When I moved to Fayetteville in the summer of 2006, I asked an infinite number of people a version of this same question: What Arkansas musicians should I know about?
I was 24 years old, and at least 24 pounds lighter than I am right now. I moved here to cover live music for the big newspaper in town, and that was new, too – I had written for college papers, and a weekly newspaper in the Kansas City metro area. But a daily newspaper was a step up and I was desperate to prove myself.
I planned to be in Arkansas for a year, maybe two. I was adamant about that. But I was going to make the most of it, prove myself and punch a ticket to the Rolling Stone or New York Times or maybe I’d even like to return to Kansas City and work for the paper there. It was a quaint time for a reporter in 2006, thinking that the newspaper ecosystem would survive the financial crash of 2008-2009, and the ensuing digitization, consolidation and social media-ification of the news…