For about a year, a small group of dedicated musicians from Minden, Arcadia, Dubach, Shreveport, El Dorado, and Haynesville have been picking and singing on Fridays at 7 PM. Brown said anyone interested in picking, singing, or just listen ing, are welcome to join. The only restriction is absolutely "no amplifiers" allowed--strictly "acoustic only."

Brown has played rhythm and sang at the hayride in Minden, the Holiday Inn in Ruston, and once on stage at Eureka Springs. He was once approached by a scout from a recording studio, but told him, "Nobody loves it any better than I do, but I'm too old to start that foolishness. I don't want to make work out of something I really enjoy doing."

Besides Brown, several area residents who are regular performers include Ed Dettenheim, James Camp, Tommy Gore, Mike Matthews, and Glenda Tooke of Homer; James Green of Minden; Becky Crisler of Athens; Everett Payne of Leton; and Charlie Williams and Carolyn Gardener of Shreveport. Another newcomer, Jim Green of Dubach, plays guitar. James Camp sings and plays the guitar, has played at festivals all over the country, as well as Athens Bluegrass, and hopes to see it get bigger and better. Everett Payne and Glenda Tooke started playing about four years ago, both as a hobby--Payne on guitar and Tooke on Mandolin.

Everett, who also sings, says his wife June is one of their biggest fans. Both enjoy the good, clean entertainment and the fellowship. In 1993, Tooke asked her husband David for a mandolin for Christmas. She spent the next year in the back bedroom with her mandolin, instruction book and a tape, learning to play. She calls it her "retirement project" and says it is really fun. Jim Crisler plays guitar and last year, while in Mountainview, bought his wife, Becky, a set of "spoons." She picked up quickly and now has moved from spectator to performer. Banjo player Charlie Williams of Shreveport probably is the most dedicated, as he drives two hours to get here every Friday.

Don and Ola Hooper of Minden had never met their mailman until they introduced themselves to fiddler James Greene. Greene surprised them by immediately spouting out their address. Don says now, "Green can be their mailman any day." Tommy Gore, Mike Matthews, and Carolyn Gardener, members of the popular bluegrass band "The Twelfth of April," play about once a month. Dr. Susan Roach of Louisiana Tech recently sponsored their group in the Louisiana Touring Directory for Artists and Musicians. Gore serves as editor for the North Louisiana Bluegrass Club which has met monthly for years at Tommy Faulk's "Home Place Acres" in Athens, bringing covered dishes, instruments, and lawn chairs.

Ed Dettenheim plays lead guitar and a little mandolin, but it was mainly bass he played on the original Louisiana Hayride in Shreveport during the 1950's and 1960's, making $12.50 a week, which was half the going rate at the time. Dettenheim played staff bass with Don Davis for country singers such as Jim Reeves, Johnny Horton, Faron Young and Webb Pierce, and he remembers other performers, such as Hank Williams, who brought their own bands.

He recalls the first night Elvis Presley showed up at the Hayride and played "Beat the Band," where members of the audience try to guess a song. Elvis won and during a radio commercial, sang a gospel song with the band.

He said Elvis had a pretty voice, but was a timid little fellow--quite different from what he later became. Elvis learned his "moves" from manager Colonel Tom Parker, who paid Horace Logan about $4000 for Elvis' contract. With only one microphone on stage, you couldn't hear much clapping over the radio, so Parker rented a school bus and provided free tickets and transportation to a group of nursing students from Texarkana. Parker's only requirement was they scream and squeal when "his boy" got on the stage. Parker brought busloads the next two Saturdays and that was all it took--girls were coming on their own after that.

Dettenheim said Nashville ended up the "Country Music Capitol" mainly because Shreveport wouldn't support it, even thought about 75 to 80 per cent of Nashville, producers and stars, are from within 200 miles of Shreveport.

Dettenheim said, "Everyone wants industry in Claiborne parish, but we don't have a railroad, a river, or a highway. If you want tourists, you need to attract senior citizens. That is what they are doing in Mountainview, Arkansas." He said everybody is trying to retire there, all those who like country music. They sit around a square similar to Homer's and play every weekend, and even during the week in the summer and Homer could do the same thing. All you really need is a place to play and some restrooms.

Jerry Brown knows how much folks love picking and recalled stopping in Arkansas while on trip with his wife, Ann, and Larry and Linda Dean They happened upon a lady who built fiddles. She asked Jerry to play with her and they took off with "Orange Blossom Special."

He couldn't remember her name, but she was once the lead fiddler for Glen Campbell's band. Since last summer, with virtually no advertising, this small group of musicians have remained steadfast, with hopes of seeing Homer develop their own style of Mountainview, enjoying country, bluegrass, and gospel "on the square." Who knows the lady fiddler from Arkansas might even show up one day...