The Ozark American Songbook™ — 250 Songs in 250 Days and the Stories Behind Them

By Al Timberlane

250 Songs in 250 Days

One day early in 2025, I began thinking about a simple idea that would eventually become much larger than I expected: Could we tell the story of America through 250 songs in 250 days?

America was approaching its 250th anniversary. I began thinking about the songs that had traveled with Americans through generations—not simply famous recordings, but music sung in homes, churches, schools, fields, theaters, radio studios, community halls, festivals and on front porches. That became the beginning of The Ozark American Songbook™.

But almost immediately I discovered something important. You cannot preserve the songs without preserving the people and stories behind them. A song has a history. Someone taught it. Someone remembered it. Someone changed it. Someone played it for their children. Someone carried it from one community to another. Sometimes the story surrounding a song tells us as much about America as the song itself.

What Is The Ozark American Songbook?

The Ozark American Songbook began with the concept of 250 songs in 250 days, recognizing America's 250th anniversary and exploring the extraordinary musical traditions that help tell the American story. The word Ozark identifies an important home for our work. Mountain View, Arkansas—the Folk Music Capital of the World—is a place where traditional music is still something people do, rather than simply something people remember.

Musicians continue to gather with guitars, fiddles, banjos, mountain dulcimers and mandolins. Songs continue to pass between generations. But the word American is equally important. The Songbook was never intended to stop at the boundaries of Arkansas or the Ozarks. Our travels have taken us into communities where we have met musicians, families, artists, storytellers and ordinary people carrying extraordinary pieces of American history.

The Ozark American Songbook is not only a collection of songs. It is a living record of American music, faith, family, folklore, community and memory—from a banjo played before a KWMV microphone in Mountain View to a Fourth of July parade, a festival stage, a living-room recording session, or friends gathering again after 60 years to play the music they once shared.

Folk Music America — Putting Faces and Voices With the Songbook

The Folk Music America Film Series grew naturally from that mission. There are stories that cannot adequately be preserved by writing down the title of a song. Sometimes you need to see someone's face as they remember where they first heard it. You need to hear the musician tell you who taught them to play. You need to see friends pick up their instruments after many years and discover that they still remember the music. You need to hear the laughter between the songs. You need to preserve the stories.

These are not simply concert films. They can include performances, interviews, travel, family histories, community traditions, faith, folklore, photographs, old recordings and conversations. Sometimes we know the story before the cameras start rolling. Sometimes we discover it while the camera is running. Either way, our purpose is the same: preserve the people behind the music.

The Jesus Movement and the Folk Wave

One of my favorite examples of this entire concept is our film about The Jesus Movement and the Folk Wave, centered around Leland Worrell and Jerry Foshee. For me, this film demonstrates what the American Songbook can be. It became the first released film in this developing series.

Its first presentation was held in Little Rock, Arkansas, in a home surrounded by family and friends. Some of those gathered had not been together for more than 60 years. They played the music. They talked. They remembered. Stories that had lived in people's memories for decades were once again being shared among people who had actually lived them. That gathering wasn't merely a screening of an old story. It became part of the story.

We plan to continue sharing this film, including a future presentation in Mountain View, Arkansas, at the Meeting Place at Club Possum, along with other venues. Watch for announcements as presentations are confirmed.

Not Everything in a Songbook Is a Song

The American Songbook is not simply sheet music and recordings. A photograph can be part of the Songbook. An interview can be part of the Songbook. A radio broadcast can be part of the Songbook. A grandfather explaining how he learned the banjo can be part of the Songbook. A gospel group remembering the churches where they sang can be part of the Songbook. A musician sitting on a porch can be part of the Songbook. A filmmaker recording people who have not gathered together in 60 years can be part of the Songbook. And a film can be part of the Songbook.

Folk Music Rewind™ and KWMV 88.5 FM

Radio became another important part of this preservation effort. Through Folk Music Rewind™ and our work with KWMV 88.5 FM in Mountain View, Arkansas, we have been able to bring interviews, recordings, musicians and stories back to listeners. The radio program and the film series serve different purposes, but they belong to the same family. Folk Music Rewind gives us the opportunity to hear the music again. Folk Music America gives us an opportunity to see the people, places and stories surrounding it. The Ozark American Songbook brings those pieces together as a larger preservation project. And the archive gives us a place to keep them for tomorrow.

Why This Matters

America's musical heritage was never created by famous people alone. There are thousands upon thousands of musicians whose names may never appear on a national chart. They played at churches, county fairs, family reunions, schoolhouses, dance halls, parks and community centers. They played on radio and on front porches. Sometimes they simply played around the kitchen table. They matter, too. The communities matter. The families matter. The stories matter. Collectively they tell us something about who Americans were, who we are, and what we chose to carry forward.

250 Songs Became Something Bigger

What began early in 2025 as 250 songs in 250 days has become something much larger. The number still gives us a goal and a historical marker, but the mission now reaches beyond counting songs. We are building a living collection of American music and memory.

The Ozark American Songbook™ is the larger story. Folk Music Rewind™ brings that story to radio and listeners. The Folk Music America Film Series gives those stories faces, voices, places and moving images. And our archive is where we intend to preserve those materials for the generations that follow.

There will be more films, more interviews, more radio programs, more journeys down American highways looking for musicians and stories, and certainly more songs. Somewhere tonight somebody is playing a guitar on a porch. Somebody is singing an old hymn. Somebody is teaching a child a fiddle tune. Somebody is remembering a song their mother used to sing. Most of those moments will never make the national news. But they are still American history. They are the American Songbook. And we intend to preserve as much of it as we can.

— Al Timberlane