Our Roots

 Music is our pleasure and our heritage. For generations, the people of these Ouachita Mountains have gathered on porches on Saturday afternoons to play and sing. They carried their guitars, fiddles, banjos, auto harps, and homemade dobros with them and performed their favorite tunes, taking turns on the front porch. Friends and relatives sat on the ground, listening as family groups performed.

For a little more than two decades, musicians have carried on this folk tradition on the lawn and stage at the courthouse in Mt. Ida. The idea for the courthouse location came from a local musician, Mike Adams, who, by the way, still plays his banjo on this stage.

The Chamber of Commerce, acting on his inspiration, gained the support of county judge Ted Elder for music on the courthouse square in 1999. Musicians began playing in small groups on the lawn, but the stage itself grew out of the ice storm of the century that landed with force in December 2000. The heavy ice caused trees to fall and power lines to break, wiping out all electrical power in the area. Crews, many from out of state, worked for six weeks to restore the power and repair the damage. Local citizens, using a generator for electricity, set up a kitchen at the fairgrounds to feed the crews.

The hospitality of the people in this area and the efforts of the volunteers at the fairgrounds did not go unnoticed. To show their appreciation, the Carolina Power Company from Durham, North Carolina, gave the courthouse music program its first sound system. A volunteer group from the community built the front porch façade on top of a donated flatbed trailer. Thus, a banjo player with a vision, a dedicated Chamber of Commerce, a sympathetic judge, some generous donors, dozens of community volunteers, and, of course, many talented musicians all worked together to create the Front Porch Stage.

In 2012, the Arkansas Parks and Tourism Commission awarded the Front Porch Stage the Governor's Bootstrap Award for developing, with minimal resources, a program that significantly enhances the state's tourism offerings. Today, people who appreciate traditional music—mountain, bluegrass, country—and the tradition of performing it come from both coasts of the US and from as far away as the UK, Eastern Europe, and Scandinavia to hear authentic music played by local musicians here in Mt. Ida.

During the summer months, weather permitting, there is picking and singing on the courthouse square on Saturday afternoons. Local performers and visitors then eat dinner, perhaps at a local restaurant, and return for the stage show at seven o'clock. The musicians are top-notch, and the applause is enthusiastic as audiences are entertained in a safe and scenic outdoor setting on the courthouse lawn. A basket is passed among the audience, and all the donations go to the musicians on stage. All other expenses, such as equipment, advertising, insurance, and maintenance of the facility, are paid for by local businesses with annual donations. The workers at the concerts, the stage crew, the sound crew, the concessionaires, and the board of directors are all unpaid volunteers.

This season, audiences can enjoy exceptional sound quality from a new sound system purchased for the Stage by Rex and Stormy Cooper of Bob's Food City. You are invited to join us on the square to listen to the music and breathe the fresh Ouachita Mountain air. They are both free.