The Sound & Soul of the South

Explore the vibrant music and arts scene in North Little Rock, Arkansas, and learn how community development, cultural preservation, and innovative projects like the ATG Pavilion are shaping its future as a hub for music tourism and cultural heritage.

Special Guests
Karen Trevino, John Gaudin, Kevin Kresse, Greg Spradlin, Chris Kent

Key Topics
Community development as economic driver
The role of arts and music in tourism
Highlights of Arkansas music icons and history
The impact of the ATG Pavilion on local tourism
Preservation and celebration of local music heritage

Chapters
00:00 Introduction to North Little Rock's Music Scene
02:04 The Role of Community Development in Argenta
03:58 The ATG Pavilion and Celebrating Local Artists
05:51 Interview with Karen Trevino on Music Tourism
09:04 The Significance of Highlighting Lesser-Known Artists
11:10 Impact of the Pavilion on Tourism and Local Economy
13:11 Top Recommendations for Visiting North Little Rock
16:00 Interview with John Gaudin, the Godfather of Argenta
18:58 The History and Revitalization of Argenta
21:05 Kevin Kresse's Artistic Contributions and Projects
23:55 The Vision for the ATG Pavilion and Future Plans
28:05 The Significance of Arkansas Music Icons
29:57 The Cultural Impact of Music and Art in North Little Rock
32:58 The Future of Music Tourism and Cultural Preservation
36:04 Greg Spradlin on Arkansas Music Legends
39:04 The Role of the South in American Music History
41:56 Top Places for Music Tourism in Arkansas
44:45 Closing Remarks and Appreciation for North Little Rock

Resources
North Little Rock Tourism - https://northlittlerock.org/

This episode is brought to you in partnership with North Little Rock Tourism.  Order your free Travel Guide today & start planning your visit!

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Creators and Guests

Producer
Charles Davis

What is The Sound & Soul of the South?

The Sound & Soul of the South spotlights destinations as they share the stories behind their community’s musical roots, legends, attractions, and vibrant live music scenes. Each episode explores how music shapes local identity, culture, and economic impact in destinations throughout the South—appealing to music fans and travelers seeking authentic, music-driven experiences.

speaker-0 (00:02.702)
you

speaker-1 (00:57.134)
Hello and welcome back to Sound and Soul of the South. Charles Davis over here. Susie Cowan over here for another road trip to another great destination in the South to talk about music tourism and music history and all of those great things. Susie, how are you doing? Good, good, good. Now, normally, this is we're talking about music tourism, and just to shout out another podcast that we do, Ripple Makers, OmstringTheCreek.com. Go listen to it. It's a podcast where I'm introducing Susie to all types of people. But for this episode of Sound and Soul of the South.

speaker-2 (01:11.329)
I'm fantastic.

speaker-1 (01:27.33)
She is going to be allowing me to learn all the new things about a place that she knows really well, North Little Rock, Arkansas. So I'm gonna step back, Susie, and kinda let you talk about and describe what this episode is gonna be about.

speaker-2 (01:38.54)
You know, this one's really exciting for me. when we started Sound and Soul of the South, the the premise behind it was talking about tourism destinations all around the South, telling the story of the South. So this one is just super special to me. North Little Rock is my hometown where I've lived and worked for I've been doing events in the Ardenta Arch district.

They are just a great example of what happens when you use community development as economic development or a driver for economic development. There was a group of people, which actually, a couple of them are speakers coming up here and a few, just really saw the vision for downtown North Little Rock. John Godan, he's the godfather of Argenta. and he has earned that title over and over again. He's absolutely precious.

but one thing he's not is ever gonna give up on Argenta. he had a vision and they bought the they bought a building on the corner of Broadway in Maine and that became the cornerstone. And then they worked on community development. And, you know, a lot of people don't understand that it starts with sidewalks and street lights. Yes. And it started with the neighborhood behind They had to start at the ground level, at the foundation.

And in twenty eighteen I was actually the director of marketing for the Argenta Downtown Council. And what we talked about then was having three hundred people more down there a day. Three hundred people in the neighborhood a day. There's probably three thousand people more there a day now. And the the development and the the businesses that have come in, the restaurants that have come in, the bars that have come in, there's two new hotels being built right now.

And this all happened because of community development. Yeah. So whenever I public speak and anybody that knows me will, I'm always gonna say community development equals economic development equals tourism. And then it starts all over again because you have more money for community development, which brings more economic development, which brings more tourism. It's a never ending cycle. And North Little Rock is a fantastic example of that.

speaker-2 (03:58.53)
This ATG pavilion is the icing on the cake. They built our plaza probably about maybe twenty, I don't I don't remember the exact year. It was around ten years ago that they built the Argenta Plaza. And that was one step. And now this pavilion is the next step and like the icing on the cake where we get to celebrate all the musicians that

came through North Little Rock that were from around North Little Rock but are going to be highlighted not only there in Argenta but in their hometowns, which is a huge thing. For the lovely lady behind me, Sister Rosetta Tharp, there was really nothing in Cotton Plant to celebrate Sister Rosetta. And now she's gonna have a busk in the pavilion, in the ATG pavilion in North Little Rock, but she's also gonna have one in Cotton Plant. Beautiful. So it that I mean, it is just so wonderful.

that North Little Rock will be the hub. They will be the the center of this conversation, but it branches out into all of Arkansas. So it's just really cool when you're talking about Arkansas music that North Little Rock took the reins and that they decided that they were gonna be the ones to help us really celebrate our our our musical heritage there in Arkansas. So it's just a wonderful thing. Not not that I'm

speaker-1 (05:23.31)
Excited at all right now to talk about Not at all. I I've kind of described this episode as going to be a bit of a a podcast jam if you know Southern Rock music, love a good jam, and when other people come in and make this beautiful peak together and that's what you're gonna see in this in this episode this week. but I've had the time to spend a little bit of time

It was where I met my Susie the first time. was when the Making Music Review had an opportunity to go down there and perform in Dogtown. You hear me mention that here as well. But it is the time that I spent was awesome. So it is great for me to be able to learn a lot more about why this place is such an incredible place and what they're doing down there to make sure that the history is preserved and that people know who came from the places.

That they live in because a lot of people don't know that, and you'll hear that in the episode as well. So, without further ado, let's kick this off. Welcome back to Sound and Soul of the South. We've been talking a lot about North Little Rock and the great music tourism that we have there. We'll be talking to Miss Karen Trevino, the president and CEO of North Little Rock Tourism. Good morning, ma'am. How are you? Tell the people a little bit about yourself and how you came to be part of this whole North Little Rock tourism.

speaker-3 (06:40.888)
Good morning.

speaker-3 (06:48.59)
actually started working for the state tourism office when I was eighteen and I just grew up in the industry and it wasn't very long before it was just my my song and soul. I mean it was exactly what I wanted. It was tourism. You know, just kind of worked my way up to this position and I've been here since two thousand three. I love it. I love tourism so I'm thinking when I'm working on things about not just what can help my city but what can help

the state as well. And I've I've served on regional and national organizations. I was the president of Skull International USA year before last. And so I just see how things work all over the United States and I know that music is such a big interest internationally. American music is interesting internationally. And so really anxious to have something finally that we can tap into that

speaker-4 (07:47.054)
Yeah.

speaker-1 (07:47.566)
And and and with everything that you all are doing, you're setting the groundwork and the foundation for all of those all of those things there. Why is music tourism important, do you believe?

speaker-3 (08:00.468)
No, it's sort of been the buzzword lately. It's the trend. A lot of people are getting into music tourism. But I don't think that they realize it's not just somebody coming for a concert. It's also someone a a a music tourist is somebody who's coming for that, but they'll stay an extra day and they'll do other things. They'll go and do the rock climbing. They'll they'll go and d you know, do the sports events that are round here or

you know, do something else that's fun, like go to our submarine, which, you know, we're the only city in in the United States with a landlocked submarine. so, you know, it's just there's so much to do here. And so that's where when we were looking at it's unusual that we can build this pavilion, but we were constantly looking at how could we build some kind of cultural tourism impact

that we didn't have. So we've been doing it through murals and through the concerts that we have over at our plaza and some other things like that. So we just wanted to take it to another level.

speaker-1 (09:04.844)
Yeah, yeah, no, and it's and it seems to be that the like I said, the just the expansion of everything. And like you said, you you already hit upon it, making sure that you can do great things, not only for your city, but for the state as well. So so let let's dig into the the ATG pavilion a little bit. The the the picture behind you kind of shows the design of what it's gonna be having Johnny Cash be, as they say, the tip of the spear when it comes to this. But

In in the collective thought process of this, why was it important not to just highlight Johnny and not to just highlight Sister Rosetta Tharp, even though they are very important and hugely important to the American music scene? Why did you all feel it was important to make sure that the the lesser known artists were highlighted just as much as the rest of them?

speaker-3 (09:52.59)
We wanted artists that were transformative in music. And we were talking today about if we could have basically a genealogy chart where we could say, well, Johnny Cash was influenced by gospel music and by the blues and by this. But then through him, he influenced, you know, Bob Dylan and you know, all these other artists. And you hear all the time these artists like Led Zeppelin and

I d I don't know, all the ones bait Rolling Stones, all of them. They came here because they knew these artists had this is where they originated from. They wanted to see and feel the music and the history. And so we felt like this was just a really great opportunity that nobody else is doing in Arkansas. So we wanted to be the the first. I like to do things nobody else is doing.

speaker-1 (10:44.192)
Hey, you might as well, if there's uncharted territory, somebody gotta plant plant that flag. That's right. And and you all are doing that. it just seems like you all have been doing that for a while with what the board has been doing with what the Argenta Arts district and what's been going on downtown and and having these pieces. So like with with with the growth that you all have already been having, once this pavilion is completed, how do you think this is going to impact the tourism that you already have?

speaker-3 (11:10.944)
Okay. I think it's going to bring some people in that didn't have never been here before or the ones that have that they will maybe hook stay a little longer and that they'll go and they'll tour some other cities. You know, we're hoping we're gonna be the the hub or the base camp as the state office is calling everything. But we we wanna direct people out to those other cities. We want them to come back and

With the state's emphasis on outdoor recreation, you know, a lot of these trails you can ride a bike to. You know, you don't have to drive to it. And so we're we're just trying to build some itineraries and to build some things that will bring people here, bring them back here, they'll spread you know, spread the message and try to you know, sh tell everybody how wonderful it is here.

speaker-1 (11:59.116)
Yeah, yeah. So in in that vein, if you were going to recommend somebody somebody said, Hey Karen, I'm I'm coming to North Little Rock for about three days, what would you what would you where would you send them? What would you tell them to do so they can learn more about the area and the music that came out of the area?

speaker-3 (12:17.742)
I would say come in, stay in the Baker House or one of the Airbnbs down here, get on the trolley, ride it through North Little Rock across the river to Little Rock, see what they have to offer, come back and do here. You can go, you can get off anywhere, you can get back on, it's free, doesn't cost a thing. Do that. And then you know, go shopping. We have one of the largest shopping malls in McCain Mall.

h in the state is in North Little Rock. We have the old bill, which was, you know, used in the movie Gone with the Wind. It's the only structure still standing. And the others were all backdrops anyway, you know. we have the USS Razorback and the USS Hoga. The Hoga pulled the Nevada out of the mouth it during Pearl Harbor, the day that it was bombed, and the USS Razorback

was at Tokyo Bay the day of the surrender. So we had the beginning and the end of the United States war with the Japanese. no other state except for Hawaii has something like that. Isn't it? It's very clear. we have climbing crags, we have a twenty two mile bike ride or bike trail that you can ride on. But there's also like a pump track and, you know, just all these extra things to do. But, you know, and then looking at the art and in

speaker-1 (13:23.534)
I mean, no, that's incredible.

speaker-3 (13:41.526)
In Argena we have all of these murals and then we're spreading them across the the city and that other like all the traffic boxes are being painted. You know, it's just it's really great. You could just spend three days here easily.

speaker-1 (13:50.934)
Mm.

speaker-1 (13:56.214)
No, I c no that look like I said, I have spent I spent two and we could have spent

speaker-3 (14:00.694)
I know, I'm so sorry I didn't get to meet you when you were here.

speaker-1 (14:03.81)
We're coming back. Like I've said that three or four times this whole day. We are coming back to North Little Rock. Let me look at it again. North Little Rock, Arkansas. We're coming back. I'm coming back to the city. I've got to. Because like I said, the the murals that you all have and the entire area is just a beautiful place. And it just is a testament to everything that you all are doing. nothing gets done by itself. Nobody gets anything done by itself. You cannot lift up a region, you cannot lift up a downtown without all these individual pieces and people and organizations.

Working together and everybody with the with the North Little Rock tourism and Argenta downtown board and with the ATG pavilion and everything, you all are creating a space to where future generations are gonna have just so much history and knowledge about what they're doing. and so Karen, like I said, one, thank you for doing the show today. Greatly appreciate you for that. But also, thank you for everything that you are doing and what you all have done to create the space that's gonna be amazing down there.

speaker-5 (14:49.868)
Yeah.

speaker-3 (15:02.274)
Thank you so much. We appreciate you. Thank you.

speaker-1 (15:40.194)
Welcome back to Sound and Soul of the South, Charles Davis here, and I am joined by a man who has been called the Godfather of Argentina. Now, to be called that must mean a lot of things, and I'm not saying the man has any kind of mob ties, but when I hear godfather, I'm thinking New York, and that's a whole nother thing. But Mr. John Gordan is here with us. Good morning, sir. How are you?

speaker-3 (16:00.578)
Doing great jobs. Thank you. Thank you.

speaker-5 (16:02.04)
Goodbye.

speaker-1 (16:03.126)
No, thank you so much for being here. got lots I want to talk to you about because like I said, to be called the godfather of a place means one, that there is respect bestowed upon you for somebody to call you that, and two, you have a depth of knowledge of it. So for those who do not know about Argenta, and this is their first time ever hearing about it, talk about it a bit first.

speaker-4 (16:25.102)
Sure.

speaker-3 (16:25.908)
Argenta is the down to is an another name for the downtown part of the city of North Little Rock. And in early nineteen hundreds, it was it be it was first the city of Argenta before it became the city of North Little Rock. and Argenta came from there was a silver mined here in North Little Rock, and Argentum is the Latin for silver, and that's how Argenta became.

known f as the city of Argenta, named after this basically the silver basically. The city changed its name to North yeah. And the downtown area has always kinda kept that moniker to identify itself as Argenta. That area is Argenta.

speaker-1 (17:13.132)
Yeah, yeah. So talk about your affiliation with it and what your role has been so far with the ATG Pavilion.

speaker-3 (17:20.533)
I moved to North La Rock in about two thousand four and I started helping redeveloping the commercial district, which is the four or five blocks of our downtown. I got involved with the the neighborhood association, the Argenda Community Development Corp. that was doing a lot of work on the housing side of it. And I came in and started building some partnerships and acquiring properties on the commercial side and

And so really started redeveloping that, redeveloped new townhouses, and real recruited a lot of the businesses. And basically, and many of them were arts-based, because that was a passion of mine. And I knew that to turn around downtowns, I really wanted to do it with arts-based institutions. So I I really spent a lot of time recruiting a community theater, a TIA foundation, artist

galleries and so forth to kind of build start building the community around and then started talking to retail businesses and restaurants to help recruit those to the area. So that's kinda how it started here in Argenta. And over the years, you know, I was involved with starting our downtown association, our business improvement district, a number of different things. Some my offices are a block from here on four thirteen Main Street. So I have a deep

commitment to downtown living and working. And and what one of the things that kind of the ATG Pavilion, how did I get started with that? Was the the last question I was you know, Kevin Cressy has been a a good friend of mine for 30 something years and who is the artist that's doing the sculptures in our pavilion. And Kevin did a in 2017 he did a a sculpture

speaker-5 (18:55.091)
I guess yes.

speaker-1 (18:58.175)
Yes sir. Yes sir.

speaker-5 (19:13.144)
leave on helm from Marville, Arkansas.

speaker-3 (19:16.116)
And he saw that there was such a lack of recognition for music icons in Arkansas that he thought he would start sculpting some of the icons and trying to figure out what to do with that. And he approached me about it and and we really couldn't figure out you know exactly what to do at the time. but then he got the big commission to do Johnny Cash for the statuary hall in the US Capitol building. And when that occurred

I I you know, I went to Kevin and said, Is there a plan to bring a replica of the Johnny Cash to the state of Arkansas? And Kevin pointed out that every other state in the union who has statues at Statuary Hall has a replica in their state capitals except Arkansas. And so I said, Well, if you know if the state capital's not gonna do it, how about doing arts district? And Kevin says, Well, if we can figure that out, and I knew they had already sculpted

speaker-5 (20:07.79)
I'm the Arjun Akar.

speaker-1 (20:10.403)
Yeah.

speaker-3 (20:14.998)
some other bust like Sister Rosetta Thorpe, Levon Helm, and a few others, Louis Jordan and a few others. And so then we started talking about well, what would that look like? How could we do, how could we display that? How how could we really capitalize on the music icons of Arkansas in one location? And so then it became the challenge, I asked Kevin, work with some guys who were really know the music side of things, and identify 20

speaker-5 (20:41.902)
to come.

speaker-3 (20:44.854)
musicians or twenty people in the music business from Arkansas who have really changed music around the country and basic and really around the world. So they they came up with 20 names. And then the the the the other piece of it was well where are we going to put And one of our partners is Scott Landers and Scott's got a company that works with architects and engineers all over the world. And so he said, Well, you know, maybe I'll help design a building.

speaker-1 (20:54.69)
Yeah.

speaker-5 (20:54.808)
And so.

speaker-5 (21:05.992)
with the world.

speaker-3 (21:13.11)
And so he and Kevin got together, and Kevin talked about where most of these musicians grew up playing barns and warehouses and churches. And so the idea of the pavilion, you can see over my shoulder, kind of came from that conversation, and the design came from that to to do the pavilion. So the pavilion in its current state is it has sort of a Ife Jones kind of a design.

speaker-5 (21:18.797)
for

speaker-5 (21:40.462)
in Northern Crown Chapel in North Arkansas.

speaker-3 (21:43.966)
and kind of an homage back to the barns and the churches. And then we'll house John Nikesh in the front and twenty other bronzes inside the pavilion of of those that we've identified.

speaker-1 (21:57.13)
What do you think adding the ATG Pavilion to everything that you all are already doing in North Little Rock and in the downtown area, how do you think this is just going to elevate that further?

speaker-3 (22:08.568)
Yeah, I you know, I think w we built we've built a great neighborhood, you know, in in our community. When you think of the great neighborhoods of Central Arkansas, the Original Arts District is right at the top, you know, first or second in central Arkansas. And that's the amenities of great restaurants and walkability and all of those things that make a great neighborhood. And by adding the ATG pavilion and and the the music piece of it, it really becomes

speaker-5 (22:19.896)
for Arkansas.

speaker-3 (22:37.26)
more of a tourist attraction. Maybe maybe that wasn't the emphasis before. It certainly is adding that, you know, that arrow to the quiver of everything that we've got going on in our downtown area. So it gives us a real tourist piece, you know, an institution.

speaker-1 (22:56.332)
The things that you all are doing.

Are things that I feel like every town that has this type of music history should be doing to, like I said, preserve and elevate and enhance and leave it for future generations. So even with the work that you all are doing now with the pavilion and getting it to the point where you'll have this the Johnny statue out front, the 20 bus going along the side, is there a grander vision for what the ATG Pavilion is going to be? What is your vision for it in the future?

speaker-3 (23:28.344)
Yeah, Charles, that's a great question. And you know, when when we started Argenta, one of the things we realized was it it didn't doesn't take much to turn around a downtown. You know, you judge a book by its cover, you also judge a community by the way it looks. So one of the first things we did was we planted we we we have plants all up and down the street, so it's it's we beautiful murals. So I recognize that what it did for us.

speaker-5 (23:50.072)
find it. We started doing

speaker-3 (23:55.616)
it could do for these other communities. And that's why it was so important when we dis when we decided to do the ATG Pavilion. Not only did we want the 20 bust and Johnny Cash, but we wanted to create a second one of each one of those busts to put in those hometown heroes, hometowns, so that you have a marvel. And now they have an iconic Levon Helm sculpture there that they can build some content and some music

speaker-5 (24:23.054)
around.

speaker-3 (24:25.538)
content around it. And and that was the idea that's really a big piece of the puzzle. The ATG pavilion is not just here, it's the mother ship basically. There's 21 communities as well that we're going to be placing replicas of all of those busts. And each of those communities will have something if if they're smaller communities and many of them are, there's something that they can build around.

speaker-1 (24:36.684)
Okay.

speaker-3 (24:52.394)
larger communities it just adds to their portfolio, but for the smaller communities all of a sudden they have something that has an impact. It has an impact on your kids. It has an impact to be able to say if you're from Brinkley, Arkansas, that you can say, Wow, Al Bell and Louie Jordan, who became huge world influencers in music, were born right here. And maybe if I'm born right here, I could do the same thing.

So the inspiration of that is so exciting to us to have that piece of it.

speaker-1 (25:24.204)
I know other people have said it. They call you the Godfather, but I'm gonna say it just by meaning now. Thank you for what you have done to help create this space in Argenta. And thank you for what you're doing with the ATG Pravigan. And thank you for hanging out with us on the show today.

speaker-3 (25:36.302)
Thanks, Charles. Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it.

speaker-1 (26:10.114)
Welcome back to Sound and Soul of the South. Charles Davis here, and I am joined by an incredible muralist and sculpturist. Mr. Kevin Cressy is joining us from North Little Rock, Arkansas. How are you doing today, Kevin? I cannot complain, boss man. Okay, so tell the people a little bit about yourself and what your role is with the ATG prevent.

speaker-4 (26:21.07)
I'm doing great, Charles. How are you doing?

speaker-4 (26:31.074)
Well, I'm a homegrown artist. started off doing gallery shows, paintings, kinda started incorporating sculptures into it, always been a figurative artist and and then when I had kids, have three kids, making a living as an artist is always a bit of a roller coaster ride. And I ended up just not intentionally kind of just sort segueing into public sculpture and as far as the family's concern

It gave us a little bit more stability and I really enjoyed it and I just sort of kept moving in that direction. So the primary focus of my work these days has been public sculpture for the last fifteen, twenty years.

speaker-1 (27:18.06)
You have a statue, the you created a full-size statue of Johnny Cash, which is currently in Washington, DC at Statuary Hall. Talk about creating that piece first and then the pieces that you're going to be creating for the A for the ATG Pavilion.

speaker-4 (27:35.352)
Ten years ago, I was contacted and I ended up doing a s a bust of Levon Helm for Marvel, Arkansas. And he's actually Levon's from the suburb of Marvel, Turkey Scratch, but his house was moved there and everything. So I did the bust and I had to make several trips from Little Rock over to the Delta to Marvel. And I was driving back and it just hit me.

How many incredible artists came from Arkansas that changed the world of music? And I just started making this list in my head as I was going past, and I was like, Al Green is from here. Johnny Cash, let's see. Sister Rosetta Tharr. Louie Jordan. And I was like, we're not celebrating these people.

I started back then just a build it and hopefully they will come project. So I started sculpting young Johnny Cash, I sculpted Al Green, I sculpted Sister Rosetta Tharp. And I was working on Louis Jordan. I'm just doing these on my own. And then the DC project came up, throw your hat in the ring. And that was a national search. And it was for Johnny Cash and then Daisy Bates, who was the a mentor to the Little Rock Nine. Anyway, I threw my hat

speaker-1 (28:50.477)
Okay.

speaker-4 (28:58.442)
The ring for both of them. I did not make the finals for Daisy, but obviously I made the final three for Johnny. And that is what we will be recasting. as you kind of see behind me, we're gonna recast the eight-foot sculpture of Johnny on the three-foot pedestal in front of the pavilion. And then inside we'll eventually have 20 bust of Arkansas musicians.

speaker-1 (29:18.136)
Wow.

speaker-4 (29:27.234)
casting two of each and the others will go to the hometown so that we start working on a statewide music trail for tourism which was part of of the original idea that I was trying to do. Arkansas's a funny place. There's this paradox of an inferiority complex and I I'm wanting them to see how many, like I said, transformational artists that changed

the world how much culture came from this state yeah people are unaware of.

speaker-1 (30:03.128)
When it comes to making these busts or making these statues, like how long does it take you to complete these projects? Because if you're talking about having twenty for the pavilion, that's that's a lot, my guy.

speaker-4 (30:13.992)
Yeah. John Godin is the one who said ended up saying let's do twenty. And I felt like that, I don't know if you ever saw Cool Hand Luke, you know, it's like fifty eggs, why'd you have to say fifty eggs? I'm like, Twenty sculptures? John might have to say twenty sculptures. But I I kinda laugh, it's sort of like I even though I've never birthed a child, you know, some some are born, you know, some are breach and are a little bit more difficult and

speaker-1 (30:26.272)
Yeah.

speaker-1 (30:37.751)
She's

speaker-4 (30:43.776)
Others just pop out. So yeah. But I try to do as much research as I can. Sister Rosetta, for instance, that there's a great biography, a book on her, and it really helped give me some insights. You're making thousands of little tiny decisions along the way when you're trying to get to reveal the soul of a person in a clay. And so if I already have that knowledge, it just hits me instinctively as I'm working going.

No, that doesn't feel right. Or yes, that feels right. Because I'm already I have my filter and a sense of who who they are and kind of maybe where it needs to go. And then also family. If there's family around, that's my primary first audience that I'm trying to please because nobody knows them better.

speaker-1 (31:34.278)
Exactly. Once this whole thing is done, what what do you want people who are gonna come and experience this pavil pavilion? What do you want them to walk away experiencing when they're done?

speaker-4 (31:47.0)
First I think would be for the people from Arkansas that are going through is sense of pride. I think that it's like these are family members that have gone off and done good, you know. And and I think there's a symbiotic relationship between people that are from an area that do things that you you you share in that pride.

This state's produced a lot of culture. Be proud of it and trumpet these people.

speaker-1 (32:24.534)
Yes, yes. No well it the things that you all are doing with pavilion are are definitely gonna do that and the world is already getting to see just what an amazing artist you are with with your work that is in DC at Saturday Hall and they will be able to see that when it comes to all the work you'll be doing. Kevin, thank you for taking time to talk to us and like I said, greatly appreciate everything that you're doing and informing the people about everything that Arkansas musically and art wise with your future products have going on. So thank you so much.

speaker-4 (32:50.838)
It's been a pleasure. Thanks. Thank you so much, Charles.

speaker-4 (32:58.914)
North Little Rock is ex special in so many ways, in so many diverse ways, because just from North Little Rock, you have artists such as Pharaoh Sanders, who was a pioneer of free jazz. You have the Browns who were an early country pop group that started out in Pine Bluff, but they spent most a lot of their life here in North Little Rock. Mix that with you also have modern day Jason White, who is one of the guitarists in Green Day, also from North Little Rock.

That there's a whole influx of things that happen in musical influences. Ike Turner, who was a talent scout for Sam Phillips Sun Records, recorded right down here artists at what is now National Palm. There was a studio in there, and those records came out of North Laura.

speaker-1 (33:40.526)
Welcome back to Sound and Soul of the South. Charles Davis here with you, and I'm now joined by a man who I have been lucky enough to share a stage with. The last time we were in North Little Rock, Arkansas, this man and his band was on stage and absolutely set it on fire before we went up there. Mr. Greg Spradlin is here. man, forget that. No, I was on y'all's home turf, dog. I was just there. I was there for y'all, not for me, for y'all. How you doing, boss man?

speaker-4 (33:59.935)
Go to you.

speaker-4 (34:07.758)
I'm great. How are you doing, Charles?

speaker-1 (34:09.282)
You know what cannot complain, man. It's it's a good time, good time talking about all these great Arkansas things. And now I'm so glad that we can have a music conversation real quick. First off, for the people who don't know, I'm Greg. Tell the people about yourself and kind of your connection to North Little Rock and to the Arkansas music scene.

speaker-4 (34:25.422)
Sure. I'm a I'm a musician, born and raised in Arkansas and a fan of Arkansas music since I was a kid. I was I weirdly grew up in a generation that was not really that focused on roots music, but I was just because of my parents' record collection and my grandparents' record collection that I fell in love with as early as I can remember before I could talk, probably. and so grew up playing, playing professionally since I was fourteen. played

my whole life, off and on, as well as working in nonprofits too. So that kinda is it was kind of a perfect marriage for me to to get involved in this. I'm also a lifelong music tourist. and as I always tell people, as soon as I could drive, I was I was making road trips to Mississippi and to the Delta because I wanted to see the same thing that we know about music tourism that that brings people to, you know, our backyards, which is, you know, we want to see the place.

and where the sound came from. Because on some level, I think we instinctively know that place is at the core of what makes us sound the way we we sound. And you c you know, we couldn't have we couldn't have created the music that came out of the South and American music and Americana music, you know, had we lived on another continent. it's it's the mixture and the blend that makes the music that that makes the world go around. And yeah. As my my friend Jim Dickinson used to say, America's greatest export is our music.

it's the greatest thing we gave the world. You know. And and we're lucky to all of us live kind of in the in the heart and soul of you know, ground zero where where this all came from.

speaker-1 (36:04.994)
You have to look at the entire history. The reason why music in the South is different is because the Civil War happened in the South. everything that you look at when it comes to what happened down here generated the livelihoods and the situations and the environments that led to a Sonny Boy Williamson, a a Robert Johnson, of everybody. So I like I said you've already kind of talked about it, but yeah, I think you're absolutely right. The South is a different

Entity when you talk about its creation and its origin story and how if we really want to be honest about everything, Greg, every layer of music that has come out of the world, or especially America, but the world influence that it has has come out of the

speaker-4 (36:49.822)
Hundred percent. Hundred percent. I mean, we're this is the cradle of music civil American music civilization. You know, and and it's because I mean I always you know, I always like to think like as I've thought about it over the years, it's like what is it about it besides the fact that I'm from here and it's my experience and it's the sound, you know, we wouldn't have been able to make southern music without humidity, you know. I mean y you know but but as I dig into it, it's like what is it that draws me to that? What is it that draws me to, you know, some Western African music?

speaker-1 (37:11.766)
So

speaker-4 (37:19.702)
You know, what is it that that draws me into certain kinds of music that aren't from here, whatever else? And and what makes our southern music southern music and I I at its root, I think there's a sound that poor people make. You know, there's a sound that poor people make and it and it's it transcends color, it transcends everything. And the South, especially at the period of time we're talking about, it was abundantly poor. Everybody was poor. There were social issues and everything else that that

that segregated who was who and and and everybody brought something different to the party. You know, it's it's like a it's it was like a rent party for music. Like everybody everybody brought a little something to it. And you know we always we talk about Johnny Cash. You know, Johnny Cash, there's so many things about him why he's kind of the tip of the spear for Americana music. You know, he was he grew up in Dice, Arkansas. You know, he grew up in the fields. He grew up doing hard labor and and was around that. But he he was a listener.

He was very curious. I mean, he would tell you there's no Johnny Cash without Sister Rosetta Tharp, who was literally just came from just down the road from him. he grew up listening to gospel music, white and black gospel music. He was fond of folk music. He was the first person to put all of that blend and into blend together to make commercial music. I mean, you think, you know, white folk music, white gospel, and then black gospel and and

rhythm and blues and everything he was listening to in East Arkansas, you know, created something that didn't exist before. You know, and and but it comes from all those different places, but at the same time it's it's a group of people all struggling in the same location under under circumstances that they just want out of.

speaker-1 (39:04.244)
in in the continuation of trying to grow music tourism in the South and especially as you said with the work that y'all are doing with the ATG Pavilion. What do you think the completion and when this thing is open to the public to come and see, what do you think is going to bring to the tourism aspect of Arkansas music history?

speaker-4 (39:22.582)
You know, for me everything is is a story and and it's about the story. And I think this is probably the best way we could come up to tell that story because we can talk about the individual people and what they contributed, but seeing all these faces in one place that might not you might not put them in the same place together. You know, Sister Rosetta is next to Almeda Riddle.

You know, a lot of people now know who Sister Rosetta is. I don't think people fully appreciate how important she was in the whole history of rock and roll and RB and everything else. But but also Almita Riddle, who I think most people when I when when they look at the list, they're like, I d I don't know who that is. Well a lot of people don't know who that is. But Almita Riddle was this this lady in the Ozarks who had been taught by her grandparents the

She could she had by memory five hundred folk songs that she could sing and knew by heart. And at the time, she was the only recorder of that history. And and without Almeida Riddle in those recordings, we don't have the birth of the folk movement in the late fifties and early sixties. We don't have Joan Baez and Bob Dylan because we have this catalog of songs that she was the only person that knew some of them. She was the only person that knew all the words to them and could sing them a cappello. And

There's no Bob Dylan without Johnny Cash and Almeida Riddle. When you see them all in one place and we tie them together, we tell their stories, it all starts to make sense about the the filt the the the the quilt and the fabric of what came from here. and as we talk about all the time over here, obviously, you know, Macon has a story that's really unique to to Macon. the Delta, Mississippi Delta has its own story.

You know, second only to Tennessee, I think we have a we have a blend. Our story is about the blend of cultures and the blend of music. You know, that that ours is not distinctly. I mean, we could go down the Arkansas Delta, we could talk about Albert King and Al Green and Louis Jordan and Sonny Williamson and all these people. And and that could be a great story on its own. But we blend the Ozarks in it.

speaker-4 (41:34.028)
And you blend in, you know, the the folk music that came out of the mountains, and then you go down southwest and you've got Scott Joplin who invented basically ragtime. When you put all this these stories together, it's it's our blend, I think, that is is the biggest thread under in our story is not just the individual areas and the culture and the music that came from from one particular style of music, but it's all these styles blended together.

speaker-1 (41:56.814)
For those who are going to be traveling to North Little Rock or coming into Arkansas to do any kind of traveling and they want to do some music tourism, literally like you know it, you know this stuff. If they were going to plan an ultimate Arkansas music trip, give me five places they should go.

speaker-4 (42:17.78)
Okay. All right. So b North Little Rock, this is kind of the hub, which is great because we're so easy to get to here in the in the Argenta community because we're right at the I thirty, I forty interchange. So you come here, you get the story, and then all trails lead out from here, which are really easy to get to. You go up the I-40 corridor from Forest City, Arkansas, you should go to Forest City. there we're gonna have at least three bus in Forest City when this is complete. That would be Albert King, Algreen,

And Charlie Rich, West Memphis for sure. There's actually a little music museum because of the KWEM, which was is the the radio station over there, and it was actually where Hallen Wolfe got his break. He stopped in Brinkley, and it'll be at the convention center in Brinkley. We will have Al Al Bell from Stax Records and Louie Jordan. I mean two huge fig figures that loom large in American history.

Yeah it is then going up to Mountain View, Arkansas, Jimmy Driftwood, who who popularized folk music in the in the in the sixties and and was very ad he was an advocate for for preservation and Ozark folk music. The Ozark Folk Center is there because of Jimmy Driftwood. El Dorado, Arkansas is the home of Lefty Frizzell. It's also a wonderful entertainment district down there with other statues and things. Lefty was a big part of El Redo was a big part of Lefty's story.

Pine Bluff, I can't speak highly enough about it. They have done so much great work around their artists there. They just dedicated a sign with Bobby Rush. there's there's so many great artists. Big Bill Brunsey, who is one of our busts in the pavilion, that was his home base. Also go to Favel because we have Levon Helm and Ronnie Hawkins will be will be instilled up there and because that was that was kind of the home base for the band and Ronnie Hawkins before and after they went to Canada.

And became the band. So

speaker-1 (44:14.838)
You know, everything that you all are doing down there with the ATG Pavilion and to set this up to create what will be, as I said before, it'll be great for the people who can enjoy it now, but for future generations to be able to go and see this stuff and to experience this is a great thing. It's because of the work that you and everybody is doing. So thank you for what you're doing, Greg. And once again, thank you for being on the show today.

speaker-4 (44:35.31)
Thank you for what you're doing. I look forward to hearing you again soon. All right.

speaker-1 (44:38.095)
yes, sir, we'll do that.

speaker-4 (44:45.872)
why do I love North Little Rock? Is because of everything that has happened here from historic things, whether it was music, the music artists came from here, but also the investment in the community by North Little Rock has been astounding. The fact that so much effort and positive energy has been put into focusing on the arts in North Little Rock and making it a destination. And the ATG Music Pavilion, Americana Music, and all of the things that are gonna be happening here as a result of it.

are going to make it an even bigger destination and I believe North Little Rock is ready more so than anyone to receive this.

speaker-1 (45:25.954)
Welcome back to Sound and Soul of the South. Charles Davis here continuing our conversation with the great people of North Little Rock. And we are now talking to Mr. Chris Kent. Hello, Chris. How are you? You know, I cannot complain. It's been a lot of great conversation, and we're going to continue it now. So tell the people a little bit about yourself and your connection with the ATG Pavilion.

speaker-4 (45:35.758)
I'm doing very well, Charles. How are you today?

speaker-4 (45:45.976)
Well, I am the executive director of the Argenta Arts Foundation. Okay. So we're the organization that oversees the entire arts district. What our group does is we try to make sure the downtown is is nice. We market the area, we do economic development and recruit businesses and we put on some events and hopefully turn people on to some cool music.

speaker-1 (46:09.568)
I can astutely attest to the fact that the time that I spent in North Little Rock and I always when I whenever I talk about it, I always remind myself to go, I always go North Little Rock, aka Dogtown. because I was I was reminded very early about that whole connection. But let's talk about Argento real quick. We had a bit of a conversation about it earlier, but I want to talk to you about it as well. Talk to us about kind of what Argento, the downtown area was before

this revitalization and the arts ha came into it. Like what was what were you all working with in the beginning that led to where you are now?

speaker-4 (46:47.842)
Well, my story is my family has a business down here. They moved here in nineteen eighty-nine, so I I've been around the downtown. It's a very different downtown. We just started doing little things. The first thing that happened was the announcement they were gonna build the Simmons Arena here, which was at that time the Altoll Arena. And that got everybody think we gotta make this a little better. We can't have fifteen thousand people show up to our area and it be unsafe.

And luckily we had a mayor with some vision and Pat Hayes at that time that paid to have all the sidewalks fixed. And it sounds so simple. But dude, when you're walking down the street, you know, you got a nice sidewalk to trip over. It's the first it's your first step into what it looks like downtown is is having a place to walk. So it a very different place in than it is today.

speaker-1 (47:38.146)
being with the Argenta arts part of this whole thing. Talk about the art scene that is currently happening there because we talked a lot about the music that is going on and want to hear some loud music, but talk about the art scene in Argenta. What is that currently like right now?

speaker-4 (47:53.442)
Well, it's it's pretty vibrant. You know, we've got the longest running art walk in the state, our third Friday art walk. It's gone for well over ten years now. we draw about five hundred people once a month on a Friday night to go tour around and see local artists. We have about thirty five murals and pieces of public art downtown. And we've got a mural map on our website where you can walk around and you can check out. And you know, we've got they're mostly local artists.

people that grew up in North Little Rock. And you know, there's some really cool ones. bring one to music. I my favorite is the Pharaoh Sanders one, the famous jazz saxophonist that played with Coltrane. and then the my other favorite one is the Dogtown Proud one, which really we put that up during the pandemic and it was like at that point we decided we were gonna be something different and we were going to own who we were and we brought Dogtown back to North Little Rock.

speaker-1 (48:39.201)
So cool.

speaker-4 (48:51.114)
And I think it really hit the point. But you we've got local artists. Barry Thomas lives in the neighborhood here. he's got a mural up and fa he's famous all across the southwest. you know, the library is very active in the arts community. We we have a really strong, vibrant art scene here.

speaker-1 (49:08.854)
Why is it why do you feel it is important for a downtown area to have a vibrant art scene?

speaker-4 (49:16.598)
you you gotta have something to grab on to, you know, as a downtown. And downtown used to be the place where everybody gathered. We all came to downtown, you did your shopping, you did your eating, people went to school. It's all the things were downtown. And, you know, we got away from that. People were convinced the suburbs were better. You can move away and you can have a little tiny front porch instead of a big front porch where all your neighbors can hang out and see you. But you got a big deck in the backyard inside your privacy fence where you don't ever see anybody.

speaker-1 (49:43.241)
Exactly. Exactly.

speaker-4 (49:45.122)
So so you wanna bring people downtown that are cool. Yeah. Because you get the cool people to come down, everybody wants to be around them and you know, really who's cooler than artists and musicians?

speaker-1 (49:50.702)
Yeah.

speaker-1 (49:58.71)
I mean really. I mean we're we're crazy people, but we're we're kinda cool.

speaker-4 (50:02.806)
It's passionate, it's it's a little crazy, it's fun, it's it's visual, it's colorful, it's beautiful. And so you bring them down here and you hopefully you take care of them and then other people wanna will wanna come and grasp onto that energy that they're bringing and you know, take it and show every you can have a good time.

speaker-1 (50:23.264)
It is so great to see, like I said, people th of like mindedness and and and thought process to come together and see a place and go, This can be better than what it is. Let's put the work behind it and everything that you all are doing. is great. So Chris Kent, once again, thank you for everything that you are doing to make the area what it is and thank you for being on the show with us today. Okay. Wow. Didn't we learn a lot through that? What I mean, good gracious life. North Little Rock is doing the option to

district are doing so much to preserve the Arkansas history. So I see the reason why you were excited about the whole thing.

speaker-2 (50:59.97)
So excited. And it only made sense that I was not part of the interviews because I've been part of that conversation for the last decade. So it only made sense that that they were talking to Charles and telling him all the fabulous things. I'm just so excited that that y'all are all going to get to share in this. Yeah. I don't know what other word to use other than excitement. because it is, it's not just a preservation of our legacy, it's a celebration of our legacy.

speaker-1 (51:20.877)
It should be

speaker-1 (51:26.87)
Mm-hmm. And like I said, with with all of these artists getting the recognition, I mean the story he talks about going into a place and letting them know, yeah, Al Green is from here, and they go, What? And it's like, no, that can't happen. That is the reason why it is important with what they're doing down there, because people ought to know that there are legends that came out of the city that you're living in. And so absolutely phenomenal. great, great episode on that, Susie. and like I said, even with you being here now, not part of that.

this is this is not a fly by night thing. this has taken years and it's taken people to get it done. So for your part in doing this, you know, I I I I applaud you for that because like it takes a lot of people to do that. So we want to thank North Little Rock Tourism for for for being here with us and and talking about the Argenta Arts District and and all of those great things that are happening down there. And when they get this stuff set up people, you have to go. Like you have to

This was North Little Rock is great anyway, but especially with all of these additions to brand new hotels and and all of this, you've got to get down there and experience that. So yes, great episode. Thank y'all for being here with us. We'll see you in a little while. But until then, I am Charles Davis. She is Susan Cowan. We'll see y'all next time. Be safe.

speaker-2 (52:32.526)
That's right.

speaker-2 (52:41.698)
This Sound and Soul of the South is in partnership with North Little Rock Tourism. Check out Explore NLR on social media or their website at North Little Rock dot org. The Sound and Soul of the South is a podcast by Creek Media hosted by Charles Davis and Susie Cowen. Follow us on social media at StreamTheCreek. Engage with us. Like, subscribe, share with a friend.

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