Woodyfest 2014: 1st-Place Songwriting Contest Winner Lori Holyfield

Lori Holyfield at the Pastures of Plenty

As in years past, Woodyfest 14 show­cased three [Sidenote: This is the third post in our cov­er­age of the sev­en­teenth annual Woody Guthrie Folk Festival. We’ll be alter­nat­ing our report­ing with essays and photo gal­leries from the twenty-sec­ond fes­ti­val in 2019, so check in often for a mix of old and new Woodyfest good­ness.] song­writ­ing con­test win­ners. Thursday evening at the Pastures of Plenty Stage kicked off with Dr. Lori Holyfield per­form­ing “Ode to Guy Clark,” which took 1^st place, and “Best Friend,” which gar­nered hon­or­able mention.

Holyfield was accom­pa­nied by Steve Fisher (man­dolin), John Williams, (har­mon­ica), and the fes­ti­val house band, the Oklahoma Geniuses. The band com­prised Terry “Buffalo” Ware (gui­tar), Don Morris (bass), T. Z. Wright (accor­dion), and Michael McCarty (drums).

Holyfield is the author of Moving Up and Out: Poverty, Education & the Single Parent Family and the founder of the Arkansas Single Parent Scholarship Fund (ASPSF). As a high school dropout and sin­gle par­ent who went on to earn her Ph. D. in Sociology, [Sidenote: Holyfield earned her doc­tor­ate from the University of Georgia. She has served as a pro­fes­sor in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at the University of Arkansas since 1995. ] Holyfield wrote the book to share the sto­ries of ASPSF schol­ar­ship recip­i­ents work­ing their way from poverty while guid­ing com­mu­ni­ties set­ting up sim­i­lar schol­ar­ship funds.

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