The Ozarks are alive with the sound of music. With the Walmart AMP in Rogers bringing household-recognized musicians to our backdoor and Fayetteville-based venues like George’s Majestic Lounge and Ozark Music Hall hosting beloved indie bands and hip-hop artists, it’s clear that the music scene in Northwest Arkansas is booming. But the region’s concert accessibility wouldn’t be possible without the bands and musicians who call Northwest Arkansas home and the venues willing to host them. While there are a number of individuals working to book and support the local music community, several of the Northwest Arkansas bands are managed by one local legend: Joe Swink of Stay Swinky.
Stay Swinky, Swink’s concert management alias, began supporting local artists in 2022 after an eight-month stint of designing posters and shooting photographs for bands in the local scene. Combined with marketing experience he gained from working as the social media manager for the University of Arkansas’ music department, a new career presented itself to Swink.
“I sat back and I was like, ‘you know what? I could book my own show!” I really wanted to bring some Little Rock bands up here to Fayetteville, so I set up my own show. From there, it just kind of snowballed and just got bigger and bigger from there,” Swink said.
Stay Swinky is operated solely by Swink. For each concert, he handles booking and scheduling the venue, designs the graphics for marketing materials and photographs each show. “I’m a one man show,” Swink said.
With three years of band management and concert booking under his belt, Swink has garnered quite the roster of bands and artists managed - both in and out of Arkansas. He has booked over 550 shows since the genesis of Stay Swinky and has worked closely with popular local artists such as Sawyer Hill, Welles, Modeling, Thoughts on Bowling and Mildenhall. Additionally, he was responsible for securing the opening band for the secret The All-American Rejects show at the Starlight Stadium in July.
Though his reputation has grown enough for him to be trusted with larger bands, Swink still sticks with his roots by working with bands looking to enter the scene. “I constantly have brand new bands hit me up on socials looking to have their first show or one of their first shows, and I’m always down to put them on. When I bring them to Fayetteville, my goal is to have a more established band on the bill and then a newer, local band open for them,” Swink said.
With Swink’s leadership, the musicians of Northwest Arkansas can count on a schedule of performances throughout the year; however, it’s the community of concert lovers that keep the music scene alive and booming. “At the end of the day, these concerts don’t happen if people don’t buy the tickets and show up,” Swink said.
As the Fayetteville music scene continues to receive support from the community, the scene can continue to thrive, ultimately bringing more concerts to the city and, if we’re lucky, popular bands from all over the country. “If I could have Fall Out Boy play a more medium-sized venue like George’s, just once, I would cry,” Swink said.