Betse & Clarke

There is hardly anything more iconic in American Folk music than the fiddle and banjo. A sharp contrast in sound, construction and heritage, yet these two instruments seem like the perfect pair. With FolkyFishFest now located at the foothills of the Ozarks, Betse Ellis and Clark Wyatt are the perfect choice to represent the history and future of Ozark music and tradition. This duo from the heartland (Kansas City, Missouri) has its roots in Ozark old time music, honoring traditional songs and tunes that resonate with human experience. However, if you ever saw or listened to The Wilders then you know that Betse is also a force to be reckoned with stomping her army boots and pushing her fiddle beyond old country into the realms of punk and honky tonk. Clarke meets her out there in the void, beyond musical boundries and categories with a background in jazz piano, extesive studies of inventive banjoists of earlier decades such as Mike Seeger and John Hartford and a guitar style rooted in old time traditions, with sparks of ingenuity inspired by the likes of Norman Blake. It’s rare to find a duo that you can take with you to meet your grandmother Sunday morning at church after staying up all night with them Saturday night getting rowdy and breaking beer bottles on the other side of town. Betse and Clarke fit that bill!