Arkansas isn’t just part of the Americana music story…It Laid the Foundation.
From Delta blues to gospel harmonies…
from country roots to rock-and-roll…
from juke joints to front porches…
Arkansas artists formed it - and shaped it.
What the world now calls Americana Music —the living fusion of blues, gospel, folk, country, and roots —was born from places like Dyess, Cotton Plant, West Memphis, Fayetteville, Pine Bluff, El Dorado, and small towns around Arkansas.
Arkansas Icons
Johnny Cash, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Louis Jordan, Charlie Rich, Al Green, Albert King, Levon Helm, Jimmie Driftwood, William Grant Still, Conway Twitty, and Florence Price are just a few of the Americana music icons that called Arkansas home and translated the place they called home into a song the world has been singing ever since.
Now, Arkansas is rightfully claiming its place as the “Home of Americana Music.”
The Trail
A curated, statewide trail, website, and app linking icons, venues, historic sites, festivals, events, and communities
into one living, navigable journey.
And the Arkansas Music Pavilion in the North Little Rock neighborhood of Argenta is the gateway.
The front door to Arkansas’s musical journey.