Rosanne Cash, Marty Stuart to headline 2019 Johnny Cash Heritage Festival

Rosanne Cash, Marty Stuart to headline 2019 Johnny Cash Heritage Festival

JONESBORO — Two Grammy Award winners will headline the benefit concert at the 2019 Johnny Cash Heritage Festival in the cotton field adjacent to the Cash Boyhood Home in Dyess. The festival is Thursday-Saturday, Oct. 17-19.

Acclaimed musicians Marty Stuart and Rosanne Cash will perform at the concert that will take place Saturday afternoon, Oct. 19, as the highlight of the three-day festival, themed “Legacy, Love and Music.”

“I am thrilled and delighted that for the third year in a row, the Johnny Cash Heritage Festival will be held on the grounds of the Boyhood Home in Dyess,” said Cash’s daughter Rosanne, who is hosting the event.

“This exciting benefit event raises funds to continue our mission of bringing attention to the rich history of my father in the Arkansas Delta and the New Dealera colony in which he was raised. This year I am honored to announce that legendary musician Marty Stuart will be joining me in headlining the culminating Saturday concert.”

Tickets for the concert will go on sale Monday, March 11, through the festival

website,

JohnnyCashHeritageFestiv al.com, or by contacting the Central Box Office in the Arkansas State University First National Bank Arena at the lower red entrance, 870-9722781 or 800-745-3000.

Ticket prices are $35 plus applicable fees for general admission; $100 plus applicable fees for reserved chair seating; and $200 plus applicable fees for a Full Circle Package (limited number available). The Full Circle Package includes seating in a special reserved section for the concert, field parking adjacent to the concert, admission to ticketed Friday afternoon special presentations, and an invitation to a private Friday evening “suppertime stations” event with the Cash family.

A limited number of parking passes for the field adjacent to the concert are available to $100 ticket purchasers for $50 until spaces run out. They can be purchased by contacting the Central Box Office at the above numbers.

(Parking passes cannot be purchased online.) Passes will be mailed out, along with a parking map, directions and instructions.

“People from all over the world make a pilgrimage to Dyess, Arkansas, to touch the earth, breathe the air and reach for the spirit of Johnny Cash,” noted Stuart. “Strangely enough, I’ve never been to Dyess.

Therefore, I am honored to finally get to go to a place that means so much to me, stand alongside Rosanne, sing songs and tell stories that I have no doubt will be a part of me for the rest of my life.”

After successful music events in Arkansas State University’s First National Bank Arena beginning in 2011, the benefit event was expanded to a three-day heritage festival in 2017 and moved to Dyess.

“We hope everyone will join us for the entire three days of this festival, which will include an academic symposium, regional evening music, special panels and speakers on Friday afternoon, and an outstanding Saturday afternoon of music and memories,” Rosanne said. “I will be traveling to Dyess soon to make another major announcement about the additional renowned presenters and other performers who will be joining us on Friday and Saturday.”

The evening music on Thursday and Friday nights in the Dyess Circle, along with the presentations Thursday morning through noon Friday, will be free and open to the general public. Theme for this year’s academic symposium is “Our Musical Genealogy: Country Music and the American Experience.” The ticketed special presentations on Friday afternoon, moderated by Rosanne Cash, provide a new twist in the 2019 festival schedule.

Speakers and ticket information for this event will be announced in April, along with the additional performers who will be joining Cash and Stuart on Saturday afternoon.

“Nearly a decade of hard restoration work by Arkansas State University, funded through previous concert proceeds, has paid off with the home’s elevation to the National Register of Historic Places in 2018,” Rosanne said. “I look forward to once again welcoming visitors from all across the world to the little patch of ‘gumbo soil’ in Dyess, Arkansas, to celebrate ‘Legacy, Love and Music.’” For tickets, to submit symposium proposals, or for additional festival information as it becomes available, go to JohnnyCashHeritageFestiv al.com. The festival is coordinated through Arkansas State University Heritage Sites and licensed through the John R. Cash Revocable Trust.

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CDC: Arkansas ranked 46th on list of healthiest states in America

ARKANSAS (KFSM) — A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ranks Arkansas as one of the unhealthiest states in America.

The report ranks the Natural State as 46th in the country.

The CDC says one of the main reasons for the ranking is obesity rates in the state. Doctors say the report is an important reminder that now is the perfect time to start making healthier food and lifestyle choices.

“You can start from today if you have a real passion for staying healthy and staying away from the doctors the choices are yours,” said Dr. Reza Hakkak, a UAMS Nutritionist.

Obesity has been linked to cardiovascular disease, diabetes and certain types of cancer.

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Arkansas flu-related death toll reaches 57

LITTLE ROCK — The number Arkansans who have died from the flu this season now stands at 57, according to the Arkansas Department of Health (ADH).

This number includes 19 new flu deaths reported to the state last week.

The 57 number includes one pediatric flu death.

70 percent of those 57 deaths were among people who were either unvaccinated or had an unknown vaccine history, according to ADH.

227 Arkansans died of the flu last season.

Doctors in Arkansas have asked parents to make sure their children are vaccinated against the flu.

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Arkansas teen saves for years to surprise friend with new wheelchair

NORMAN — A high school student in Arkansas surprised his friend and classmate with a new electric wheelchair after saving up the money to buy it himself.

Navigating high school is never easy, but for Brandon Qualls, it’s been even tougher. The senior at Caddo Hills High in Montgomery County, AR, has used a manual wheelchair for years.

But on Feb. 26, his friend and classmate Tanner Wilson surprised Qualls in class by giving him an electric wheelchair.

“It was amazing for me because I didn’t know what he had done for me,” Qualls said.

Wilson says he’d been working to save the money for Qualls’ new wheelchair for the past three years. It was just in the last few days of February that he was able to make that dream a reality.

“I feel like life’s a little bit too short to be judging everybody, and you should think more of others than just yourself,” Wilson said. The students’ teachers say this good deed is typical for Wilson.

“He loves to do for others, and he likes to take up for others. He’s just a great young man,” teacher Kathy Baker said.

Qualls agrees and offers a message to anyone who needs to hear it.

“Every single day, he helps anybody. He’s an amazing friend,” Qualls said. “Stay positive. Never give up. Just don’t stop.”

For now, Qualls’ wheelchair will remain at school until his family can get a car equipped to carry it.

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No license to cut hair? Bill would abolish Arkansas Barber Board

LITTLE ROCK — A new bill aims to make it easier to become a barber in Arkansas. But it would do so by ending the requirement to earn a traditional license or even attend barber school.

Senate Bill 410, sponsored by Republican Sen.

John Cooper (RJonesboro) would repeal the Arkansas barber law and abolish the State Board of Barber Examiners.

The bill stemmed from Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s initiative to have the Red Tape Reduction Working Group study how occupational licenses regulations create “unnecessary barriers to labor market entry.”

“By deregulating or delicensing the professions of barber and shampooer, the citizens and the economy of this state would benefit greatly without causing public health and safety issues,” the legislation states.

The bill touts the streamlining of more jobs and lower cost of services if barbers were not required to earn a license. The Arkansas Barber Board has been established for over 80 years, setting the rules and regulations for current and aspiring barbers.

Under the bill, barbers would register with the Department of Health, paying a $50 registration fee as well as a $2,000 surety bond.

Licensed cosmetologists would not be required to file a registration or bond if the cosmetologist practices

barbering as part of

its services.

Tametra Bowie, director of GoodFellas Barber College in Little Rock, believes the legislation undercuts the professional art of cutting hair.

“It definitely takes the professionalism and it definitely take the craft out of what we do and it just puts us in layman’s terms,” Bowie said.

Nearly 60 people graduate through GoodFellas Barber College a year.

Bowie noted the bill also threatens the business of barber schools across the state.

“That makes the license that they receive pointless.

Right now, Arkansas barber schools make about $6 million a year so that’s $6 million that we’re putting back in the economy that we’re paying taxes on,” Bowie said.

In the Heights, Mike Jackman runs Jerry’s Barbershop, a Little Rock staple going back to the late 1940s.

“The ones who are going to pay for this are the customers and that’s not fair to them,” Jackman said.

Jackman, who’s been barbering for over three decades, cites health and economic concerns if people lacked traditional credentials to cut hair.

“I don’t want somebody cutting my hair with the little bit I got without any kind of education or understanding of what’s going on,” Jackman said.

Barbers from across the state will convene at the capitol on Wednesday to voice their concerns on the issue.