- Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash was an influential American country and rock and roll singer and songwriter. Cash was the husband of country singer and songwriter June Carter Cash. Cash was known for his deep, distinctive voice, the "boom-chick-a-boom" or "freight train" sound of his Tennessee Three backing band, his dark clothing, and demeanor, which earned him the nickname "The Man in Black." He started all his concerts with the simple introduction "Hello, … - Al Green
Albert Greene (born April 13, 1946), better known as Al Green, is an American gospel and soul music singer who enjoyed great popularity in the early and mid 1970s. - Levon Helm
Mark Lavon (sic) Helm (born May 26, 1940) is an American rock musician most famous as the drummer for the rock group The Band. Helm is also known for his deeply soulful, country-style voice, and powerful drumming style highlighted on many of the The Band's recordings, such as "The Weight", "Up on Cripple Creek", "King Harvest", "Ophelia" and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down". - Beth Ditto
Beth Ditto (born 1981) is the vocalist of American band The Gossip. Ditto came to wider public attention in November 2006 when she was selected by "NME" as the coolest person in rock - being placed at number one in the magazine's annual 'Cool List'. The magazine cited her 'non-conformity' as the reason for her selection - she is a lesbian, an outspoken advocate of gay rights, weighs around 210 lbs. - Louis Jordan
Louis Jordan was a pioneering American jazz, blues and rhythm & blues musician and songwriter who enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as The King of the Jukebox, Jordan was highly popular with both black and white audiences in the later years of the swing era. In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him #59 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. - Conway Twitty
Conway Twitty (September 1 1933 - June 5 1993), born Harold Lloyd Jenkins) was one of the United States' most successful country music artists of the 20th century. He had the most singles (55) reach Number 1 on various national music charts. Most commonly thought of as a country music singer, he also enjoyed success in early Rock and Roll, R&B, and Pop music (among others). - Glen Campbell
Glen Campbell (born 22 April 1936, Delight, Arkansas) is a Grammy Award, Dove Award winning American country pop singer and guitarist, best known for a series of hits in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as for hosting a television variety show called "The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour" on CBS television. Campbell's hits include "Gentle On My Mind", "By the Time I Get to Phoenix", "Witchita Lineman", "Southern Nights" and "Rhinestone Cowboy". - Ronnie Hawkins
Ronnie Hawkins, born January 10, 1935 in Huntsville, Arkansas, United States, is a pioneering rock and roll musician and cousin to fellow rockabilly pioneer Dale Hawkins. Known as "Rompin' Ronnie" Hawkins or "The Hawk," he was a key player in the 1960s rock scene in Toronto and for the next 40 years, performed all over North America, recording more than twenty-five albums. - Charlie Rich
Charlie Rich (December 14, 1932 - July 25, 1995) was an American Country Music Singer/Musician. A Grammy Award winner, his eclectic-style of music was often hard to classify in a single genre, playing in the rockabilly, jazz, blues, country, and gospel genres. In the latter part of his life, Rich acquired the nickname "The Silver Fox". He is perhaps best remembered for a pair of 1973 hits, "Behind Closed Doors" and The Most Beautiful Girl. - Twila Paris
Twila Paris Wright, D.D., (born December 28, 1958 in Fort Worth, Texas) is a contemporary Christian songwriter, author, theolgian, vocalist, and pianist. As of 2006, she has released nineteen albums. Thirty-two of her singles have reached the Number 1 position on Christian radio national airplay charts. These include "He Is Exalted", "God Is In Control", "We Bow Down" and "The Warrior Is A Child" (which was also recorded by Gary Valenciano, … - Junior Wells
"Junior Wells", born Amos Blakemore, was a blues vocalist and harmonica player based in Chicago who was famous for playing with Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Magic Sam, Lonnie Brooks, The Rolling Stones and Van Morrison. - Ben Moody
Ben Robert Moody III (born January 22, 1981 in Little Rock, Arkansas, U.S.) was the lead guitarist and co-founder of the rock band Evanescence from 1996 to October 2003. Evanescence is a band that he formed with Amy Lee while they were in high school. He is present on the albums "Evanescence EP", "Sound Asleep EP", "Origin", and the band's major label debut, "Fallen". He quit the band in the middle of their European tour of 2003-2004. - Tracy Lawrence
Tracy Lawrence (born 27 January 1968) is an American country singer-songwriter. - William Boyd
William James Boyd (born April 27, 1979), better known as Will Boyd, is the former bass guitarist of rock band Evanescence. Boyd became a full-time member of Evanescence in June 2003, but had co-written two of their unreleased songs, "October" and "So Close," prior to that. He spent stints with local Little Rock punk bands such as The Visitors and Lucky Father Brown and is currently in the bands Two Spines and American Princes. - Jason White
Jason White (born November 11, 1973 in Little Rock, Arkansas) is a guitarist who has played in many punk rock bands. He is most notable for being a touring member of Green Day. - Luther Allison
Luther Allison (August 17, 1939 - August 12, 1997) was an American blues guitarist. He was born in Widener, Arkansas and moved with his family, at age twelve, to Chicago, Illinois in 1951. He had taught himself guitar while in Arkansas and began listening to blues extensively. Three years later he began hanging outside blues clubs with the hopes of being invited to perform. He played with Howlin' Wolf's band and backed up James Cotton. - Pharoah Sanders
Pharoah Sanders (born October 13, 1940) is an American jazz saxophonist. Ornette Coleman once described him as "probably the best tenor player in the world." Sanders was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, under the name Farrell Sanders. He began his professional career playing tenor saxophone in Oakland, California. Sanders moved to New York City in 1961 after playing with rhythm and blues bands. He received his nickname "Pharoah" from Sun Ra, … - Roosevelt Sykes
Roosevelt Sykes (January 31, 1906 in Elmar, Arkansas - July 17, 1983 in New Orleans, Louisiana) was an American blues musician also known as "Honeydripper". He was a successful and prolific cigar-chomping blues piano player who influenced blues piano playing with his rollicking thundering boogie. - Sister Rosetta Tharpe
"Sister" Rosetta Tharpe was a pioneering Gospel singer, songwriter and recording artist who attained great popularity in the 1930s and 1940s with a unique mixture of spiritual lyrics and early rock accompaniment. She became the first great recording star of Gospel music, first surfacing on the pop charts with her 1938 original composition "This Train". - Iris Dement
Iris DeMent (born January 5, 1961) is an American singer and songwriter. DeMent's musical style encompasses the genres country music and folk music. - John Michael Talbot
John Michael Talbot (b. May 8, 1954) is an American Catholic singer guitarist who is founder of a monastic community, the Brothers and Sisters of Charity. - Sonny Burgess
Albert "Sonny" Burgess is a guitarist and singer of rockabilly, present at its inception and still performing today. He was born May 28, 1931 on a farm near Newport, Arkansas about 60 miles west of Memphis. Burgess played honky-tonk music in dance halls and bars around Newport in the early-1950s. He helped form a semiprofessional trio in the early 1950s, which became the "Moonlighters." After advice from record producer Sam Phillips, … - Joe Nichols
Joe Nichols is an American country music singer-songwriter. He is notable for his relative youth allied to his neotraditional brand of country music. - Jimmy Witherspoon
Jimmy Witherspoon was an American blues singer. James Witherspoon was born in Gurdon, Arkansas. He first attracted attention singing with Teddy Weatherford's band in Calcutta, India, which made regular radio broadcasts over the U. S. Armed Forces Radio Service during World War II. Witherspoon made his first records with Jay McShann's band in 1945. In 1949, recording under his own name with the McShann band, he had his first hit, "Ain't Nobody's Business", … - Brace Paine
Brace Paine, also known as Nathan Howdeshell, is the guitarist of American band The Gossip. He hails from Arkansas, although now lives in Olympia, Washington He DJed as DJ Nightschool but changed his name in May of 2007 to "The Chain" for upcoming remixes. He also runs a record label (Fast Weapons) His heroes include Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth Unlike the other two members of The Gossip (Beth Ditto and Hannah Blilie), … - O. C. Smith
O.C. Smith was a Grammy Award winning musician. Born Ocie Lee Smith in Mansfield, Louisiana, Smith moved with his parents to Little Rock, Arkansas, before their divorce saw Smith and his mother move to Los Angeles. After completing a psychology degree at Southern University, Smith joined the Air Force, and served throughout the US, Europe and Asia. While in the Air Force, Smith began entering talent contests and toured with Horace Heidt. - David Hodges
David Hodges is a keyboardist and vocalist. He is probably best known for his work with the band Evanescence, which he left in 2002. He now fronts his own band, Trading Yesterday. - Rocky Gray
Rocky Gray (born July 2, 1974 as William Gray) was the drummer for the multi-platinum rock band Evanescence until May 4, 2007. He has been a part of the Arkansas Metal scene since the early 90's and is probably best known as the lead guitarist for Living Sacrifice and drummer for Evanescence. Gray is married to Renee Gray with two children, Abraham and Madison and currently resides in Little Rock, Arkansas. - Johnnie Taylor
Johnnie Harrison Taylor (born May 5, 1937, Crawfordsville, Arkansas; died May 31, 2000, Dallas, Texas) was an American vocalist in a wide variety of genres, from gospel, blues and soul to pop, doo-wop and disco. Taylor had one release, "Somewhere to Lay My Head", on Chicago's Chance Records in the 1950s, as part of the doo-wop group Five Echoes. His singing was strikingly close to that of Sam Cooke, and he was hired to take Cooke's place in Cooke's gospel group, … - Floyd Cramer
Floyd Cramer was an American Hall of Fame pianist who was one of the architects of the "Nashville Sound." Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, Cramer grew up in the small town of Huttig, Arkansas, teaching himself to play the piano. After finishing high school, he returned to Shreveport, where he worked as a pianist for the Louisiana Hayride radio show. In 1952, he made his way to Nashville at a time when the use of piano accompanists in country music was growing in popularity. - Steve Stephens
Steve Stephens was an American television host in the late 1950s and 1960s as well as a musician. Steve Stephens was born in Newport, Arkansas and hosted several local television programs during the late 1950s and early 1960s which helped start the careers of several notable entertainers such as Johnny Cash, Conway Twitty, Charlie Rich, Brenda Lee, Fabian, and Carl Perkins. Stephens most notable show was "Steve's Show" which was broadcast on Little Rock, … - Collin Raye
Collin Raye (born Floyd Collin Wray August 22, 1959 in De Queen, Arkansas) is a country singer. He was Bubba Wray in the Wray Brothers Band before going solo as Collin. Raye scored several major hits in the 90s, starting with 1991's "Love, Me", his first #1 (and second chart entry). Following that came a string of consistent Top 10 hits on Billboard's Country charts, including three other #1 hits: "In This Life", "My Kind Of Girl", … - Bonnie Brown
Bonnie Brown (born Bonnie Jean Brown, 31 July 1937, Sparkman, Arkansas) is an American country music singer. From a musical family, in 1955 Bonnie Brown joined her older sister Maxine Brown, and brother Jim Ed Brown to form the musical group, The Browns. Signed by RCA Records in 1956, the highly successful trio were members of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee until disbanding in 1967. - Tommy Cash
Tommy Cash, (Born April 5, 1940), is a singer and brother of Johnny Cash. Cash was born in Arkansas, one of seven children in his family, and eight years after his brother, Johnny Cash. He formed his first band in high school. After high school graduation, he enlisted into the army. While in the military, he was a disc jockey for the American Forces Radio Network. After the Army, Cash played with Hank Williams, Jr., … - Patsy Montana
Ruby(e) Blevins (she added the "e" herself later in life) aka Patsy Montana (October 30, 1908-May 3, 1996) was an American country music singer-songwriter and the first female country music performer to sell one million records. Rubye Blevins was born in Beaudry, Arkansas and grew up near Hope, Arkansas. Beaudry no longer exists, but its current successor, Jessieville, has a street dedicated to the once sighing town. - Robert Lockwood Jr.
Robert Lockwood Jr., also known as Robert Jr Lockwood was an American blues guitarist who recorded for Chess Records in the 1950s and 1960s. He was a longtime collaborator and Chess Records studio guitarist for Sonny Boy Williamson II - Bob Dorough
Bob Dorough (born 12 December 1923) is an American bebop and cool jazz pianist, composer and vocalese singer. He worked with Miles Davis and Allen Ginsberg, and his adventurous style was an influence on Mose Allison, among other singers. He is perhaps best known as a voice and primary composer of many of the songs used in "Schoolhouse Rock!", … - John Lecompt
John Charles LeCompt (born March 10, 1973 in Little Rock, Arkansas) is an American musician who has been part of the Little Rock heavy metal music scene since the mid-90s. He has been associated with a great number of bands, ranging from the unknown and unsigned to multi-platinum sellers, most notably Evanescence. One of his main collaborators is long-time friend Rocky Gray, who is often John's bandmate in various group projects. - Buddy Jewell
Buddy Jewell (born April 2, 1961) is an American country music performer who won the first "Nashville Star" competition. - Jason Truby
Jason Truby is an American guitarist. He began his career in 1989 when he formed the higly influentual thrash/death metal/metalcore band Living Sacrifice as their lead guitarist. Even though he was a founding member of the Arkansas-based metal band, he left Living Sacrifice in 1997 to spend time with his family. However, in 2003, P.O.D. needed a new guitarist after former band member Marcos Curiel left the band in a bitter controversy.
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