THERESA ROMANS: We was going to have our first show at the courthouse in December.

And by golly, it showed us that we wasn't going to.

We had twelve inches of snow.

But I mean, January come around, and we were-- everybody was there, and it was a packed house.

The Ozarks is known for its rich musical history, and no music is more iconic to the Ozarks than bluegrass.

Down the road in West Plains is the Heart of the Ozarks Bluegrass Association, which has been carrying on these musical traditions for more than 40 years.

Founded in 1980, the Heart of the Ozarks Bluegrass Association has grown from a humble dream of an elementary school teacher into a non-profit organization dedicated to celebrating and preserving Bluegrass music for future generations.

Our guests today are Katie Cahoj, the Association's current treasurer, and local Bluegrass historian Theresa Romans.

Join us as we explore the festivals, the music, and the people who make this association a vibrant part of the Ozarks cultural landscape.

NARRATOR: Ozarks Public television and Missouri State University are proud to present "OzarksWatch Video Magazine," a locally produced program committed to increasing the understanding of the richness and complexity of Ozarks culture.

Visit our website for more information.

You know, on any given Friday or Saturday night all across the Ozarks, it's pretty good idea that you're going to find a group of people sitting in a circle playing a banjo, playing a fiddle, playing a mandolin, maybe flatpicking a Martin D guitar, something on that order.

And it's called Bluegrass.

And Bluegrass is something that runs hot and furious and fast in the Ozarks.

Hi, I'm Dale Moore.

Welcome to this edition of "OzarksWatch Video Magazine."

As always, so delighted that you're in the living room with us right this very minute.

You're in for a treat.

I'm going to introduce you to a group called the Heart of the Ozarks Bluegrass Association-- HOBA, for short.

I love that already.

And if you're not familiar with the Heart of the Ozarks Bluegrass Association, then you've been hiding under a rock.

They've been around a long time, and they're here to join us today, and that's Theresa Romans and Katie Cahoj.

Did I get-- Cahoj.

Cahoj.

It's OK. DALE MOORE: Cahoj.

And I was a sailor.

I should know that.

Ahoy.

Welcome to the program.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So nice to have you here.

Appreciate y'all having us here.

How's everything from over in Hal County going?

Great.

The weather's great.

We had rain, and it's wonderful.

DALE MOORE: It's getting better, isn't it.

Yes.

Boy, I'll tell you what.

Enough of the-- enough of the hot and what have you.

Before we talk about the Heart of the Ozarks Bluegrass association, let's just find out a little bit about you all.

Theresa, what do you do when you're not playing Bluegrass or having fun with Bluegrass?

What do you do?

Well, the last several years, I've just been taking care of a lot of old folks.

DALE MOORE: OK. And that's-- Got any openings?

Come on down.

And that's just pretty much what it is.

You're trying to fit in the Bluegrass stuff but trying to take care of dad and aunts and, you know, how life goes.

DALE MOORE: Totally understand that.

Yes, sir.

And Katie, what do you do over in West Plains?

I am a teacher at a rural school in our area.

I teach fifth grade reading, and I teach kindergarten through eighth grade art as well.

OK. OK, well, that's interesting because when we start talking about the history, the backstory-- and you've written quite a history, and I read it, and I loved everything about it.

This all kind of started-- a school teacher's dream.

So, Theresa, why don't you just kind of tell us how did this start?

Ethel Willard.

DALE MOORE: You were there at the beginning.

Well, yeah, I was, actually.

Yes, Ethel Willard, she was a school teacher in Howell County, had taught in many schools.

And she and her husband Jim, that was their summertime thing.

When she was out of school, they hit the Bluegrass festival circuit in Missouri and North Arkansas and Oklahoma and Kansas.

Anyway, she wanted a festival in West Plains.

That was just a thing of hers.

She had a big dream, and she pulled me out of class one day, and she said, your family plays music.

What can you tell me?

Who do you know?

You know, and so I went home, and Mom and Daddy put together a list of musicians.

And I took it to her, and she started calling people and getting them invited.

She wanted to basically start, I guess you'd say, an out of home music party.

And we started having them at the courthouse in West Plains.

DALE MOORE: Yeah.

And everybody would just show up and play music.

And then she wanted the Association, and the Association grew into a-- Well, now, was she a music teacher?

THERESA ROMANS: No.

No, Ethel, she taught-- probably her best subject was English.

But she taught-- well, she started in a one room school house, and English classes, history.

But wherever they need her, that's where she taught.

I'm one of the few people that actually went to a one room-- You remember that.

Yes, sir.

So I can tell you how all that works with one teacher in the room.

KATIE CAHOJ: You're a Jack of all-- or-- DALE MOORE: Yep.

Jack of all trades or-- DALE MOORE: Exactly.

Exactly.

So Ethel, I mean, she and her husband, they just were bluegrass fans and-- Oh my, yeah.

They-- yeah, I can't think of a festival around here probably within 500 miles that they didn't go to.

Now, you say festivals.

So, that, to me, means something that's kind of organized and what have you.

So, her dream, then, originally was just to get people together two or three times a year or what-- No, she wanted-- she really wanted an association.

At the time, the music parties in the homes were kind of dying out, and everybody was kind of getting in-- this was-- well, it would have been the late '70s.

A lot of the festivals were really getting started in the mid to late '70s in this area.

And that's what she-- like, say, she was getting involved in that.

The house parties were going away, and she just really wanted something closer to home.

And folks around our neck of the woods jumped on it.

Everybody had families and kids, and it's like my folks.

That was where they wanted their kids to be at, somewhere where there was music.

And it was good, clean fun.

And you didn't have to worry about your kids.

And of course, we played music.

So that fit right in with everything.

But it was a big dream, and her ultimate goal was to have the festivals.

But she was happy getting the Association started too.

So, your family, I mean, they played a lot of bluegrass?

You come from a bluegrass family?

THERESA ROMANS: Oh, yeah, yeah.

My dad's folks played music.

Not bluegrass, but they played acoustic instruments in church.

And my mom's folks played music and sang.

And my dad, he was always a big Bill Monroe fan and played.

And my grandpa Oscar on my mom's side, he played old square dance fiddle.

So that's kind of how that got started.

But then we got more into bluegrass.

And as the boys got older, they got to play.

And her dad's on the banjo, and I got a brother that plays guitar.

Of course, they can play about anything they get their hands on.

DALE MOORE: Yeah.

And the rest of us kids play stuff.

And my husband, that's how we met was playing music and just kind of-- just don't have any better sense.

We play music.

So-- You still play a lot of music?

Well, I'm starting to get back into it.

Some of my health care stuff has slowed down.

So I'm trying to get back and enjoy it a little bit.

And Katie, how in the world did you get involved in this whole bluegrass thing?

I didn't have a choice.

I was born into it.

DALE MOORE: OK.

The brother that she's talking about that plays the banjo is my dad.

DALE MOORE: OK. And when I was a kid-- well, before I was around and when I was a kid, they had a family band.

This is my aunt.

And she played the bass, and her husband played the dobro, and my dad played the banjo.

Another one of my uncles played the mandolin.

My grandpa, her dad, played the guitar.

And another gentleman, Roger Williams, played the fiddle.

And they were called Roger Williams and the Elderinghoffs.

And about every weekend as long as I can remember, as far back as I can remember, that's what I was doing.

Every single weekend, I was at a silent auction or a festival or a pie supper or something where they were playing music.

Yeah, the thing that sort of struck me about people who love bluegrass music, no one is ever sad at a bluegrass concert, or nobody's ever-- No, you got good music and usually pretty good food.

So how can you go wrong?

Exactly.

How would you describe-- and I've talked to a million fiddle players on this show and banjo pickers and what have you.

How do you describe or would you define to somebody that has no earthly idea what it is, how would you describe bluegrass music?

THERESA ROMANS: Oh gosh.

Happy, uplifting music, even if they're busy killing people in the murder songs.

I mean, it just-- I don't know a bluegrass song that will make you feel bad-- DALE MOORE: Yeah.

THERESA ROMANS: --or make you sad or-- and a lot of them, they get singing some of the old gospel songs, and they'll just give you chills.

DALE MOORE: Oh yeah.

THERESA ROMANS: You know, and it's just-- KATIE CAHOJ: It's very emotional music, I feel.

THERESA ROMANS: You feel it.

KATIE CAHOJ: There's a story in every song.

The songs are not about nothing.

DALE MOORE: Yeah.

KATIE CAHOJ: There's always a core or a main focus to every song.

THERESA ROMANS: It's not three words.

Yeah.

It's not the same three words over and over.

And the thing about people that play Bluegrass music, pickers and grinners, they are not trained.

I mean, a lot of this, they just pick up-- my dad played the fiddle.

So I learned how to play a fiddle.

My mother played piano, couldn't read a note of music.

KATIE CAHOJ: Right.

And she played in church my entire life as a kid, and she had no earthly idea what-- or even what a key was.

She'd start playing.

KATIE CAHOJ: That's kind of the boat I'm in.

You hear it, and you pick it up as you go.

You know, West Plains is known, obviously for a lot-- music seems to kind of come out of West Plains.

Wonder why that is, why that's kind of-- It's in the water.

The water?

Well, yeah, I thought maybe because it was so close to Booger County or something.

Well, that's something in the water over there for sure.

Shame on me.

Anyway-- Well, let's talk more about the Association.

So Ethel had this dream, and she-- by golly, this is what I'm going to do.

So let's start back to some of the early beginnings in your history.

And you mentioned the Howell County Courthouse.

Why in the world the Howell County Courthouse is a place to have bluegrass?

Because at the time, it was a big courtroom, and it already had the pews in there for everybody to sit at.

And it was a good meeting place, and it didn't cost anything, and everybody knew where it was at.

Yeah.

And we had people coming from Shannon County and Texas County and just all over the place when they found out about it.

So we needed a lot of room.

And that we didn't have the Civic Center then, and the churches weren't that big, and that was probably the biggest place other than a school that we could have had it.

Yeah.

Was that on the square?

THERESA ROMANS: Yes sir.

Yeah, square-- Which is most any-- Everybody knows where that's at.

Right.

Everybody knows where the county seat is.

So in '79, when you got ready to go all of a sudden, I read in your history that there was a kind of a hiccup at the very first-- Yeah, 12 inches of snow.

A foot of snow.

Yeah, we was going to have our first show at the courthouse in December.

And by golly, it showed us that we wasn't going to.

We had 12 inches of snow.

But I mean, January come around, and we were-- everybody was there, and it was a packed house.

DALE MOORE: Yeah.

And I've never seen that many musicians in one spot, you know?

It was-- yeah, it was something else.

Just word of mouth?

Is that how how all this-- Word of mouth, yeah.

And the way-- I mean, the way it got going was literally that way.

And now it's kind of gotten-- and we'll talk more about it later.

But it's kind of gotten out of hand now.

It's kind of a bigger-- Well, it's bigger.

It's probably better organized than that was back then.

But you know, it's grown by leaps and bounds, you know?

She'd be happy with it.

The one thing that struck me as I read the history of this and was looking at-- and there's a million YouTubes it seems like now from your festivals and what have you.

But the community support that was there at the start and getting this going and talk a little bit about some of the names and people who started along with Ethel and you and-- THERESA ROMANS: Oh my.

Well-- DALE MOORE: --I mean, because you built a stage.

There was land that was involved, getting a park together.

THERESA ROMANS: Well, back in the very beginning, of course, you know, Ethel and Jim-- and you had Art Bell and the Rigger family and the Eldringhoffs, and there were just so many.

But it was Junior and Norma Stubbs.

They lived on the outskirts of town at that time on their 40 acre farm.

And they were getting older.

Junior was another fiddle player, and he played with several bands and Norma, both of them, they were on the board of directors.

But they wanted so bad to see the festivals and for HOBA to have a home.

So they made us a really good deal on our first five acre plot.

And so we had pie suppers, and we had music shows, and we had bake sales.

I mean, we did everything to raise money to pay for this property.

And then a few years later after Junior had passed away, we wanted to expand, and Norma sold us another seven acres.

Yeah, and both times, it was an excellent price for what the property was.

And you know, I know it was just rocks and brush and Black Jack and multiflora rose bush.

But I mean, it was a wonderful thing that they did for us.

And if they hadn't done it, I don't know if we would have as a park.

DALE MOORE: Yeah.

And it was-- it's-- Well, I know there was some hand-hewn logs that were sawed at a local mill-- Right.

DALE MOORE: --to build the stage.

The trees were cut off my grandpa, his farm.

And my dad and my brothers cut it, and they took it to another member, who had a sawmill.

Was that intentional to do it that way?

Or I mean, why not just go with the lumber yard and buy a bunch of-- Well, you know, when you're poor, poor people has poor ways, you know?

And that was something that could be provided without everybody trying to raise more money to build.

And they cut the logs, and that was our stage.

Is that old stage still in use?

Yes, sir.

DALE MOORE: Wow.

Yes, sir.

I dare anybody to knock it down.

Them oak boards are about that thick, and they're seasoned, and you can't drive a nail in them.

Yeah, yeah.

THERESA ROMANS: So-- DALE MOORE: So, Katie, what's involved in putting something together?

I mean, I know you all do a couple of major concerts, festivals.

I say concerts, but I mean, festivals, and I like the idea of festival because that sounds a lot more fun than a concert to me to go to a festival.

I'm out of the '60s.

So that tells you a lot.

What's involved in putting something like this together?

What goes into that?

A lot of hard work, a lot of communication.

We're blessed right now with an excellent board.

And we all have our own gifts.

And thankfully, all of our individual gifts, our areas of need in planning-- our vice president right now, Sharry Lovan, she is phenomenal at hiring bands.

That's what she does.

She hires our bands for us.

Our president is a can-do kind of guy.

And if you need something done, you just let him know, and it's done.

I keep the book.

I'm the treasurer.

So I handle all the financial side of things.

And we-- like Aunt Theresa was talking about, we have grounds.

We have a property.

So, that has to be up kept.

That has to be mowed, and sticks have to be picked up, and maintenance has to be done, and cleaning has to be done, especially since we have two festivals a year.

Those buildings are shut up the rest of the year.

So you have to knock the cobwebs out and get everything ready and appropriate for your festival in June and then again in September.

So, and when we talk about having one of these festivals, I mean, you say the talent.

I mean-- Yes.

--so, talent from-- where do you find your talent?

So, Sharry-- like I said, Sharry does a great job.

A lot of our bands lately have been from northern Arkansas, northern Missouri, and southern Indiana, and Iowa.

And we've had a few out of the Ozarks portion of Oklahoma as well.

DALE MOORE: I went several years when I lived in Kansas.

I went to Winfield.

And-- THERESA ROMANS: That's quite a festival.

DALE MOORE: That's quite a festival.

THERESA ROMANS: Quite a festival.

DALE MOORE: Yeah.

And you know, you see it all there.

And I can imagine that the same feel happens-- and what do you call your festival?

The Heart of the Ozarks Bluegrass Festival?

Is the name of it.

THERESA ROMANS: It's like our June festival.

This year, it was our 40th spring bluegrass festival.

And then this fall will be our 39th annual fall bluegrass festival.

DALE MOORE: And I know that when you started this, I was reading in your history that-- I mean, you guys got so intense with it that you had a contest to decide on what to name the association and then a logo and all of that.

So that's-- I mean, a lot of effort and energy that's gone into this.

And it's a year round thing.

It's not something, oh, we wait two months beforehand, and we plan.

You can't do that.

I mean, it is a year round thing, especially for the treasurer and the vice president.

They're constantly-- it's not that the other people don't do anything because they have their own areas.

But I mean, it is something that goes on year round.

You're always looking for bands for the next festival, and you're always having to pay bills, and you're always having upkeep on everything and communication.

And you've got sound systems you've got to take care of.

And there's just-- I mean, all the time.

KATIE CAHOJ: It's a lot of moving parts.

THERESA ROMANS: It could be a really big full time job.

Trust me.

DALE MOORE: Yeah, yeah.

How many people are on your board?

KATIE CAHOJ: 11.

OK, and it's-- you're a non-profit, obviously, organization.

Yes.

And I think you've got something that you strive to do is bluegrass through education or-- Yes, so our mission, I guess, if you want to call it that, is the preservation and continuation of bluegrass music through education and our festivals.

DALE MOORE: OK, OK. How many people-- what's your average attendance at one of these festivals?

I would say the last few years has been between 200 and 300.

DALE MOORE: OK. KATIE CAHOJ: We're a little festival.

It's on our flyers-- little festival with a big heart.

It is a labor of love, as you said.

We're a non-profit.

So every ounce of help that we get is purely volunteer-driven, and we're just-- we're very grateful for everyone that comes and-- DALE MOORE: Let's talk about those volunteers.

I mean, who-- what does a volunteer do, if say-- THERESA ROMANS: Oh my.

Just about anything you ask them to do.

But I mean, there's the concession stand, and there's prepping for the festivals and the mowing and the maintenance and printing flyers and advertising and-- DALE MOORE: Yeah.

--and working the road and picking up rocks and cleaning the bathrooms.

And I mean, you name it, it's got to be done.

DALE MOORE: And when you say it's a park, and it's literally a park because you can bring your RV in.

I mean, tell us about the amenities that are available if somebody wants to show up for this.

Oh, we've got right about 135 RV hookups, water-- DALE MOORE: Wow.

THERESA ROMANS: --not all of them have sewer but water and electric to all of them.

We have tent camping.

We have a shower house, hot showers, bathrooms.

And you know, nice grassy areas, a lot of shade trees for shade tree picking.

DALE MOORE: Yeah.

THERESA ROMANS: And we're right on the edge of town We're not in the city limits.

But I mean, you just drive up to the highway from our driveway, and we're right there.

But we're kind of a little oasis back in the woods.

And it's nice and quiet.

Yeah.

What has struck me about festivals like this that I've been to before-- and you kind of made mention of it just now-- things break out.

Things start happening.

I mean, there's the-- I guess that's kind of the joy of the whole experience.

Somebody will-- someone will start playing the fiddle.

Next thing you know-- THERESA ROMANS: You got-- DALE MOORE: --you've got a break out-- THERESA ROMANS: Yes.

DALE MOORE: --concert going.

THERESA ROMANS: Look Out You got people.

KATIE CAHOJ: Yes.

DALE MOORE: Yeah, which is just kind of a remarkable thing to have happen.

So, you all have been doing this for well on the north side of 40 years now-- THERESA ROMANS: 43.

DALE MOORE: --more.

So, what are some of the most memorable kinds of things that strike out in your-- Oh my.

Well, of course, to me, memorable was when we were able to purchase the property for the park, and I can remember the first day that we went up there.

Probably had 40 guys from the Association show up.

And of course, the women, they would bring food at noontime to feed everybody.

But I can remember John Easton had a road grader.

And he made a road up through here for everybody to get up there.

Wow.

And everybody brought their chainsaws and their axes and their buckets, and we cut little rose bush.

We whacked down blackjack trees.

I picked up rocks, you know, and we had several of those days just trying to get a path made up through there so that we could start.

And there's been a lot of rocks picked up there.

Yeah.

Yes, there has.

For multiple generations.

Well, and that's-- yeah, and that's the thing because, I mean, this is a multigenerational thing now that's happened.

Yes.

Yes.

So I think Ethel would be pretty proud of what-- I think so.

I think so.

I mean, you know, her dream was realized.

She got to have her festivals, and that was probably the biggest thing that she had.

But she was always so tickled, you know, because my folks were there.

And you have my generation.

And then you have my children's generation.

And the kids got-- like, say they got drug in on it whether they wanted to or not, and they pretty well know every aspect of it.

And I feel confident that it's going to go on for quite a while.

And I guess that's my next question.

I mean, do you find the kids are-- I mean, we're in a new society, a new world.

Everybody's has got social media and this and that and the other.

And you've got a pretty snappy website and a pretty nice Facebook page.

So-- Well, thank you.

--you're in the thick of it.

Well, we've got something going on now.

And of course, she's more involved in it than I have been.

It's always been-- and Ethel was about the kids.

I mean, she enjoyed the music, but she wanted the kids involved.

And that's always been the thing that I really wanted time-wise.

Didn't always work out for me.

But Sharry Lovan, our vice president, she's been a real driving force.

We've got a youth in bluegrass program, bluegrass in the schools.

KATIE CAHOJ: Yes.

And she's put part of it.

But Sherry goes to the schools with various HOBA members that volunteer, and they play music and put on a concert.

And then they have kind of a little petting zoo, I guess, of instruments for the kids to come and touch and play and see.

And you know, some of them really get interested in it.

Some of them don't.

But then she's got a program at her school that she started with some of her students.

So you tell them about that.

So-- OK. Well, as she mentioned, our vice president has that group that comes around to our area schools and does their little presentation.

And I had them come to the rural school that I work at.

And as I mentioned, I'm the art teacher for our district.

And they came in, and I didn't really know what to expect because it's middle school.

And you never-- I hear you.

--really know what to expect with middle schoolers.

DALE MOORE: Yeah.

But they came in, and they did a presentation for my middle school kids.

And those kids absolutely ate it up.

They-- Cherry's group didn't even get out the door before I had kids asking when they were going to come back, if we could do something like this in my class, you know, just bombarded with questions.

So, I have been able to start a little baby bluegrass band of sixth through eighth graders-- Oh yeah.

KATIE CAHOJ: --at the district that I work in.

That's cool.

And I am-- I'm trying to teach mandolin, banjo, and guitar right now to 12 middle schoolers.

Wow.

But the nice thing about it too is with this program-- and we've had so much good response from the public and from members.

We have an instrument donation program.

If you have an instrument that you don't use anymore or you don't want or whatever, give it to us.

We make sure it gets fixed up.

And we've got kids that can't afford-- DALE MOORE: Yeah.

--an instrument-- DALE MOORE: Yeah.

--we will loan that to them.

DALE MOORE: Yeah.

And they can try it and see.

And some of them just go wild with it and are great, fantastic.

They move on to something better.

They find out they don't like this.

They can try another one.

So that's been a real blessing to a lot of people.

And I really like seeing that because it's hard to afford an instrument, especially if you don't know if the child is really going to play.

But if you can loan it and they really take to it, then yes, that's something to pursue.

DALE MOORE: Yeah.

And it's-- to show how impactful this has been, we actually have two area high schools in our county who have a bluegrass band class now-- DALE MOORE: Really?

--since HOBA has been going into schools.

Well, that's fantastic.

It sounds to me like that's a model maybe that needs to be taught in other kinds of educational environments.

I think I'm reading your mind where-- what you're thinking there.

And that really leads me into kind of my next question.

So, how is HOBA-- what's next for HOBA?

What's the next 5 years look like, 10 years look like-- Oh gosh.

DALE MOORE: Dream big now.

THERESA ROMANS: Oh, well, careful.

Careful.

We are truly happy with being a smaller festival.

Knowing our patrons and our bands is very important to us.

We want it to be as personable and comfortable for everyone who comes as possible.

So I'm not saying I don't want people to come.

Please don't take it that way.

Of course I want people to come.

But I enjoy us being a smaller festival.

I'm always welcome to growth, and I am exceptionally open to growth and getting the programs into our area schools.

Now, two festivals a year.

So, summer-- or spring and fall?

KATIE CAHOJ: Yes.

What I assume roughly the same dates every year.

KATIE CAHOJ: Yes.

THERESA ROMANS: Yes.

So, what dates do we look at?

First full weekend of June every year and last full weekend of September every year.

DALE MOORE: OK. All right.

And then in between-- is there a lot going on in between?

Like-- In between the June and September festival, we have a monthly camp and jam the last Saturday of every month.

So, we just finished one up a few days ago.

And that's where we just opened the park for the weekend.

If people would like to bring their tents or their campers into camp for the weekend, they can.

And then we have jam sessions Friday and Saturday night.

And Saturday night, we have a supper by donation as well.

Perfect.

I need to come down and see what's going on.

KATIE CAHOJ: Yes, sir.

You do.

I really do.

You would be more than welcome.

Katie, Theresa, thank you so much for everything you do.

KATIE CAHOJ: Thank you.

Thank you for the wonderful work and keeping bluegrass alive.

That's an excellent thing you're doing.

We appreciate it.

KATIE CAHOJ: Thank you.

Thank you for having us.

Yes, sir.

Appreciate it.

You stay tuned.

I'll be right back.

NARRATOR: Ozarks Public Television and Missouri State University are proud to present "OzarksWatch Video Magazine," a locally produced program committed to increasing the understanding of the richness and complexity of Ozarks culture.

Visit our website for more information.

I'd like to thank our guests Theresa Romans and Katie Cahoj for talking with us today.

And we'll see you again real soon right here on "OzarksWatch Video Magazine."