I WAS APPROACHED this evening in Walmart by a woman who simply asked “Are you singing this year?”

It was a different question than one might suppose, because this coming Friday and Saturday offers the 20th anniversary of the Old Time Music Ozark Heritage Festival, where we’ve been headliners twice, but not last year, and, sadly, not this.

So I told her no, I wouldn’t be singing. However, I said, I’ll be emceeing, so I’ll be there, being the same old smart-alec, and she said she guessed that would do. It’s a fine festival, and you can find out more about it on-line. But if you like the old-time music and old-time crafts and old-time cookery, you should come on down to West Plains Missouri. This year you may hear Randy Sparks and the new New Christy Minstrel, learn to play banjo and lunch on squirrel pot pie. Any of those is worth the trip, doncha think?