(EUREKA SPRINGS, AR) – World peace advocate and folk music icon, Melanie, has been named to headline the 61^st Annual Original Ozark Folk Festival—the longest, continuously-running folk festival in the U.S. Melanie will perform at the City Auditorium on Sunday, Nov. 9 at 2 p.m. Her concert, part of her Motherhood of Love world peace tour, will climax a weekend of shows by nationally known singer-songwriters.

New York-born Melanie Safka hit the national stage as the voice of “flower power” with her song, Beautiful People at the Woodstock Music & Art Festival in 1969. A prolific artist, she has released an average of one new album per year since then and has sold over 80 million records to date. She was the top-selling recording artist in the world in 1971 and the Billboard Magazine Female Vocalist of the Year in 1972.

Melanie has been at the forefront of the peace movement since the early 60’s and recently received an Ambassador of Peace award in Korea for her peace efforts there. She performed in the Korean demilitarized zone (DMZ), a heavily armed no-man’s land, as part of the “Flower Power Peace Festival” to help establish enduring peace throughout the world.

The United Nations invited her to be the first artist ever to perform at an opening of the General Assembly. Her performance received a standing ovation. She was also the first solo pop/rock artist to appear at Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Opera House and the Sydney (Australia) Opera House.

Melanie was the second artist (after the Beatles) to have three songs on Billboard Magazine’s Hot 100 at the same time (1972: Brand New Key, Ring the Living Bell, and The Nickel Song.) Other career highlights include recordings such as Peace will Come, Lay Down (Candles in the Rain), and What Have They Done to My Song, Ma? Honors include a triple-Platinum single for Brand New Key and an Emmy Award for her lyrics to The First Time I Loved Forever.

Motherhood of Love is the name of her latest song and tour. The song includes a Sanskrit mantra designed to attune thoughts to world peace. She appears with her son, Beau-Jarred Schekeryk, guitar virtuoso and producer of the new song.  The artist is “giving this song to the world” by making it downloadable for free online at  http://www.digitalbucket.net/Public/Download.ashx?q=8afa33eaa4803acb9372ec69a7be4246. Downloadable for a limited time only.  Words and music by Melanie Safka.  Additional music by Beau Jarred Schekeryk.  Copyright 2009 Two Story Publishing; ASCAP.

Tickets for the matinee concert are $25. For more on Melanie go online at www.melaniesmusic.com/.

The festival kicks off at the Auditorium Nov. 6 at 7 p.m. with the Queen’s Contest and a free concert featuring Noah Earle & 3 Penny Acre.

The 7:30 p.m. Nov. 7 Auditorium show has Vagabond Van, featuring Greg Klyma and Tom Bianchi, opening for headliner Patty Larkin. Over her 10 CD history, Larkin has honed a reputation as a “musician’s musician”, working with some of the brightest talents in American music. She wrote, produced, engineered and edited her latest cd, Watch the Sky, and has been heard on NPR’s World Café as well as XM Satellite Radio. Tickets to this show are $20.

Nov. 8 at 1 p.m. the festival presents a free concert in the Auditorium by Still on the Hill. For some time the group has been collecting song ideas from their audiences about colorful Ozark characters, and they will perform those songs from their new CD, OZARK, A Celebration In Song. The Folk Festival parade follows at 2 p.m. in historic downtown.

The Nov. 8 afternoon concert at the Auditorium begins at 3 p.m. From 4-6 p.m. Natalie Zukerman www.nataliazukerman.com/home.html, Danielle Miraglia www.daniellem.com, Raina Rose www.rainarose.com, and Maia Archote www.maiaarchote.com perform a “Songwriters In The Round” concert. Tickets are $17.

At 7:30 p.m. Nov. 8 the evening concert at the Auditorium begins with 3 Penny Acre. “Songwriters In The Round” follows, featuring Tom Bianchi www.24hourtom.com, Jonathan Byrd www.jonathanbyrd.com, John Elliott www.thehereafterishere.com, Greg Klyma www.klyma.com, Danielle Miraglia and Raina Rose.

For full details on the Ozark Folk Festival go online at www.ozarkfolkfestival.com or www.theaud.org.

 

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For info on Eureka Springs, contact

Ken Rundel, CAPC, P.O. Box 522, Eureka Springs, AR, 72632.

479-253-7333  ken@eurekasprings.org