Cathy Barton, Dave Para, and Bob Dyer, festival organizers and popular Missouri minstrels, will be back for concert sets on both nights. After releasing albums of river songs that past few years, the three find themselves hard at work on music for the upcoming Lewis and Clark bicentennial celebration. It’s a musicological and creative task. Pierre Cruzatte was one of two fiddlers in the Corps of Discovery, and he often played for the Indian tribes the group met along their epic trip up the Missouri River. Songs from the French voyageur tradition were part of the job of poling keelboats and paddling pirogues. Unfortunately, none of the memoirs of the journey mention a specific song or tune, and one is left to intelligently guess what they might have played based on the ethnic groups and geographic locations represented by the 40 travelers. Of course, the epic nature of the trip has inspired many a songwriter, especially recently, and Bob and Cathy and even Dave have come up with some original songs. Bob is also working to develop Lewis and Clark signs and displays for the State of Missouri this year. Cathy Barton, Dave Para & Bob Dyer