Hope’s “Mr. Sound” Gears Up for Melon Festival

Pictured: Mr. Jerome Underwood

HOPE – In sweet anticipation for a special 50th annual Hope Watermelon Festival, we decided that there was no better man to interview than our very own, “Mr. Sound”. Mr. Jerome Underwood, a Hope native, has lived and breathed all things sound and music for most of his life. We talked with him to find out about his story and the history behind his band and his sound-providing hobby.

Mr. Underwood, now 67, has lived in Hope all of his life and has even lived in the same place since his childhood. Born to Howard and Winoka Underwood, he shared his childhood with his two sisters, one being Dr. Brenda Davis, founder of the Byreview Veterinary Clinic. His father was a chicken grower, which has continued in the family with Jerome as he has managed several chicken houses since 1980. Jerome attended Southern Arkansas University, where he met his wife Deborah. The pair have two children.

In Mr. Jerome’s childhood, he took a keen interest in music, taking inspiration and learning from Charlie and Bruce Webb. Jerome would get into music when he was 3, and his journey would start really picking up his musical interests at age 14. In these early days, he and Bruce would play at State Fairs and at 4-H events in Fayetteville, to name a couple. With his new hobby of playing venues, he would then have to learn about sound systems for use for his shows.

Mr. Jerome would go on to tell us the story of a day he was sitting in his classroom at Hope High School, and he was called to the office where they asked him, “Would you be willing to bring your sound equipment and set it up in our auditorium”? In response, he went home and loaded up his supplies and brought them to the auditorium where, as instructed, he set up his equipment. This would lead to his life-long hobby of sound mastery.

Mr. Underwood has been a member of six bands over the course of his life, playing both bluegrass and country music. Most recently and most importantly, he has been a member of The Nighthawk Band. The band’s formation came about after a change of leadership. The remaining members, of course including Jerome, would decide to keep performing as a group, with one of the existing band members suggesting the name ‘Nighthawk’ as their title, which quickly stuck. Since their founding in 1987, the band has performed countless shows, even scheduling up to 105 shows per year.

Over all of the various sound projects that Jerome has helped with, there is one local job that he has truly made his own: providing sound for the Hope Watermelon Festival since 1993. He shared a festival official approached him at some point about a new stage to be used at the Watermelon Festival. After being asked three times, he built the nice stage that they use today. The stage that they built is a large portable performance stage that’s usually stationed by the tennis courts at the Watermelon Festival. With the building of this stage, Jerome would only go on to expand his sound technician skills to the rest of the festival. Today, with a top-notch soundboard, he is now providing digital sound wherever he goes.

Over the years, Jerome has worked sound for some of the major entertainers for the Watermelon Festival and Hempstead Hall including Diamond Rio, Tracy Lawrence, The Oak Ridge Boys, Mickey Gilley, Joe Stampley, Billy Joe Royal, and the Gatlin Brothers.

Now, looking forward to the Watermelon Festival next week, we thought to ask Mr. Underwood one final question, “How much more of this do you think you have left”? In reply, he said, “Well, you know, my wife asked me that question not too long ago! Thinking about it, I’m not sure that I see a line in the sand just yet, but I do realize that there will come a time that it will not be feasible to do this. For now however, I will keep trying to go as long as I can”.

Be looking forward to seeing Mr. Jerome and The Nighthawk Band live in action on the stage near the tennis courts at the Watermelon Festival. We thank him for his generous time and help with this story.