Show Me Folk

  Performing as TAAP artists on our stage this year are master John Williams and apprentice Jessie Perrigo on fiddle, with master Kenny Appleby and apprentice Brad Roby on backup guitar.

In 2017, we also shared the sad news that old-time fiddler Cliff Bryan of West Plains died on March 12. The tribute we wrote about Cliff is published in a PDF, and you can access…

In early January 2017, we learned the saddest news. Master blacksmith John “Preston” Williams, Sr. died in a tree cutting accident. The tribute we wrote at that time is published in a PDF linked below….

In December 2016, we were incredibly saddened to learn that Donivan Bailey, a 2015 Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program master artist, had died unexpectedly. Linked below is a PDF with the tribute we published when we learned the…

Donald Cox, an Elder Statesman of Kansas City Jazz, recently died unexpectedly. In 2002, Mr. Cox served as a master artist in the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program, where he mentored young pianist Oscar Williams, III….

We are saddened to learn that master tap dancer and founder of the St. Louis Tap Festival, Professor Robert L. Reed, has died. Among other accomplishments, he was also a previous master artist in the…

See what the Missouri Arts Council had to say about Missouri Folk Arts and the 30th Anniversary of the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program here!

Read Jim McCarty’s feature on Missouri’s Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program here!

Thinking Out Loud brings you an intimate look into some of Missouri’s oldest folk-art traditions: from blacksmithing to jazz, traditional song, and dance.

In this essay from 2014, Barbara MacRobie, Missouri Arts Council’s Public Information Coordinator, shared profiles of a few Missouri artists who are aging creatively. Master old-time fiddler Cliff Bryan (b. 1927; d. 2017) told MacRobie…