Traditions continue at Old-Time Music & Dance Camp

From July 16 through 19, Mountain View, Arkansas, was filled with young musicians, singers and dancers during the Old-Time and Traditional Music & Dance Camp, hosted by Branson’s Ozark Mountain Music Association in partnership with Mountain View’s Ozark Roots program. 

This year’s camp included at least 65 students and 30 instructors, with each day’s schedule including individual and group lessons on guitar, fiddle, mandolin, banjo and bass, as well as vocals, square dancing, traditional dancing and old-time jig dancing. Several regular instructors have commented that the OMMA camps are some of their favorite events each year. 

“Research has repeatedly shown graduation rates and academic performance are consistently higher among students who participate in music,” noted instructor Joanie Green, who along with her husband, Steve, specializes in old-time dancing. They encourage schools to incorporate regional music history into their programs. 

Music on the Mountain View courthouse square dates back several decades, as locals wrapped up a hard week of work by gathering to pick, fiddle, sing and dance. These evenings were often led by folk singer Jimmy Driftwood, who taught school in nearby Timbo for many years. He helped found the town’s annual Folk Festival, held each April since 1963 and leading to Mountain View being called the “folk music capital of the world.” Many tourists visiting the Ozark Folk Center State Park and Blanchard Springs Caverns plan an evening at the courthouse lawn or nearby “Pickin’ Park,” some with their own guitar or fiddle in hand. The young campers at the square last weekend were a great reminder for “old-timers” to interact with newer players and encourage them, as previous generations did for them. 

Both Ozark Mountain Music Association and Ozark Roots Music & Art are dedicated to preserving traditional Ozark skills in new generations of young people, through education and performance/participation opportunities. OMMA’s first camps were held in Mountain View, and some early campers are now performers and instructors. Mountain View’s Club Possum performance venue and OMMA’s early “Possum Holler Fiddler” troupe were inspired by an actual nearby Arkansas location. 

Camps are now held in both Branson and Mountain View; director Wendy Wright capably stepped in to continue the Association and help it grow following the retirement of founders Robert and Karlene McGill. Campers now travel from several states to attend, renewing friendships and forming new ones each year, and bands originally formed at camp often continue to perform together. 

It was exciting to see several young people at camp eager to learn square dance calling, gathering in groups to practice even during free time and breaks. Parents also consistently comment favorably on the social skills their kids learn as they trade phone screens for a musical instrument and personal conversation over lunch—unless, of course, they’re sharing video of a favorite performance! 

Follow Ozark Mountain Music Association on Facebook to stay up to date on area events and performances, or to share next year’s camp info with a young person in your life. If you want to brush up on your own traditional skills or just sit in on some good old-fashioned fun in Branson, watch for upcoming events including square dancing workshops, a winter bluegrass festival, and the annual Youth in Bluegrass contest.