourself to some fun!
Karen FitzPatrick

NAVIGATE

Please visit our sponsors and help keep Nightflying FREE!