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Marideth Sisco of West Plains, Mo. to perform at 2023 Smithsonian Folklife Festival

Marideth Sisco, Ozark Storyteller & Musician

West Plains, Mo.

“I was a storyteller before I had language. My earliest memories are front porches and firesides, the nighttime filled with the voices of my family conveying humor, love, and sadness, telling our stories.”

That’s how master storyteller Marideth Sisco opened a self-portrait she penned for Missouri Folk Arts. We posted it here on our Show Me Folk blog in 2021, on the occasion of the Missouri Bicentennial. We have had the honor to know Marideth for decades, first through West Plains’ Ozark Music, Ozark Heritage Festival, then via our Community Scholars Network, and again via the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program (with Suzanne Rayfield Chilton, Patricia Hight, and most recently, Danette House). 

Photographed sitting beside one another outside at a festival, Marideth Sisco and Suzanne Rayfield McKenzie are laughing. Marideth (left) is an elderly plus-sized white woman with white hair and eyebrows. She wears a floral printed short-sleeve buttondown shirt with medium washed denim jeans. Suzanne is an elderly white woman with gray hair peaking out from beneath a large-brimmed white hat. She wears thin framed metal glasses, a white short-sleeved graphic tee shirt tucked into light-wash denim jeans.

Marideth Sisco and Suzanne Rayfield Chilton (now McKenzie) shared stories at a festival during the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program. Photo credit: Darcy Holtgrave

This year, we have been particularly excited to know that Marideth will be a featured artist at the 2023 Smithsonian Folklife Festival to support the Ozarks: Faces and Facets of a Region theme.

Fans and friends of Marideth will be happy to know that she will be performing on three stages throughout the event: The Front Porch (narrative stage), the Pickin’ Parlor, and the Rinzler Stage. She is a key performer during An Evening with Ozarks Women, a special evening concert on Thursday, June 29, from 6-8 p.m. Eastern.

Folks back home in Missouri can watch the concert via the Smithsonian Folklife Festival’s YouTube channel live. Marideth joins Pam Setser, Cindy Woolf, and Melissa Carper for the evening.

Set a reminder for 5 p.m. Central on Thursday, June 29, and join the concert from the comfort of your home, office, car, or whatnot at this YouTube link: