Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker Larry Foley is working on a film titled “Up Among the Hills, The Story of Fayetteville.” We don’t get to see it until Oct. 19. (Oh, and Bill Clinton will be the narrator…)
But, as part of the production, the Rodney Block Quartet of Little Rock will perform a tribute to Buddy Hayes at 6:30 p.m. March 24 at Legacy Blues Club in Fayetteville. According to Foley, Hayes was a beloved figure in Fayetteville in the 20th century, playing a unique style of jump blues for white and black audiences from the 1930s through the 1960s. A shoeshine man at the UA Barber Shop by day and a jazz musician by night, Hayes was lovingly known as the “Mayor of Dickson Street.” A Fayetteville park is named in his honor.
Foley says they are still searching for photographs or film of Buddy and his group performing. Contact him at lfoley@uark.edu.
