Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Eudy And The Heathens To Perform During Forest Festival

Mike Eudy hopes to become an overnight success after spending two decades in the music business.

Eudy, a native of De Queen, will be the featured performer during the annual Gurdon Forest Festival. He calls his style "front porch pickin'" as Eudy and the Heathens play country, gospel and bluegrass music.

Eudy spent the better part of 20 years as a modern troubadour before returning to his Southwest Arkansas roots disillusioned with song and wanting to come home.

However, there are times when trying to quit something is the best way to make it happen, kind of like saying "never", the fates have bizarre senses of humor.

When Eudy tried to give up his dream of being a singer and songwriter, he wound up finding his niche in the industry. After returning to Arkansas he began composing simpler songs with heartfelt lyrics in a style all his own, yet still reflecting his roots.

Eudy and his band, the Heathens, have a compact disk out entitled Hillbilly in Hollywood.

His parents, Charles and Shirley, of Big Fork, have joined the business and formed the Eudy Family Music Publishing Co. to help with the promotional efforts.

Strange ending for someone who returned home and was working at a chain discount store in nearby Mena.

But music has been Eudy's life. At De Queen High School his band, Steele, performed at a school assembly. At the time, he and his band of five other DHS students, covered songs made famous by other artists from the 1970s.

As has happened before with other groups, Eudy went from rock music to playing country and then found his own musical voice in hillbilly, or mountain, music.

"I wanted to rock as a child of the late 1970s," Eudy said, "but I've come full circle to the music of my heritage."

Eudy realized early on in life he wanted to be a musician of some sort. He made the discovery while a child of 10 in Nashville, when he visited the home of Steve and Mike Graves.

The two had something to show him, a lava lamp, and were playing "Eleanor Rigby" by the Beatles. "The light just went off in my head," he said.

Several years later, Eudy asked his father to teach him to play guitar. However, he got frustrated and delayed his lessons until a sophomore at DHS.

Then, he learned country chords on an inexpensive guitar.

After returning home from his venture into the music industry, Eudy wrote hillbilly songs based on Arkansas porch music he had heard as a lad.

With music in the blood, he had to give it another shot and went to Los Angeles. He knew Douglas Gentry, a De Queen native and successful editor in the video and commercial industry.

Eudy wound up spending five months on Gentry's couch before playing a talent show in Burbank, CA. There he caught the eye of Chad Watson, a bass player and veteran country performer. Watson has played with country legends such as Charlie Rich, Janis Ian and Ronnie Milsap.

Watson apparently liked Eudy's original tunes and asked if he had any more, after hearing them at the talent show. "I said about 300 with me," Eudy said, "and about 1,000 more back home in Arkansas."

"Let's make a record," Watson told him, and the rest is the beginning of history. The end result of this venture was "Hillbilly in Hollywood."

The music on the CD is of traditional instrumentation with the backwood bluegrass "souped up" a bit, he said. Eudy added drums, bass and electric guitars to the beat.

According to Eudy, Watson is pushing for the release and the CD is getting airplay on the radio in European markets and an underground hillbilly station in New York City.

Now, Eudy is booked to perform for 30 minutes at the Gurdon Forest Festival Saturday, Oct. 30.

Copies of his CD, not available in stores yet, could likely be purchased at this time.