We flew down to the Arkansas Ozarks last weekend for the Second Annual Finger Mountain Breakdown. This is in Fayetteville where I grew up, and we have a special place called Deepwood that is rented out short term such as football weekends. It’s on a mountain out in the country surrounded by several thousand acres of hardwood forests that are in a nature preserve but only a few minutes from the center of the University of Arkansas campus.

It’s beautiful this time of year with fall color at its height, even though the trees took a beating from a 100-year devastating ice storm back in February. My son, Andrew, and his friends from school (he graduated with an architecture degree from the U of A) have put on this music festival for the second year. Aside from just having fun, it was a benefit for a non-profit, the Ozark Off Road Cyclists, a mountain biking group who just built a new 5-mile trail around Mt. Kessler.

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It’s an outdoor event, but the rain that had been coming down most of the month of October let up the night before, and at show time the day was sunny and warm. The music started just after noon on Saturday and went on until nearly 1:00 AM when the sheriff dropped by to remind us it was Sunday.

Lots of kids and families. Most of the musicians camped out in the pasture. A whole hog was barbecued over an oak and hickory fire, and the crowd picked the bones clean.

For some photos and video, see:

·         Tiffany Christopher

·         Rock Bottom Ramblers

·         Shout Lulu

·         The Crumbs (16.5 MB video)

·         Breakdown Yeti

As much as I love Richmond, it’s nice to get out of Dodge from time to time. There’s no place more laid back than the Ozarks.