Ozark Highballers

media release: The Ozark Highballers is a string band from the Ozark Mountains of Western Arkansas. They strut a tradition of old-time music best described as “square valley” featuring fiddle, banjo, guitar, and french harp. Their music reflects the spirit and drive of the rural Ozark string bands of the 1920s and ’30s.

Since 2014 the Ozark Highballers have brought their music to square dances, farmers markets, music festivals as well as plain old street corners and front porches. This old-fashioned ensemble features the dynamic melody duo of Roy Pilgrim on fiddle and Seth Shumate on harmonica, accompanied by the intricate string tickling of Clarke Buehling on five-string banjo, and the driving chords and bass runs of Aviva Steigmeyer on guitar. The Ozark Highballers have performed and taught at the Brooklyn Folk Festival, Stephen Foster Old-time Week, Bluff Country Gathering, St. Louis Folk & Roots, CROMA, and Ozark Folk Center – as well as Folklore Village in 2016. The band recently received the Artist 360 grant from the Mid-America Arts Alliance. In 2023, they musically represented the Ozarks – a featured region – at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, and presented a concert at the prestigious Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

This engagement is supported by the Arts Midwest GIG Fund, a program of Arts Midwest that is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional contributions from the Wisconsin Arts Board. With thanks to radio station WORT for their support as well!