By Erin Wood
For author, music historian, and host of the 25-year-old syndicated radio show Arkansongs, Stephen Koch, words, music, and honoring Arkansas history go together, line by line.
In late July, the Division of Arkansas Heritage announced the award of a $5,000 grant to the Hot Springs Area Cultural Alliance to create the new Hot Springs Music Trail, a collaborative project with Arkansongs and the Garland County Historical Society. The grant will provide three metal markers featuring sites of musical importance, including the Arlington Resort Hotel and Spa and The Vapors. A third will feature musician Louis Jordan.
Jordan is the subject of Koch’s biography Louis Jordan: Son of Arkansas, Father of R&B (History Press, 2014). The hybrid jazz, swing, blues, and comedy musician who gave us “Baby It’s Cold Outside” influenced American popular music and inspired James Brown, B.B. King, Chuck Berry, and Ray Charles.
About the grant, Koch shares, “Hot Springs has such a deep history, and, like the entire state of Arkansas, it also has a deep musical history that has been overlooked too long. We hope the Hot Springs Music Trail will give locals and tourists alike a taste of the rich musical heritage. We want it to serve as a model that can be taken statewide, and for Arkansas to embrace the economic and cultural benefits of promoting our shared musical heritage through music tourism.”
Aside from working on the Hot Springs Music Trail, Koch is finishing his second book featuring roughly 30 of the greatest women musicians in Arkansas music history, forthcoming in spring 2024. About the book, Stephen shares, “It’s thrilling to be working with Et Alia Press on such an important and needed project. Arkansas women rock!”
Hot Springs native, Erin Wood is a writer, editor, and publisher in Little Rock. She owns and runs www.etaliapress.com. Wood is author of “Women Make Arkansas: Conversations With 50 Creatives” (April 2019) and editor of and a contributor to “Scars: An Anthology” (2015).
