Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Deep Roots, Beautiful Melodies
Dandelion Heart brings new single to Folk Fest
One would be hard-pressed to find a better example of the community inherent in folk music than the four-piece band Dandelion Heart of Fayetteville. Even their beginnings are steeped in folk tradition — a potluck.
“I got to a place of a little bit of writer’s block, honestly, but also wanting to make new friends. And that’s always kind of a tricky place as an adult — how to make friends as an adult,” says Lacy Hampton, guitarist and singer for Dandelion Heart. “So one day I just reached out to 10 other songwriting women that I knew and respected a lot and said, ‘Hey, you guys want to hang out sometime and maybe do potlucks and jam every once in a while?’ And, amazingly, most of them said yes.”
From that gathering she was able to make many connections, one of whom suggested that she play music with Korey McKelvy, whom she knew from high school choir. The two had seen one another playing in bands around Northwest Arkansas.
“We’re like, ‘sure.’ We’ve been talking about making music forever. And then Chase [Hart] added her stuff,” Hampton adds, referring to her band mate who sings and plays guitar. “It was so organic.”
“And I was like, ‘Hey, my cousin plays cello. And that was Willa [Thomason],” McKelvy adds.
Even their band name has “roots.” The dandelion is a versatile plant in folk traditions, but many disregard it as a weed.
“I had previously written a song through House of Songs called ‘Deep Rooted Weed,’ which doesn’t say anything about dandelions in it, but the weed that I was thinking of in my head was a dandelion and comes from a saying from my grandma. She used to say “a weed is only a weed until someone finds it beautiful,” Hampton says. “The dandelion is so strong because it will grow anywhere … that’s kind of what folk music is, it’s connection to our history and our people.”
Hampton adds that the dandelion theme shows up in several other narratives from local musicians whom she knows personally and with military kids who move from town to town while trying to lay down roots — a humble, yet significant metaphor.
Folk music, likewise, shares the same versatile properties — sturdy and useful and often transient. It’s a musical tradition that’s important to preserve.
“I think it’s important in general; as a music teacher, I’m always teaching folk music from all over the world. And so the folk music of America, and specifically Arkansas, it’s just kind of like the heart of the people,” says Hampton.
“So much is preserved in music. And, you know, I think we run the risk, maybe, of being homogenized and losing a lot of our culture if we lose those traditional folk songs. So I think historically, and also culturally, it’s important to keep singing them,” adds Thomason.
In the same way folk music can serve as a local history of a region, their music has served as history of their time as friends and as a band.
“Just like folk music, we’ve documented our lives and our growth and our history through music. So it’s been really cool to do that together,” vocalist and guitarist Chase Hart says.
“We’re coming up on four years of friendship, three years as a band,” Hampton says. “We’ve seen each other grow in that time and big life changes.”
Many of those changes are included in their album, “Retrospect,” released in 2020, and on Nov. 11, they will release “Morse Code” online. Keep up with Dandelion Heart at dandelionheartband. com.