Ozarks Storyteller, Musician & Author
Marideth Sisco
Marideth Sisco (born June 15, 1943) is a multifaceted American storyteller, folklorist, singer-songwriter, author, and retired journalist. A native of the Missouri Ozarks, Sisco has devoted her life to preserving Ozark folk culture through music and storytelling. She gained national recognition for contributing her authentic folk singing to the Oscar-nominated film Winter’s Bone (2010), and she continues to share then rich heritage of the Ozark Mountains through performances, writing, and radio. In 2023, Sisco was honored as a featured artist at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, showcasing her talents in both song and story. She has even been celebrated as a “Living Traditions Fellow” for her deep-rooted contributions to Missouri’s traditional arts
Early Life and Musical Beginnings
Early Life and Ozark Roots
Marideth Sisco, born near Butterfield, Missouri, grew up immersed in Ozark oral traditions, learning storytelling and ballads from family elders. At age 3 in 1946, she performed publicly, singing “Far Away Places with Strange Sounding Names” at a local auction, captivating the crowd.
Early Musical Career
In her teens and 20s, Sisco sang folk songs across the Ozarks, landing her first paid gig in 1963 at a Springfield bar, funding a year at Southwest Missouri State. Facing 1960s music industry sexism, she moved to California, performing in folk clubs alongside artists like Judy Collins. A car accident in the 1970s injured her hand, limiting her guitar playing.
Return to Missouri
Sisco returned to Missouri in the early 1980s, completing a B.F.A. in photography with a writing minor at Southwest Missouri State. This shift marked a new phase in her career, blending her creative talents with her Ozark roots.
Career Highlights and Recognition
Journalism Career
Marideth Sisco built a 20-year journalism career at the West Plains Daily Quill, working as an investigative and environmental reporter while writing the popular gardening column “Crosspatch.” Her folksy style and deep Ozark knowledge made her a regional favorite. She retired around 2005 due to health issues, expecting a quiet life in West Plains, Missouri.
Winter’s Bone and Musical Rise
In 2009, director Debra Granik recruited Sisco as a music consultant and vocalist for Winter’s Bone. Her haunting voice, featured in cameos and six soundtrack songs, including an a cappella “Missouri Waltz,” brought authentic Ozark soul to the 2010 film. Its success led Sisco and local musicians to form The Blackberry Winter Band, touring nationally and internationally. They released two albums, In These Ozark Hills and Still Standing, while Sisco also recorded a solo album, Empty Doors.
Ongoing Legacy
Sisco hosts “These Ozarks Hills,” a monthly KSMU radio series, sharing Ozark essays and folklore, also released as a four-disc CD set. Her storytelling, lauded for its wit and authenticity, resonates deeply. In 2023, she performed at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, and in 2025, she received Missouri’s Living Traditions Fellowship for preserving Ozark music and stories. Her work continues to celebrate and sustain Ozark culture.
The story of Marideth Sisco is an American classic
“I grew up in a small Ozarks village in the days before television or air conditioning, gathering with kinfolk on the front porches and firesides of my Ozarks extended family and friends. There I learned, from the time I could talk, the cadences, forms and structures of the old-timers telling their homespun stories. And I learned to sing the old songs in the old way.”