THE TO-DO LIST

BY DANIEL GREAR

TANYA TUCKER

SATURDAY 1/21. EAST ARKANSAS COMMUNITY COLLEGE, FORREST CITY. $44.

Tanya Tucker didn’t put out any original music for nearly 20 years, but when her comeback album “While I’m Livin’ ” was released in 2019, it sounded like she’d just taken the weekend off. With the help of Brandi Carlile, who co-produced the record and wrote most of the songs, Tucker made a career-defining statement at the age of 61. In Rolling Stone’s 40 Best Country and Americana Albums yearend list, Tucker came out on top. When she sings, “I don’t think I’m ever gonna get my fill. I’m gonna love you ’til the day my heart goes still,” she seems so at home that she might as well be reflecting on her artistry, not a lover. We’re secretly glad she’s still hungry and might never be satisfied. Forrest City is an hour and a half east of Little Rock, but it’ll be well worth the drive.

BILL FOSTER

R.B. MORRIS

SUNDAY 1/22. WHITE WATER TAVERN. 5 P.M. $10.

Lots of songwriters call themselves poets, but R.B. Morris is the real deal. Crowned Knoxville, Tennessee’s first poet laureate in 2016, the cleverly economical lyrics accompanying his sleepy folk melodies and slow-motion pedal steel feel like a proper extension of his verse. In “Red Sky,” a cut off his 2020 solo album, he recounts peculiar yet familiar regrets: “I wish I had a sweet kiss for every step I took, I wish I had my best thoughts all down in some book.” In “Old Copper Penny,” he likens himself to a one-cent coin, and the metaphorical potential feels endless: “I’m heads up, I’m happy, I’m ready to roll. I know I’m not silver, I know I’m not gold. But I’m good luck to whoever holds an old copper penny like me.” In addition to his songs and poems, Morris is a James Agee-obsessive, and has written and held the lead role in a play about his life. Hopefully when he comes to the White Water, some of this peripheral expertise will trickle into his stage banter or show up at the merch table.

ARKANSAS SHORTS

FRIDAY 1/6-SUNDAY 1/8. HISTORIC MALCO THEATER, HOT SPRINGS. $10 INDIVIDUAL SCREENINGS, $65 WEEKEND PASS.

The Academy Awards defines the length of a short film as anywhere between zero and 40 minutes, including credits. It’s a mind-bending range, if you think about it. Arkansas Shorts, an annual Hot Springs festival, uses the same criteria. For more than a decade, Arkansas Shorts has been a one-day event. Last year, it expanded to two. Now, for its 16th run, it will be a three-day weekend affair including workshops, panel discussions and after-parties. One reason for the growth is that Low Key Arts, the parent sponsor, opened a year-round, all-ages film school in August, which has resulted in an influx of high-quality submissions. A comprehensive completist could have the chance to see 70-80 films in total. In addition to entries by Arkansas residents, the festival will screen some of the most buzzed-about North American and international short films, including pictures that have been shown at Sundance, Cannes and Tribeca.

ARKANSAS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: PROKOFIEV’S ’ROMEO & JULIET’

SATURDAY 1/28-SUNDAY 1/29, ROBINSON CENTER. 7:30 P.M. SAT.; 3 P.M. SUN. $19-$77.

In addition to selections from “Romeo & Juliet,” a ballet by Prokofiev, the two-performance-only program includes a 1903 Gabriel Pierné piece that revolves around a dreamy and demanding feature from ASO’s principal harpist, Alisa Coffey, a performer who has been called “reliably magic” by Arkansas Times’ own Stephanie Smittle. Also on the bill is Beethoven’s “Leonore Overture No. 3,” which brings to life the story of a woman who dresses in a male disguise to save her husband from wrongful imprisonment. The guest maestra is Akiko Fujimoto, the first female conductor for the MidTexas Symphony, who appeared with ASO in April 2022, recently enough that she probably still remembers most of the performers by name.

BLACK HOMESTEADERS OF THE SOUTH

WEDNESDAY 1/4. ROBERTS LIBRARY. NOON. FREE.

Three years before the ratification of the 13th Amendment, the Homestead Act of 1862 was passed, granting those who applied access to up to 160 acres of public land. Following emancipation, many eligible Black Americans bravely entered the rigorous application process. The previously buried stories of 49 formerly enslaved individuals from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi — told in the voices of their descendents — are bundled into Bernice Alexander Bennett’s book, “Black Homesteaders of the South,” released in October 2022. For January’s Legacies & Lunch, CALS will bring Bennett to Roberts Library, where she’s in conversation with Lyle Gibson, Jessica Trotter and Angela Walton-Raji, genealogical scholars and researchers whose own Arkansan ancestors are featured in the collection. Pack a sandwich and CALS will take care of the drinks and cookies.

OZARK MOUNTAIN MUSIC FESTIVAL

THURSDAY 1/19-SUNDAY 1/22. BASIN PARK HOTEL, EUREKA SPRINGS. 4-DAY PASS, $85.

Housed on multiple indoor stages at the cozy and historic Basin Park Hotel, amid the preserved Victorian architecture of downtown Eureka Springs, the 9th annual Ozark Mountain Music Festival promises four days of wintertime bluegrass, folk and roots music from over 20 groups and solo artists. Attendees and musicians alike are encouraged to book a room at the hotel for the long weekend, and there’s no designated backstage area, meaning the festival is designed to put performers and fans on a level playing field. This year’s headliner is Lindsay Lou, a Nashville by way of Michigan singer whose affinity for traditional bluegrass has slowly migrated in the direction of a more contemplative Americana sound in recent years. Other recognizable acts on the lineup include Marbin, Willy Tea Taylor, The Mighty Pines and The Eagle Rock Gospel Singers. Homegrown Arkansan talent like Ashtyn Barbaree and Eureka Strings will also appear.

STEVE MOYLES

KELLER WILLIAMS

FRIDAY 1/20. REV ROOM. 9 P.M. $22-$25.

Keller Williams performs by himself, but he’s surrounded by instruments. For a second, the bass and electric guitars that flank him look like they’re levitating. In reality, they’ve been suspended horizontally by unique stands, designed so he can spin his main axe — an acoustic guitar — behind him and sidle up for a quick riff. With the help of an electronic drum pad and a loop pedal, Williams combines all these forces to create spontaneous, one-man jams that will transport you instantly to a ’90s outdoor music festival. If that’s not interesting enough, it turns out that one of the floating guitars he flirts with has been fitted with a MIDI pickup that allows him to transform the sound into a cello, flute or really any noisemaker of his choosing. As you can imagine, he’s the kind of musician for whom every show is vastly different, so don’t kick yourself for missing him at the Rev Room.

IMDB

ARKANSAS TIMES FILM SERIES: ‘JOHNNY GUITAR’

TUESDAY 1/17. RIVERDALE 10 VIP CINEMA. 7 P.M. $5.99.

At first blush, Nicholas Ray’s “Johnny Guitar” (1954) seems like a traditional Western, rife with steeds, saloons and shootouts. Upon closer inspection, however, much about this film is askew. Take Johnny Guitar himself, played by Sterling Hayden, a visitor from out-of-town who doesn’t carry a gun and broaches conflict via philosophical monologue and a strum on the six-stringed instrument he got his name from. Then dwell on the real main character, Vienna, played by Joan Crawford, Johnny’s confident ex-lover who’s unafraid to threaten with a deadly weapon and is the owner of a soon-to-boom watering hole that’s the subject of much local resentment. Finally, pay attention to Emma (Mercedes McCambridge), the most frightening and fiery figure in the whole movie, and the one who leads the effort to ruin Vienna’s business. In another subversion of genre tropes, “Johnny Guitar”’s greatness stems mostly from its character psychology, explored through dialogue that New Yorker critic Richard Brody compared to “bruising and vulnerable lyric poetry” in his 2022 review of this “cinematic opera.” “How many men have you forgotten?” Johnny asks Vienna in an exposed moment. “As many women as you remember,” she replies, before they embrace after years apart.

POTLUCK & POISON IVY: PAULA MARTIN

MONDAY 1/23. THE JOINT THEATER AND COFFEEHOUSE. 7 P.M. $35.

If you’ve never been to Potluck & Poison Ivy, an Argenta series that pairs live storytelling with dinner, this is probably the time to try it out, given that January’s guest of honor, Paula Martin, has tried her hand at about every kind of narrative-related venture you can imagine. In addition to being Potluck & Poison Ivy’s own producer and creative director, Martin created “Tales From the South,” an internationally-syndicated live radio show that had some of its stories snatched up by NPR’s “Snap Judgment.” Outside of the oral tradition, Martin has more than dabbled in the written word, leading her to publish two novels and four poetry collections. This month, she’ll release her first album as a songwriter. Come out to The Joint and find out which version of herself she’ll be putting on display. The Salty Dogs will serve as the musical guest.

ALYSSE GAFKJEN

TOMMY EMMANUEL

SATURDAY 1/14. THE HALL. 8 P.M. $30-$260.

Tommy Emmanuel rarely plays a song more than once during his brief visits to the studio. He strives for his recordings and live performances to match up identically. Artistic integrity aside, Emmanuel’s process probably shakes out like this because he’s one of the best acoustic guitar players of all time. Revered for being an exceptional fingerstylist and for practically transforming the guitar into a percussion instrument, the Australian has made albums with the likes of David Grisman and Chet Atkins. Because of his willingness to scratch, beat and bend his guitars into unconventional territory, they usually look like they’ve been through hell. That said, it’s just as likely that you’ll catch him plucking gently if you make it out to his performance at The Hall.

ARKANSAS SHAKE SHAKERS

SATURDAY 1/21. CENTRAL THEATER, HOT SPRINGS. 8 P.M. $5-$250.

Looking to see Krystal Cornelius (aka Maxie Fauna), one of this issue’s Arkansas Visionaries, do her thing in the flesh? Put on whatever the hell you want and saunter over to Central Theater, a charming playhouse in downtown Hot Springs that calls itself “Arkansas’s only true performing arts venue embracing all forms of expression.” In a space that boasts billowing stage curtains, velvet seats, VIP sofas, a cat walk and playfully alternating red and blue letters on the marquee outside, you’ll be taken care of by the Arkansas Shake Shakers (A.S.S.), the state’s first and sole all-POC burlesque troupe.

VOTING BEGINS JAN. 16!

This year, the original reader’s choice poll creators bring you the ARKANSAS TIMES CANNABIS AWARDS! The Dopest Awards in Arkansas!

Vote for your favorites in the Cannabis Industry. Voting begins January 16 and runs through February 20. We will announce the Winners and Finalists in our April issue.