Review of the Book Orange Journalism

In The Key HumanitiesFLORIDA * COUNCIL 30 Years ofExploring the Florida Experience

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

FRANK BILLINGSLEY, Orlando

IAN CADDIE Winter Springs JIM CLARK Orlando DAVID COLBURN Gainesville JACK CROCKER Fort Myers KATHLEEN DEAGAN Galnesville ChaIr NANCY DECKER Winter Park [NA DIAl Miami JON FISHBANE Naples JEANNE 000WIN Pensacola JUDY HALLjacksonville Vice-Chair CAM HARDEE Madison SUZAN HARRISON St. Petersburg ROGER KAUFMAN Tallahassee KEVIN KNUTSON Coral Springs TODD KOCOUREK Tallahassee KIM LONG Napiss LESLIE NORTHUP Miami HOWARD PARDUE Tallahassee CYNTHIA SAMAI4A St. Petersburg HENRY ThOMAS Jacknonnille ELLEN VINSON Pensacola

STAFF FRANCINE CURRO CARY Ejeecu&e Director $flIINE FARVER Associate Director SUSAN LOCKWOOD Director of Grants LAURIE BERLIN Dimttor of Administration PATRICIA PUTMAN Development Officer DAVID REDDY Resource Center Director jULIE HENRY-MATIJS Teacher Center Coordinator ANN SCHOENACHER Director. Florda Center forTeadiers BRENDA O’HARA Fiscal Officer KAREN JACKSON Program & Fiscal Assistant RENÉ RENO Program Assistant

BARBARA O’REILLEY FORUM Editor RUSS KRAMER FORUM Design & Production

Webaite address: www.flahum.org

The Florida Humanities Council is a nonprofit organization, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the state of Florida, and private contributors. FHC FORUM is published four times a year and dittrib-’ uted to the friends of the Florida Humanities Council and interested Floridians. If you wish to be added to the mail ing list, please reçuest so in writing. Views expressed by contributors to the FORUM are not necessarily those of the Florida Humanities Council. WINTER 2004

5 Humanities Alive! News of the Florida Humanities Council

6 lvorite florida Places Wakulla Springs By Tracy J. Revels

8 A Place of Romance and Pain They came seeking new lives, but what they found left them singing the Florida Blues Adaptation by Barbara O’Reilley

12 Mystery of the Bluegrass ‘Anthem’ Who really wrote ‘Orange Blossom Special’? By Randy Noles

16 A Colorful Enigma Florida folk music is as mixed as alligator stew By Peter B. Gallagher

Listen to the Joy of Junkanoo! It’s the sound of freedom By Janet 1. DeCosmo

Sacred Steel Steel guitars sing in fiery praise By Robert L. Stone

Miami - Latin Music Center It’s the international capitol By Maria Elena Cepeda

florida flocks! From primal to uptown to techno to underground, we’ve got pop By Jeffery M. Lemlich

Book Briefs Journalists tell their own stories

On the cover: "Diamond Teeth Mary" McClain out side Miami’s Tobacco Road nightclub. Photo by Peter B. Gallagher Lefter FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

MUSIC AND MEMORY. They go together, as Randy Noles reminds us in his poignant story about Ervin Rouse, Chubby Wise, and Our musical traditions the origins of the world’s most famous fiddle tune, "Orange Blossom Special." This issue of FORUM focuses on Florida music and some of are as diverse in their its many roots, styles, and traditions. The music created by Floridians and others who explore a Florida place or theme opens additional geneses and genres as pathways our We into state’s heritage and culture. learn about Florida Florida itself. These through its music just as we do through its folk art, literature, archaeol o’, and architecture, traditions both embody Our musical traditions are as diverse in their geneses and genres as Florida itself. These traditions both embody and shape the fantastic and shape the fantastic tales and mosaic of cultures that are integral to Florida’s distinctive tales and mosaic of character and identity. "The Florida Sound is a mix that is as diverse as the state’s population," Jeff Lemlich points out in his article on Florida cultures that are rock music. ‘And both continue to grow and change." For me, nothing evokes the real Florida better than a folk song by integral to Florida’s one of our state’s troubadours. Their songs evoke a sense of place as distinctive character vivid and accessible as a Clyde Butcher photograph or a Highwayman painting. They give voice to a specific time, a spirit, a mood; they spin a and identity. yarn; they let us in on the real thing. Of course the real thing may also have a Latin beat, whether it’s the rumbas or mambas of an era gone by, or the pulsating beat of the new generation of Latin music emanating from Miami. Or maybe it’s the infectious "ka-link, ka-link, ka-link" of the cowbells that characterize Bahamian Junkanoo music, which has traveled from West Africa to the Bahamas-and finally to Florida. Fortunately for Floridians, the music never stops. Even as we listen to the classics of established genres, new music is emerging. It adds to and enriches the numerous traditions that make up the sounds of

Florida - so numerous, in fact, that we can highlight only some of them in this issue of FORUM. I hope this speaks to you as it does to me about the meaning of music in our lives as Floridians, Listen, and learn! Florida Council Comings and HUM ANITIES Goings...

FHC Receives Grant for Orange County Public Library in Orlando, Seminars on ‘Spanish St. Putnam County Library in Palatka, and Augustine’ Martin County Library in Stuart. In each library, a The National Endowment for the discussion leader Humanities NEH awarded a $261,587 and a storyteller grant to FHC to develop and conduct four will meet weekly seminars for teachers this summer enti with children, aged tled, "Between Columbus and Jamestown: 6 to 10, and their Spanish St. Augustine." The four consecu parents or tive week-long seminars will be held from guardians. The six- June 28 to July 24 on the campus of Flagler "Thinking florida?" week program will College in St. Augustine. Visit our website at include readings They will be among NEH’s "Landmarks www.flahum.org for: and discussions of of American History" workshops for K-12 Up-to-date listings of FHC classic children’s educators from around the United States. programs throughout the state stories, and instruc The workshops, which will offer intensive Resources for teachers devel. tion about library study and discussion of important topics oped by the Florida Center for resources and serv and issues in American history, are Teachers ices. designed to provide teachers with direct * Announcements of scholar- "PRIME TIME" experiences in the interpretation of signifi led heritage tours was created by the * Information on FHC grant cant historical sites and in the use of Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities archival historical opportunities 1991 spread and other primary evi * Our constantly updated in and has nationally with dence, Speakers Bureau Catalogue NEH funding. For more information, see our website * Highlights from previous at [email protected] FORUM magazines 2004 florida Center for Monthly humanities radio Teacher Seminars programs Florida teachers are invited to join dis tinguished scholars and experts from a wide array of fields at a Florida Center for read and understand great literature while Teachers seminar this summer These exploring themes in American history. weeklong, residential seminars explore School and public libraries are invited to compelling humanities topics from a multi apply to receive the "We the People" disciplinary perspective. Seminar topics Bookshelf, which consists of IS thematical include: archeology, race, art and culture, ly related books and supplemental materi Asian religions and African-American liter als to help with publicity and the organiza ature. tion of public programs. NEH will accept Seminars are open to full-time Florida applications for this reading program teachers, grades K- 12 who have taught in through February IS. For details go to the Florida for three years. For more infor NEH website at www.neh.fed.us, mation visit our website at www.flahum.org.

FHC to Launch Family Reading Program NEH Chair Bruce Cole announces "Landmarks of American History" workshops at a recent libraries around Florida will host press conference in St. Augustine. Five a new FHC program to help low-income families read and discuss books. Called ‘We the People’ Bookshelf "PRIME TIME," the program will focus on Available to Libraries humanities topics. It will also instruct par ents and children in selecting books and NEH is also collaborating with the becoming active library users. American Library Association to inaugu The host libraries will be: Hardee The Florida Center rate the "We the People" Bookshelf, a County Public Library in Wauchula, LeRoy for Teachers program to encourage young people to Collins Public Library in Tallahassee,

WINTER 2004 FLORJDAHUMANITIEScOIJNCIL FORUM S Sn 6Florida J3cf

WAKULLA SPRINGS ESSAY BY TRACY 5. REVELS

Wakulla Springs, in the long twilight of Tallahasseeans had discovered Wakulla’s "enchanted summer, the sultry heat begins to lift. fountain" and were picnicking on its shores, Proposals Swimmers pack their fins and snorkels; were made that the spring should be the site of a sani the last herd of khaki-clad tourists tarium or a resort or a jazz club, yet for years the only reg tramps down the concrete dock, ular guests were the politicians who came to speak at the Boats are moored, gates close, and soon the only human yearly community gatherings held on the grassy knoll sounds are voices echoing from the stately old lodge, close to the water. In 1934, commercialization came in debating whether it will be ice cream or blueberry pie for the form of a dumpy businessman named Ed Ball, who dessert. In that slow gathering of evening, as the human purchased the land, built the lodge, and launched the presence fades with the light, Wakulla Springs is once boats. He created a small, lazy tourist attraction, a place more primeval Florida, a place of magnolia, live oak and where he could "pick up a few nickels and dimes" while pine, sky blue waters and rich green foliage. Gators bel enjoying nature. His reign did not go unchallenged; low, birds call, fish leap from the depths. This is Florida’s many conservationists of the 1970s objected to his use of garden, her Eden. the river as his private stream. Yet Ball remained true to Wakulla Springs is not a convenient place. It is his promise never to turn Wakulla Springs into a "honky remote, tucked some 14 miles south of Tallahassee on a lonely road, in a county known for both its excellent Wakulla Springs is a hunting and its grinding poverty. Officially known as the Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park, Wakulla fragile place, in need of protection. Springs encompasses more than 4,000 acres, most of them wild and rambling, rarely seen by anyone except Park officials must be talented the occasional ranger. The park’s centerpiece is the 185- jugglers, balancing the public foot-deep Wakulla Spring, a shimmering bowl that serves as the fountainhead of the Wakulla Rivet A desire to enjoy the site with the Spanish-style hotel sits on a slight rise above the spring, and glass bottom boats ply its smooth surface while "jun intense need to keep it as natural gle cruise" crafts venture down the river in search of wildlife. No gaudy billboards advertise Wakulla Springs and wild as possible. on the interstates. One learns of it through word of mouth, from the memories of weddings and reunions held there, from the boasts of daredevils who dived from tonk," and when the state of Florida purchased the prop its high tower, or perhaps from a faded postcard, a relic erty after Ball’s death, it took possession of a Florida of a family vacation in the pre-amusement-park days. anomaly: an attraction where nature remains in control, History is suspended here. Native Americans hunted where the mice and ducks are real. and performed rituals along the banks, leaving the Wakulla Springs is a fragile place, in need of protec ground rich with evidence of occupations that stretched tion. Infestations of hydrilla, an exotic aquatic plant for thousands of years. Narvaez and deSoto passed close that dominates the ecosystem, and constant flushing of by on their quests for gold. Just downstream, Milly tannic acid through the polluted North Florida aquifer Francis, Florida’s Pocahontas, rescued a young American make for constant environmental battles and frequent soldier from execution by ferocious braves. By the 1850s, cancellations of the boat rides. Park officials must be tal

6 FORUM FLORIDA HuMANITIESc0uNCIL WINTER 2004 ented jugglers, balancing the public desire to enjoy the be the real Florida, wild and beautiful, but just a little site with the intense need to keep it as natural and wild gaudy as well, and secretly proud of it. as possible. Wakulla Springs has passed through many Twilight, however, belongs to the past. A visitor can hands, yet has always remained open to those who will time-travel simply by standing still, letting a summer respect the rules that preserve it. This ancient legacy is night descend, as thunder rumbles in the distance and one the park system is eager to preserve. mist rises from the water. Listen and you will hear the For all its pristine beauty, Wakulla Springs is also a sounds the Apalachee and the Seminoles heard. The quirky place. Tarzan lived here, swinging from vines and smell of the place will embrace you, a wondrous aroma, ordering his breakfast at the lodge with his famous yell. part earth, part water, part flowers, all mingled to give The Creature from the Black Lagoon lurked in the the air life. Watch as anhingas spread their glossy wings, weeds, visited in the 1990s by deep-diving adventurers and rare limpkins pluck their way through the shallows who made fantastic voyages into the murky heart of the in search of apple snail eggs. Trace the swirling path of a spring. Henry the Pole Vaulting Fish performs hourly on gator prowling for his evening meal with dangerous his underwater high bar, often with Henrietta and grace. Catch the bass hopping a joyful path across the Henry Jr. in tow. The boatmen still sing and joke. They gigantic spring. To do so is to be in Eden, where Florida may be naturalists, but they haven’t forgotten how to was born. work a crowd, especially one filled with wide-eyed chil dren. Educational videos are stacked next to garish ash TRACY J. REVELS, associate professor of history at Wofford College in trays in the gift shop; Sunday diners in their suits min Spartanburg, S.C., is a graduate of Florida State University and the gle with half-clad bathers. Wakulla Springs manages to author of Watery Eden: A History of Wakulla Springs.

WINTER 2004 FLORJDAHuFwgrr,Es CONIL FORUM 1 ______

Ray roots are in Florida, where theblues rose mourniuHy from the ‘ state’s citrus groves and turpentine camps. They heard it was paradise. They came seeking new lives. But what they found [eft them singing the Florida Blues

by Barbara O’Reffley from "Florida Bound Blues"

the blues Florida had the same oppression of flow" alongside class and race that held them down as the Missi sharecroppers and tenant farmers in its way thr Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South. These songs ot Louisiana, and South Carolina. Instead despair, loss, and jongint of prosperity and better lives, they have evolved from found the same backbreaking poverty and spirituals that that they’d tried to escape. The work fields and along the levees and rode was different, but life was the same. the South’s sultry breezes from Texas to Turpentine business ain’t like it used the Carolinas. to be! I can’t make enough money now, to In the early 20th century, when even get on a spree! .. You can work in former slaves and their descendants set the field, you can work in the sawmill tool out to find new lives, the blues fol But you can’t make no money at nothin’ lowed them. Many headed north to you try to do... -Tampa Red, 1932 jobs in cities like Chicago, which Tampa Red, born Hudson became a center for the blues as a Whittaker and also known as Hudson musical art form. Some headed to Woodbridge, was one of the few Florida; they’d heard the peninsula was Florida blues artists recorded in those a paradise where life could be easier early days. Jacksonville bluesman and work could be profitable. Arthur Phelps, known as Blind Blake,

The blues tradition that developed was another. Both moved to Chicago in Florida in the l920s and ‘30s is not to pursue moneymaking opportunities widely known. Little of it was record- in the music industry and were record ed, and so the historians who came ed there. Other early blues artists who later may have assumed it didn’t exist. were recorded included Nellie Florence Most scholars focused instead on the of Jacksonville and Louis Washington AREOBYNEILHAAPE early songs that agents and representa- who became known as Tallahassee tives of the music industry recorded in Tight. Still others were discovered by Turpentine business the Mississippi Delta. The agents, writer-folklorist Zora Neale Hurston, . who’d come down from Chicago and who wrote about the blues she heard ain’t like it used to New York, didn’t venture to Florida. when traveling through the central be/ I can’t make As far as they knew, Florida was just an part of the state in the early l930s. undeveloped wilderness with a few She returned in 1935 with folksong enough money now, to famous coastal playgrounds for the idle archivists Alan Lomax and Mary

+ rich. Who would think there were any Elizabeth Barnicle, and they recorded even geld on a spree, blues to record in Florida? Besides, it blues in many rural Florida black com You can work in the was so far away. munities. But the blues did exist in Florida. These early Florida blues com field, you can work They rose mournfully from the state’s bined Delta, Southeast, and Texas citrus groves, phosphate mines, blues forms. Like almost every art form in the sawmill too/ sawmills, turpentine camps, and rail- that bubbles up from Florida’s cultural But you can’t make no roads, where disillusioned black labor- stew, they reflected many influences ers sang about paradise not found. from outside the state-yet this fusion money at nothin’ you Their land of promise had turned out germinated in Florida soil and grew try to do to be a land of promises not kept. into something uniquely Floridian. -Tampa Red, 1932 WINTER 2004 FL0RJDAHuMANrnES couNciL FORUM 9 Florida inspired their lyrics as an idea, a location, a myth. It was described as a place for an idyllic life, a hard refuge from a harder life, and a home-sweet-home left behind for perhaps better opportunities in the North. This blues tradition, begun more than 100 years ago, con tinues today. Florida’s early blues included songs about Florida sung by artists from elsewhere. Famed blueswoman Bessie Smith, who was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, sang "Florida Bound Blues" during the 1920s’ Florida land boom. In it, she sings farewell to the North, which is so cold that "the words freeze in your mouth." She’s going to Florida, where her father bought her some land and she can enjoy herself in "the green grass" and sun. But her parents warn her Blueswoman Florence, born in Jacksonville, recorded to beware of "them bell-bottomed britches" who could two songs, "Midnight Weeping Blues" and referring to the frivolous, white only take advantage of her, "Jacksonville Blues" 1928. With her rough, assertive upper class in the South Florida resort areas. voice, Florence was a woman singing a woman’s song, an Bluesman Phelps Blind Blake, born and raised in early example of the strength and confidence manifested Jacksonville and migrating to Chicago in 1926, also sang in women’s blues. She sings unashamedly about her sexu of Florida as a destination. His "Tampa Bound" uses ality and sexual skills: Men "call me oven! They say that themes of loneliness and longing typical of blues songs. I’m red hot." Her songs show how the blues in Florida In it, he describes a home where a man left his girl very much part of mainstream-blues tradition, which he "cure his wor were a the behind, a place to can return to which has always included sexual themes and lyrics. ried mind." Blake, born around the turn of the century, first played and sang in Florida and along the East Coast, then joined the traveling medicine show circuit where he Tight was a successful commercial artist established his reputation as a guitarist comparable to the who recorded 22 sides for the American legendary Charlie Patton. In Chicago, he played house ration in 1934. His songs, including parties and was joined by other bluesmen like Blind Women," "Quincy Wimmens," and "East Lemon Jefferson, Little Brother Montgomery, Charlie "describe the Tallahassee region from the Spand, and Big Bill Broonzy. He then became a studio of itinerant black laborers. Tallahassee more than p musician for Paramount until 1932, recording w trayed as devious and dangerous. They 80 songs. on you," according to the song, often singer of "Turpentine Blues," was born "put Tampa Red, resulting In a man spending all his money. They are like in Smithville, Georgia, in 1903, raised by a grandmother no other women, presumably because of the pain and in Tampa, and learned and developed his guitar skills in love they provide. "Now that was down in Tallahassee/ the Tampa and Polk County jook joints. Sometimes where I had those Tallahassee blues/ I got these blues so spelled "juke" joints, these were establishments where don’t know what in world to do." He also sang alcohol some bad/ the people sang, played music, danced, drank of the availability of jobs there, but how the workingman times distilled from steno, gambled, socialized, and struggled to succeed against overwhelming difficulties. fought. The original spelling, "jook," comes from the Recording both blues and gospel, he composed lyrics writings of fulklorist Hurston. He toured on the Theatre based upon the cultural environment of Florida’s black Owner’s Booking Association TOBA circuit, which people and their lives as laborers working the Seaboard offered temporary employment to black entertainers Airline Railroad, the cotton or tobacco farms, the nationwide. Then, while in his 20s, he moved to Band. For sawmills, and the turpentine camps. Chicago and recorded with his Hokum Jug a About halfway between Tallahassee and Miami, while, Tampa Red’s house was said to he the center of the gathered blues folk- He adapted picking to writer-folklorist Hurston songs and Chicago blues world. his guitar tales in the jook joints, sawmills, and turpentine camps both the slide style of Delta blues and to the electrifica central part of the state. She reported them in her tion of the instrument. He also absorbed boogie and early in the book, Mules and Men, and included them in her novels, jazz, traditional country blues of his combining the most notably Their Eyes Were Watching God. In 1935, she Florida roots and Delta influences with the dynamic and guided folksong archivists Lomax and Barnicle to many new directions of the Chicago blues of the 1930s and obscure rural black communities where they recorded 1940s.

10 FORUM FL0RIDAHuMANIrIESc0uNcIL WINTER 2004 Bluesman Tallahassee Tight wrote of Alachua, Polk, and Lake counties. With the exception of a woman in duet performances of "Careless Love" and "Tallahassee Women" "Polk County Blues," all of the performers are men. The music is primitive in style and sound. The vocals are who are portrayed often rough sounding. Most of the songs are accompa as devious and nied by a six-string acoustic guitar, although one uses an electric guitar and one, a wire. dangerous. They "put Several of the songs refer to Florida, including "Mobile Blues:" "Go down in Georgia, don’t find me a method on you," there! Just drop on down in Florida, and find your loving daddy somewhere." One of the album’s two versions of often resulting in "Polk County Blues" is the same referred to in folklorist Hurston’s Mules and Men. According to album liner a man spending all notes, this version is a "localized blues song native to Florida’s most legendary county where Black sharecrop his moneys pers, citrus workers, phosphate miners, river roustabouts and stevedores, gang workers in turpentine and sawmill hlues songs as part of their fieldwork for the Library of camps, and railroad and prison gangs mingled with piano Congress Archive of the American Folksong. Sometimes players, guitar players, and gamblers and bootleggers, at wearing blackface in an effort to avoid the white police, the tough jukes and honky-tonks." Lomax and Barnicle joined Hurston in discovering jook Not surprisingly, with this kind of established legacy, joints and blues players in Polk County, Bartow, Belle there are more contemporary links to the Florida blues Glade, Chosen, Eatonville, Lakeland, Lake Okeechobee, tradition, including Ida Goodson, Mary McClain who and Maitland. became known as Diamond Teeth Mary, and Ray A sampling of their recordings is preserved on two Charles. Goodson played piano, in a unique style she - rate and difficult-to-obtain record albums. The first, enti described as blues, at gatherings and in the local clubs of tled Boot That Thing: Library of Congress Field Recordings her hometown of Pensacola. McClain, who claimed to from Florida by Booker T. Sapps, Roger Matthews, and be Bessie Smith’s half sister, sang in the "classic blues" Willie Flowers, presents "one of the finest small jook style of the 1920s, glittering with spangles and beads, bands ever to be documented," according to Bruce Bastin moving her hips aggressively, and adorning her teeth in Red River Blues: The Blues Tradition in the Southeast with Juicy Fruit foil. Before she retired in Bradenton, her 1989. Recorded near Lake Okeechobee, the jook band early career spanned 32 years of performing on the road played a number of blues songs that were well known at as "Diamond Teeth Mary" with Nat King Cole, Duke the time, such as "John Henry"; the ballad, "Delia," later Ellington, Billie Holiday, and Fats Wailer, among others. recorded by Blind Willie McTell; and "Boot that Thing," Both Goodson and McClain died in 2000. a typical instrumental jook-joint two-step. In contrast with Goodson and McClain, Charles has The second album, entitled Out in the Cold Again: achieved widespread success. Born in Albany, Georgia, Library of Congress Field Recordings by Gabriel Brown, and raised in the Florida panhandle town of Greenville, presents the impressive fingerpicking of Brown, who was Charles was blind by the age of 7 and educated at the likely from the Lake Okeechobee area. The album Florida State School for Deaf and Blind Children in St. includes his renditions of "John Henry," "Po’ Boy," "A Augustine from 1937 to 1945. His roots are in the blues Dream of Mine," and a song composed by Brown himself, and in Florida, hut his musical versatility and genius "Education Blues." Brown, like blues artists Phelps Blind transcend both the blues idiom and his Florida back Blake and Woodhridge Tampa Red, left Florida to per ground. form. He played and sang in New York in cafes and in Today, the legacy of Florida blues remains alive and the musical comedy "Polk County." He recorded com must be understood in terms of its own history and art, mercially for Davis records and, failing to sustain his suc and in terms of its own link to the larger American blues cess, became an active street singer in New York before tradition. Florida continues as a home to the blues and a returning to relative obscurity in rural Florida. source of the blues, a paradox reflecting the tension In 1980, nearly 40 years after these field recordings between myth and reality-a flawed paradise, a place of were made, the Florida Folklife Program made field romance and pain. recordings that provided conclusive evidence of a Florida blues tradition. These recordings, entitled Drop on Down This is based on and includes excerpts from "Florida Bound in Florida, make up a two-record set of "Afro.American Blues," an article by Ruth A. Banes, David A. Bealmear, Traditional Music." Two sides of one record are devoted and Kent ICaster that appeared in Popular Music and to blues and focus on artists from the same area Society, Winter, 1988. FORUM Editor Barbara O’Reilley researched by the Hurston-led expeditions in the 1930s wrote this adaptation.

WINTER 2004 FLoRIDA -IuMAN’nEs couNciL FORUM II Lively - I-. v_s.,..

By Randy Noles

the edge of the Florida Everglades, in a godfor saken tavern made of plywood and pecky cypress, a wizened, toothless old man clutching a bat tered fiddle stands before a boisterous, beer-guzzling throng of day-laborers, gator poachers, and commercial fish ermen. Despite the oppressive heat, he wears a multicolored Seminole Indian jacket over a stained white dress shirt; a fishing cap sits atop a tangle of wiry gray hair. His ruddy face is creased, his jowls are stubbly and his narrow, wide-set eyes appear filmy and unfocused. "Hello, folks," he rasps in a mush- The Mystery of the mouthed, all-but-indistinguishable Deep South brogue. "The first num ber we’d like to do for you is one we Bluegrass ‘Anthem’ wrote back in 1938 about a mighty fine train that used to run between New York and Miami-and we’re so Who really wrote ‘Orange Blossom Special’? proud that people all over the world still love it and play it." Onstage, an emcee recites the what would become a substantial Then, as he holds the fiddle to lengthy professional resume of this money-maker for decades to come. his chin and slides the bow across the effervescent figure whom children "That was my first mistake," he said strings, the unmistakable blast of a often mistake for St. Nicholas. "He’s in 1982. "About a $100,000 mistake." train whistle pierces the noxious haze. the king of the bluegrass fiddlers and Wise never became rich, but he Abruptly, conversations cease, fights writer of ‘Orange Blossom Special,’ did become famous. As a member of are interrupted, and drinks are set the most played fiddle tune in the Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys in the aside. The old man is Ervin T. Rouse, world," the announcer intones. "And 1940s, he is today regarded as perhaps author of "Orange Blossom Special," what a treat for us to have him here, the most influential bluegrass fiddler and his presence commands respect- playing the song that made him of all time. And he spent his final even here, even now. famous. Ladies and gentlemen, please years performing before large and welcome the great Chubby Wise!" enthusiastic audiences at bluegrass * ** festivals, where he was adored by fans *** as a peerless entertainer and respected At a bluegrass festival somewhere by fellow performers as a ground- in the Midwest, a pudgy, white-beard Robert Russell "Chubby" Wise, breaking musical pioneer. ed elf of a man stands beside a son of a railroad man from Lake City, Still, Wise’s contribution to makeshift stage overlooking several has long been cited as the "Special’s" "Orange Blossom Special"-or his thousand people-families, mostly- uncredited co-author. Wise, who died lack thereof-has for years been a lounging on blankets and lawn chairs. in 1996 at the age of 80, always rue subject of discussion and debate Beyond the crowd are rows of fully maintained that he had collabo among bluegrass scholars, and a campers and motor homes sporting rated on the song with Rouse during a source of hard feelings between family license plates from Maine to boozy, late-night jam session in members, friends, and fans of both Montana. The autumn evening is Jacksonville, after which he had men. "Ervin wrote that song, and cool; in the distance campfires flicker impulsively-but voluntarily-given nobody else," says Hattie Rouse and string music wafts in the breeze. his friend and colleague all rights to Miscowich, Rouse’s widow. "I once

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- -I -I TTIJJj ‘

1. - - Look a yon 8cr corn . In’, corn- 2. Go - in’ . down to Plot ‘da and - get I4IJs1C: In The Key ofFlorida S-Talk a - bout a . tray - ‘Un’ she’s the fast asked him, ‘Ervin, did Chubby have roll into Jacksonville from Savannah while hundreds more were unable to anything to do with writing ‘Orange on Monday evening, November 7, gain admission because of time con Blossom Special?’ And he said, ‘Hell, and to depart the River City on straints. no." But Rossi Truel Wise, now living Wednesday morning, November 9, en Jacksonville was now home to near her children in Upper Marlboro, route to Lake City, Live Oak, the Wise family, which included Maryland, contends that "everyone Madison, Tallahassee, Gainesville, Chubby, his wife Geneva, and their knows Chubby contributed to Leesburg, Tavares, Orlando, infant daughter, Marvelene. They ‘Orange Blossom Special’; in fact, Wildwood, Bushnell, Dade City, Plant lived a small apartment at 324 West Chubby and Ervin used to get togeth City, Tampa, Clearwater, St. Union Street, located in a seedy er and talk about how poor they were Petersburg, Sarasota, Bradenton, neighborhood consisting of pawn when they wrote that song." Manatee, Bartow, Lake Wales, West shops, bars, and boarding houses. There are basically two stories Palm Beach, Ft. Lauderdale, Wise drove a jitney cab by day-the purporting to explain how and where Hollywood, and Miami; then north to fare was 10 cents to any destination "Orange Blossom Special" was com Sebring, Avon Park, Winter Haven, within the city limits-and enter posed. Although the real story behind Ocala, and Starke before leaving the tained in beer joints by night. the world’s most famous fiddle tune state on Thursday, November 17. Eventually, he assembled a rag has, until now, remained elusive, both Despite the late hour, when the tag combo that included a banjo, a narratives hold that the song was train arrived at Union Station now guitar, and a washboard for rhythm- written in a burst of creative energy the Prime Osborn Convention in addition to his fiddle. "Our salary and inspiration after the legendary Center, hundreds of citizens were on was free lunch the next day," Wise train, on the final leg of a 1938 east hand to see what progress had said. "We’d play in a bar until it coast exhibition tour, stopped at one wrought. But on Tuesday morning, closed, and we had a kitty for people of two cities: Jacksonville Wise’s ver when official welcoming ceremonies who wanted a special request to sion or Miami Rouse’s version. were scheduled, a throng of perhaps throw a nickel or dime in." The luxurious Orange Blossom 10,000-including schoolchildren, According to Wise-who told Special, which ran between New York who had been excused from their les essentially the same "Orange Blossom City and Miami, had hauled wealthy sons to watch history in the mak Special" story for five decades-on northeasterners to Florida’s the night the song was written, Rouse resort cities since 1925. and his older brother Gordon strolled But when dazzling into a bar where Wise and his trio diesel locomotives, were performing. The brothers, considered to be natives of North Carolina who now marvels of modern lived in Miami, frequently visited engineering, Jacksonville to perform in nightclubs. replaced sooty "At intermission, Ervin wanted to steam engines, the know if he could play the fiddle and popular run gained pass the hat," Wise said. "So, he both speed and played for about 15 minutes, he and panache. Indeed, pub his brother, just a fiddle lic interest in the diesels and guitar. He was a was so intense that great fiddle player-a Seaboard Air Lines trick fiddler-one of arranged an exhibition the finest. He’d just to show them off. tear an audience all to The much-ballyhooed pieces. If there was tour originated in three dollars [in the Washington, D.C., on audience], he’d come Monday, October 31, 1938, out with a buck-and- and drew huge crowds as it a-half of it." rolled through Virginia, Following the Maryland, the Carolinas, and barroom revelry, the Georgia. The diesel and its most commonly seven luxuriously appointed accepted "Special" Pullman cars were slated to story places En-in

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Rouse and Wise-both well lubricat ed from a busy evening of fiddling and imbibing-wandering in the wee hours around Union Station, where the train was still parked although no longer open for tours. "We were at Union Station, and we were down there, drinking beer," said Wise, who, like Rouse, obviously knew how to spice up a yarn. "We had done closed up all the beer joints, and we were sittin’ there drinkin’ and got to talkin’ about that cotton once accepting second billing to a home. At age 77, Gordon appears pickin’ Orange Blossom Special train. trained-dog act-they could well frail; his face marked by malignant On the way home, I said, ‘Ervin, go have been included in the Roosevelt’s tumors and his breathing labored. But home and eat breakfast with me.’ So, package. his raspy voice rises and he accentu we went home at about 3 a.m., and Other aspects of Wise’s story ring ates his words with hand gestures he said, ‘Chubby, let’s write a fiddle true. The brothers enjoyed nothing when asked by Preston to address tune and call it Orange Blossom more than "busking" playing for Wise’s claims. Special.’ I said, ‘All right, we’ll do it.’ tips. They routinely showed up "Chubby Wise had never heard We got our fiddles out, and wrote that unannounced at promising-looking ‘Orange Blossom Special’ until we melody in about 45 minutes while my nightspots, even after completing paid played it for him," he says. "It’s very wife was cookin’ breakfast." engagements elsewhere. And it cer easy to say that you done somethin’ As Wise told it, after enjoying tainly does not stretch credulity to when you didn’t do it. You keep on breakfast Rouse suggested that the suggest that these two hard-drinking sayin’ it, and folks don’t know pair have their musical creation copy night owls, who had struck up a whether it’s true or not. Chubby made righted as soon as possible. Wise, friendship years before in Miami, out like just because he met us in however, demurred: "I said, ‘Ervin, I would have stayed up all night swap- Jacksonville, that he had something haven’t got time to fool with a fiddle ping tunes. to do with the song. It’s all untrue." tune. I’ve got to check on my cab in a In fact, the Orange Blossom few minutes, and try to go make some rvin and Gordon Special did arrive in Miami on beans to feed my young’un. If you can Rouse, however, told an Wednesday, November 16, for the do anything with that fiddle tune, entirely different story southernmost stop on its exhibition buddy, then it’s all yours." on the relatively rare tour. That same day, the brothers said, A lively story-but is it true? occasions when they manager Lloyd Smith had planned to Were the Rouse brothers even in were asked by inter- drive them to Kissimmee, where they Jacksonville on or around November viewers to expound upon the song’s would visit the Smith family-Lloyd’s 7, 1938? origin. They never specifically denied sister Elon was Ervin Rouse’s girl No advertisements specifically being in Jacksonville-and visiting friend-and perhaps arrange some touting a Rouse Brothers nightclub Wise-around the time of the storied Orlando-area bookings. appearance could be found in a search exhibition tour. But they insisted that "Our manager took us downtown of the Jacksonville TImes-Union they had first viewed the train not in to watch the christening of the archives. In fact, several of their Jacksonville but in Miami, and had Orange Blossom Special," Gordon favorite haunts, most notably the added lyrics to a previously composed Rouse said in 1992. "We saw the cere Temple Theater and the Mayflower tune during a subsequent automobile mony, and our manager said to Ervin, Tavern, were specifically promoting trip between South Florida and ‘You know, that’s going to be another other entertainers. However, the Kissimmee, where their manager’s famous train like the Old ‘97; that is, Roosevelt Patio "Where Novelties family lived. if somebody does something about it.’ Are Originated!" was heralding a In 1993, Gordon Rouse addressed That very afternoon, we decided to new "all-star revue," which was to the contentious subject more directly give it a try." feature seven unnamed attractions. than usual during a poignant, video Certainly, the ceremonies would Since the brothers had played the taped interview conducted by his not have been out of the way; the downtown hotel’s showroom before- cousin, Preston Rouse, at Preston’s Seaboard Air Line passenger station,

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- ill’, com Corn - in’ down that rail - road torI . Ia and - get tome sand in my tray ‘ she’s the fast - est train on the then located at Northwest 7th "CHUBBY WISE HAD from a series of 1982 Country Music Foundation oral history interviews Avenue near 20th Street, was perhaps NEVER HEARD a five-minute drive from a trailer park with respected musician and former where Gordon and his wife Carrie ‘ORANGE BLOSSOM radio personality Claude Casey, who had set up housekeeping. The train SPECIAL’ UNTIL WE died of complications from station has long since been demol Alzheimer’s disease in 1999. ished, although a massive, PLAYED IT FOR HIM:’ In the mid-1930s, Casey had Mediterranean-style stucco archway GORDON ROUSE SAID. been a faux Rouse Brother, playing was spared the wrecking ball, and has "IT’S VERY EASY TO informally with the group in Miami been preserved at the entrance to before officially signing on in 1938. what is now a modern office park. SAY THAT YOU DONE Casey recalled that En-in had been Official welcoming ceremonies SOMETHIN’ WHEN performing "South Florida Blues" well the following day were comparable to before "Orange Blossom Special" was those held in Jacksonville-large YOU DIDN’T DO It" copyrighted, and that the tunes were crowds, soaring speeches, considerable basically identical: "Back before words pomp-and the festivities clearly daz telling how many sheets of paper we were put to ‘Orange Blossom Special,’ zled the Rouses. En route to threw out." However, he claimed, by it was called ‘South Florida Blues," Kissimmee, Gordon Rouse recalled, the time the exhausted trio arrived at said Casey. " [Ervin] was playing it in Smith stopped at a drug store, where the Smith home, "Orange Blossom the l930s.. and nobody knew it then he bought a pencil and a legal pad. Special" was essentially complete. but him, and those of us playing with Then he offered to sit in the back seat Again, a good story. But unlike him." and transcribe lyrics if Gordon would Wise’s yarn this one can, in part, be Could Wise have helped to write take the wheel. confirmed by objective evidence. "South Florida Blues"? Perhaps, at "My brother and I, we were up in "Orange Blossom Special"-the some point, he had contributed to the the front of the car just driving music, not the lyrics-had been copy "Special’s" musical precursor, and along," Gordon Rouse said in 1985. righted on October 20, 1938-three later concocted a simplified, semi-fac "Lloyd would keep tearing the sheets days before the legendary train’s exhi tual story that linked him more of paper off and throwing them out bition tour got under way. It was then directly to the song that would the window. No that Gordon Rouse, traveling become known worldwide as the with his wife and brother on a "Bluegrass National Anthem." This busking excursion up the Eastern much, however, we do know: Seaboard, delivered the lead Whatever tune Rouse and Wise com sheet for a "fiddle tune" called posed that fateful night in "Orange Blossom Special" to the Jacksonville, it was not the tune that Library of Congress copyright would later eventually become one of offices in Washington, D.C. the most-played fiddle compositions The original, handwritten in musical history. music still sits in a file folder at Dubious authorship claims aside, a Library of Congress storage there is no disputing the fact that facility in Virginia. The author Wise was, at the very least, a great is listed as Ervin T. Rouse; a popularizer of "Orange Blossom bureaucrat lost to history has Special." With Bill Monroe, then stamped the delivery date in with country superstar Hank Snow, the upper right-hand corner. and, finally, as a solo attraction on The song copyrighted by the bluegrass festival circuit, "Fiddlin’ the Rouses was likely a super Chubby" took the "Special" around charged version of an earlier the world. Rouse composition, unpub lished and unrecorded, called RANDY NOLES, group publisher for "South Florida Blues." Gulfshore Media, is author of the book, Confirmation of the exis Orange Blossom Boys: The Untold Story of tence of the "Special’s" Ervin T- Rouse, Chubby Wise and the musical precursor comes World’s Most Famous Fiddle Tune.

WINTER 2004 rLoRIoAHuMANmEscour4cIL FORUM IS ____

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- *4__ I- In Th Key of Rorida A Colorful Enigma FOLK MUStCfr rLORThAk, As mixed as alligator stew, as real as rain, as easy as boiled-peanut pie, as plain to see as butterfly dreams

By Peter B. Gallagher

tephen Foster never set foot in Florida, yet he composed the most famous Florida folk song of all time. Jimmy Buffett, the state’s most famous folksinger, is a native Mississippian who doesn’t even live in Key West anymore. Beloved Florida songwriter Don Grooms was a Cherokee Indian, born and buried in western North Carolina. And modern-day troubadour Raiford Starke is a native Virginian who combined state prison names to create a Florida outlaw image. All are part of the colorful enigma that is both contemporary Florida folk music and the alligator stew of folks who compose and perform original Florida songs. Unlike Texas, which promotes a sound immedi ately marketable as Texas music, Florida’s own folk sound is a changeling flitting all over the musical map. "Our musical atmosphere has been influenced by more transplants than any other area of the country, by every culture whose people have established com

WINTER 2004 FL0RIDAHuMANITIEScOuNcIL FORUM IT FLORIDAFOLK MUSIC A Colorful Enigma

munities on our shores," says Ken Crawford, a state department staffer and former Florida Folk Festival director. "In Texas, most everybody is a Texan. But in Florida, people are from all over the wotld. There are Chicago-style blues bands playing Florida folk songs. There are reggae bands playing it. And everybody has their own idea what Florida folk music is or isn’t." Bona fide Florida rock stars like Manatee County’s Dickey Betts, Gainesville’s Tom Petty, and Tarpon Springs’ Bertie Higgins, unplugged, could actually qualify as Florida folk musicians. "Everything I write is folk music," says country-music icon John Anderson, a Lutz native whose acoustic guitar and fiddle-driven "Seminole Wind" first told a world audience about the destruction of the Florida Everglades. "They all start out as folk songs. Just a man and his guitar." Most people would agree that Florida folk music must be acoustic-or it becomes something musical cliques. We pay serious hom Most people else. Then again, when you hear age to the old guard, without hesitat Tampa songsmith Ronny Elliott’s ing to put new artists and new styles would agree that recordings of "Jack’s St. Pete Blues" of folk music on the air. and "Elvis Presley Didn’t Like "I know it when I hear it," Hicks Tampa," or Scotty Clark’s renditions says of folk music. "I know it when I Florida folk music of "Largo," or Rock Bottom’s perform see it." Hicks is one of the state’s ance of "Gator Tail," or the Liz most skillful songwriters and folk- Pennock/Dr. Blue recording of "Sting music advocates, and as far as he is must be acoustic- Ray Shuffle," they all sound pretty concerned, a Florida birth certificate darned Florida folk, even with the plays a major role, as does continued splash of drums and hint of electricity. Florida residency. A true Florida or it becomes "I never ever thought of myself as folkie would have to match Hicks’ a folk song writer," says Elliott. "Then own dedication to the musical craft something else. they started playing my records on itself, though he reserves an honored the folk show. I thought to myself, place for latecomers who put down ‘Hmmm. I guess I am a folksinger." honest-to-goodness roots: in a tune and declare himself a "Take a guy like Dale Crider," Florida songwriter. Those are the peo efining Florida folk music Hicks says about the singing game ple I take offense to," Hicks says. presents a challenge to biologist now retired who lives on "Some of the most well known so- Bobby Hicks and me Lake Pithlachocco near Gainesville. called Florida folksingers in this state every Thursday 9:00 to "When Dale got here from Kentucky, put out entire albums, and you can’t 10:00 am. when we co the first thing he did was dedicate his find a single Florida folk song on D life to saving Florida. He wrote songs there. You don’t hear it in their live host the "Florida Folk Show" on Tampa Bay community radio station about Florida wildlife and the envi shows. We have a hard time finding a WMNF 88.5 FM. In the show, ronment, and traveled around this song to play from some performers." which premiered last spring as the state singing them to school kids and But using those criteria to define only one of its kind in the state, we their parents. Florida folk music has its limits. For take an iconoclastic view of Florida "He didn’t just come in here and example, we can’t assume that Florida music, reaching beyond the various gratuitously put the word Okeechobee folk songs are sung in English. Franco

18 FORUM FLORIDAHuMANITIEScOuNcIL WINTER 2004 "Some caller accused us of celebrating plantation life. Man, that was a low blow. Nothing was further from the truth. I came on the air later and told people that when Don recorded the song that way, he did it to show us all how far we’ve come." Grooms, who died in 1998, was a University of Florida professor and lynchpin of the Florida folk-music renaissance period of the 1970s and ‘80s. He left behind a catalogue of excellent Florida folk songs, including the classic Florida anti-tourist rant, "Winnebagos." Grooms joined fellow troubadours Will McLean, James Gamble Rogers, and Jim Ballew as the primary pro genitors of today’s contemporary S Florida sound. From the mid-1960s E until the end of each of their lives, their versions of Florida folk music became the first standard. recorded "The Counting The Chipley-born McLean came Song," which now is used first, calling himself "The Black Hat to teach Seminole chil Troubadour" and roaming from town dren to count to 10: to town and once even as far away as Thah me hen, toulc Ic the stage at Carnegie Hall. McLean’s hen, tou cite chen, s/tee tee songs borrowed from the familiar tah, c/ta/i key paun, epa/i northeastern folk idiom, but were pah, rty younsh, kou lee expertly roughed up with honest younsh, e yah tvounsh, ha/i Florida grit. Times at night I gits to thinking. Can the process of And the shivers colds my spine, he sings creating folk music get any in his classic "Wild Hog," a precious more authentic than that? string of words that Hicks declares But what about the "the finest single line ever written in case of Stephen Collins a Florida folk song." Foster? The prolific Foster Often having nowhere to live but was the first name associ in an old van, and fighting the typical ated with Florida music. In tragic-artists’ demons, McLean never Silva host of WMNF’s Latino 54 1851, the Pittsburgh bookkeeper edit theless left a Florida folk-song cata Show points to Latin performers who ed his original lyrics about North logue more akin to a bible than a list write and sing about Florida in their Carolina’s Peedee River into the of tunes. Numerous artists all over the own language: "Don’t forget, Spanish international classic, "Old Folks At world, including the famous Pete was once the dominant culture here," Home," which describes a fictional Seeger, have performed McLean’s Silva says. Florida "way down upon the Swanee Florida songs. Then there are Chief Jim Billie [sic] River." In 1935, this became Considering the lifestyle McLean and Paul Buster-famed Seminole Florida’s official state song. The origi favored, it is an irony of considerable Indian singers/songwriters who have nal lyrics, penned in an odd, conde hilarity that the Dade City spring fes written Florida lyrics in their native scending black dialect, were eventual tival named after him strongly disal languages. Billie remembers his grand ly politically corrected. Some years lows alcohol or raucous carrying-on. mother singing to him "the same ago, singer Don Grooms recorded a "Will wouldn’t be allowed to attend song, over and over again. Years later version of the song in Foster’s original his own festival," guitarist Raiford I came to find out she was teaching dialect; when we broadcast it last Starke says, laughing. "I can just see me to count." The deep-voiced year, the phone lines lit up with him and Don Grooms and Jim Billie Vietnam vet used his grandma’s indignant complaints. sipping jasmine tea and whispering Indian words when he wrote and "We were surprised," Hicks says. around the campfire."

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The Troubadors play at the Florida Folk Festival, right. Below: Jim Ballew’s only album, a classic.

Among true Florida troubadours, The work of Gamble Rogers and his protégé Jimmy Buffett toured the farthest. From St. these trouba Augustine, Rogers roamed the coun try, carrying his expert Travis-style dours and licks and his crafted tales of mythical "Okiawaha County, Florida" to audi ences across the fruited plain. A for that of many mer member of the nationally-known Serendipity Singers, Rogers died tragi others is cally in 1991 while attempting to save a man from drowning off Flagler celebrated Beach. In 1998, Rogers was named to the state’s prestigious Artist’s Hall of annually at Fame, becoming the third folksinger after McLean and Buffett to receive the Florida Folk ing Florida folk scene. His commercial this honor. success seemed to sour the old guard. Similarly, as Gamble Rogers’ Festival, the n a letter read at the ceremony, national stature increased and he Buffett paid homage to Rogers: began commanding a fee to perform "One of the untold but essential nation’s oldest in the annual Florida Folk Festival, qualities of a life as a troubadour many in the folk community cried is that you teach your trade to continuous foul. A splinter group of angry folkies those you feel deserve and can organized to protest Rogers’ payday handle the knowledge of performing. folk-music event. and other harbingers of festival Gamble was my teacher. Our class progress. room was his fastback Mustang, or a "I remember when I was very barstool at The Trade Winds, or a young, we were told not to like bench in Peacock Park in Coconut records sold-still one of the highest- Gamble," says Bettina Makely, of Grove. It was in these spots that grossing touring acts in commercial North Florida’s yodeling Makely fami Gamble offered up his wisdom to an music. His archetypical songs, such as ly. "I had no idea why. He was such a up-and-coming folksinger from the "A Pirate Looks at 40" and nice person.. .1 really regret that now." Gulf Coast." "Margaritaville," are modern Florida Had Buffett remained a scruffy Buffett, who marketed his laid- folk classics. Performed with an island tip-jar star, he might have had a back Key West sound into a gigantic feel, Buffett’s tunes sail the coast just chance with Florida folkies. As it is cult following of "parrot head" fans, as McLean’s music traipsed the inland now, though, it is not uncommon to has far surpassed anything that could swamps. hear them say: "We have an arrange be categorized as Florida folk music. Despite Buffet’s sizeable catalogue ment with Jimmy Buffett: We don’t He is an international star with over of Florida music, his superstardom play any of his music, and he doesn’t 30 albums and more than 20 million quickly removed him from the exist- play any of ours."

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FLORIDA FOLK MUSIC A Colorft Enigma

Ballew, who with Rogers, stature as the living "Father of Florida a dictionary and I’ll write you a song. McLean, and Grooms, set the stan Folk" forced her to overlook his con That’s not what I’m talking about." dard for Florida’s current folk-music stant bending of rules. In direct defi I know what he’s talking about. scene, was a master guitarist and ance of the festival’s stodgy atmos The real thing. Whitey Markle’s songwriter from Central Florida. He phere, McLean continually brought boiled-peanut pie, Raiford Starke’s recorded only one LP, but it was a his new "discoveries" onto the festi half-breed girl from Immokalee, FT. classic. It contained his signature val stage, unannounced. Morris’s hurricane blow, Dale Crider’s song, "Roll On Manatee," one of the Cousin Thelma could only look red-wolf howl, Valerie Wisecracker’s first notable Florida environmental on disapprovingly. When she stepped plucking banjo, Hollywood Dave’s songs. Ballew died in 1987 at the age down, the ailing, money-losing festi sunken Corvair, Bob Patterson’s lulla of 44. val received a shot of modernization, bies, and Mike Loren’s Celtic princess The work of these troubadours which continues today. Lake Wales in her cowgirl dress. and that of many others is celebrated folksingers Frank and Ann Thomas Someone send James Hawkins a annually at the Florida Folk Festival, lifeline, before he’s swept away. the nation’s oldest continuous folk- Boomslang’s eating road kill at the music event. The festival began in Today, Florida Flamingo Café. There’s buzzards 1953 and has morphed into a mecca dancin’ in Chief Jim Billie’s mind. for Florida folk songsmiths. Each Sorry to hear the Ashley Gang’s still Memorial Day weekend, they make folk music is doin’ time. Kelly Green’s been down their pilgrimage to tiny White with the Frank Thomas blues. J. Springs to commune among their Robert’s steppin’ out with his walkin’ own kind on the hallowed grounds of as free as it has shoes. Del Suggs’ wooden boat’s tray Stephen Foster State Folk Culture elm’ far off shore. The hard times for Park. Southwind will come again no more. Begun by area socialites, the fes ever been. The roadside preacher in Roy tival came to hold the only real "cer Book Binder’s blues, the moss under tification process" for state Mark Smith’s lighthouse moon, Paul folksingers. "You just weren’t consid have continued McLean’s work by Gerardi’s butterfly dreams, Long John ered Florida folk unless you paid your regularly introducing new talent at Higginhotham and his dastardly dues at White Springs," explains Dale the festivals. They serve as veritable schemes, Jerry Mincey’s planted Crider. "Far as we knew, those of us at mentors to a wide variety of folk Yankees, the singin’ biscuits of Carrie the festival were the main Florida musicians who regularly visit their Hamby, Lee Paulet, the deep-voiced folksingers and songwriters in the outback "Cracker Palace" home. The horse, and Barbara Schaffer is some state." Thomases hosted the state’s first folk- thing special, of course. Carl Wade’s music radio show also on WMNF wagon is stuck in a rut, down the uffett and hundreds of in the late l980s, taped at their street from Mindy Simmons’ mustard other songwriters home. Any picker with a song and butt. around Florida might story was qualified to stop by. Thomas There’s a swamp goat tearin’ up have disagreed, had is still known to give songwriting Pat Barmore’s yard, he’s callin’ for they even known about "assignments" to young beginners Joe, the Okefenokee bard. Sunset the festival or been will who return weeks later with their Beach Pete and his dog peter gnats ing to lose a weekend of pay to homework. Like McLean before are all over Bettina Makely’s big fat attend. The "credentials" were held them, the Thomases have kept the cat. Grant Livingston’s Florida rain is in the tight grip of "Cousin" Thelma genre energized gonna pour when Bobby Hicks thun Boltin, an iron-fisted local folklorist Today, Florida folk music is as ders, "Need I say More?" who controlled the festival for two free as it has ever been. The recent I’m Spaniard and I’m Frenchman, decades, deciding who was "Florida folk-music revival at the national and I’m British and I’m Indian/I’m for folk" and who was not permitted on level has helped elevate Florida’s est, I’m swampland, opportunities for all stage. music, too. There has been an men! Proud as can be when I roar/I’m During the festival, she was increase in venues around the state Florida need I say more?/ I’m Florida, always on the main stage, watching, specializing in Florida folk music. In need I say more? critiquing, and protecting an event addition, the burgeoning home digi she defined according to her own tra tal-recording scene has made it cheap PETER B. GALLAGHER is a free-lance ditional values and God’fearing and easy for many folkies to create writer and Florida folk songwriter who lives in North Florida culture. The talent great-sounding CDs. St. Petersburg. He co-hosts The Florida Folk lineup, until the mid-1970s, was "Oh, there’re a lot of songwriters Show with songwriter Bobby Hicks, every almost exclusively from that region. out there," Hicks says. "But you still Thursday 9-10 am. on WMNF 88.5 FM McLean was Boltin’s nemesis. His got to have good songs. Hell, give me Tampa Bay.

22 FORUM FLORIDAHuMANITIEScOIJNCIL WINTER 2004

You hear them coming before you see them. By Janet L. DeCosmo There’s the ka-link, ka-link of cowbells and the rhythmic heating on goatskin drums, the honking of bicycle horns, the shrill shrieks of whistles, and Junkanoo; it has been variously written as John Canoe, the joyful tunes blaring from trumpets and trom John Konnu, John Konny, and Johnkankus. We do bones. know, however, that Junkanoo as it is commonly This music of celebration heralds the Junkanoo rev spelled began in the Bahamas more than 200 years ago elers who come dancing down the street dressed in their as a celebration by slaves after their British masters riotous colors and winking rhinestones, swirling feathers granted three days of freedom at Christmas time. The and flying fringes, towering headpieces, swishing skirts, slaves, most of them from West Africa and the Congo glorious glitter and glittering glory. and comprising about three-fourths of the Bahamian In Key West, Coconut Grove, Tampa, and population in the late 18th century, celebrated these free Tallahassee, they carry on the tradition that symbolizes days by drumming, singing, and masquerading. the heart and soul of the Bahamian people-their pride From its origins in West African religious ritual and and strength, their spiritual African roots. European folklore, Junkanoo has evolved in the Bahamian immigrants, who came to Florida primari Bahamas over the centuries into a magnificent state ly for economic reasons in the 19th and early 20th cen sanctioned and corporate-sponsored display of national tury, have made the beauty of their culture known by * identity. Each Boxing Day December 26th and New continuing their Junkanoo traditions. Scholars have yet Year’s Day, thousands of Junkanooers wear stunning cos to agree upon the origins and meaning of the term tunics made by hand from cardboard shaped with wire

24 FORUM FLoRIDA -IuMANIrIES couNciL wINrER 2004 and covered with finely fringed, hand-cut strips of color ful crepe paper. These colorful assemblages are then accented with rhinestones, feathers, and other decora tions. Florida most of them in Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, and Junkanoo musicians play a variety of instruments: Miami see or participate in Junkanoo parades in several hand-made goat- or sheep-skin Goombay drums that areas around the state during different times of the year: are tuned by the heat of open fires, tom-toms from trap in the Bahama Village area of Key West in October, in drum sets, hand-welded cowbells, bicycle horns and fog Coconut Grove in June, at the Orange Bowl Parade in horns, and whistles. Beginning in 1976 in Nassau, the Miami, and at the Martin Luther King Day parade in Music Makers added a brass section that supplanted the West Perrine. The fact that Junkanoo in the Bahamas earlier use of conch shells and bugles. Today Junkanoo and in Florida takes place during different times of the brass sections play popular Bahamian hits, hymns, chil year enables musicians to attend festivities in both loca dren’s tunes, or music from television shows like the tions. theme song from Sesame Street. Bahamian Junkanoo groups have traveled to Florida Competition is intense in Nassau as the large groups in recent years to perform at two football events: the of several hundred to a thousand or more J unkanooers Super Bowl XXXV in Tampa in 2001 and a Miami in teams named the Saxons, One Family, Valley Boys, Dolphins game against the Baltimore Ravens in Roots, Fancy Dancers, and Music Makers parade down November 2003. At the Super Bowl event, Nassau’s Bay Street, vying for awards for best banner, costume, Roots Junkanoo group was joined by members of music, dancers, and overall presentation. Tallahassee’s Rhythm Rushers. For the Dolphins game, After a large, wheeled banner announcing the name Quentin "Barabas" Woodside, leader of Barahas and the of the group its theme, the and first thing one sees in a Tribe, brought 260 Junkanooers to Miami. modern Junkanoo parade is the "front line." This con The first Junkanoo band formed in Florida was the sists of free dancers both male and female in costumes Sunshine Junkanoo Band established by Bruce Beneby consisting of skirts, shoulder pieces that extend upward in Overtown in 1957. A second group, the Bahamas and outward from the dancers’ backs, and headpieces. Junkanoo Revue 1993, made up of Langston Longley, Next come female dancers in straight lines wearing David Dean, Eddie Clark, and three members of the smaller, identically constructed, costumes that are deco Saxons who resided in Nassau, came together in 1993. rated differently by each individual. Revelers in large Both groups continue to bring costumes to Florida from "lead" costumes restricted to no more than 11 feet Nassau and also to build their own in Junkanoo "shacks." During the "disco" era in the ‘70s, a young Miami J[18 [he sound of freedom, musician named Harry Casey attempted to fuse American rhythm-and-blues with Bahamian Junkanoo. Initially called The Sunshine Junkanoo Band, the a parade of pride and fun, group’s name was later changed to K.C. and the Sunshine Band. They went on to have several hit sin gles. Junkanoo has also influenced the music and album- a Bahamian ri[e of hope cover designs of Jimmy Buffett’s "Don’t Stop the Carnival" and Kenny Loggins’ "Junkanoo Holiday." Because Bahamian-Americans are operating in a dif high and bandleaders also parade in this section. ferent cultural context, there are obstacles to performing The "back line" consists of the musicians. First Junkanoo in Florida that sometimes make it difficult to comes the brass section, followed by the bell players in adhere to tradition. For example, in the Bahamas, fires very tall, elaborate shoulder pieces. The drummers are are lit in parking lots alongside parade routes so that the next. Their costumes consist of headpieces and skirts, goatskin heads on the Goombay drums can be warmed no but shoulder pieces, as they would get in the way of and tightened and thus tuned. In Florida, it is not always the drums that are held by shoulder straps along one side possible to build an open fire in an urban location; so of the body. Drummers are followed by revelers, playing manufactured tom-toms with plastic heads and a differ foghorns and bicycle horns and blowing whistles. ent sound are sometimes used in place of skin drums. Individual Bahamians bear the responsibility for As an alternative, sometimes electric heaters and small their own costumes. Even though decorating them can grills are substituted for open fires-or small cans of mean hundreds of dollars and countless hours of labor, Sterno are placed inside skin drums to keep them warm they gladly do so for reasons having to do with personal even though they sometimes cause drum heads to burn pride and fulfillment. Funds must be raised to produce up. the banners and lead pieces, which can cost from Making animal-skin drums in Florida can also cause $75,000 to $100,000 for the large groups. After the ban complications. First, although cow skins are plentiful, ners and lead pieces appear on Bay Street, most are J unkanooers prefer the sound of goat and sheep skins, destroyed once the reusable decorations are removed. which are harder to come by. But no matter what type of Today, the large number of Bahamians who reside in

WINrER 2004 FLoRIDA HuMANnE$ COuNCIL FORUM 25 tentotheioYofJunKaNoo animal skin is used, it must be soaked in lime and dried, and this can cause quite an odor. In Tallahassee a health inspector came around to the Rhythm Rushers’ shack one day in response to complaints that dogs were being slaughtered on the property. Not satisfied with group members’ denials and explanations of their drum-making techniques, the inspector insisted on touring the entire shack. Finally he accepted their explanation, but a tele vision station aired a story about the cultural misunder standing, and the shack owner sent a letter asking the group to leave the donated space. Occasionally Junkanoo group members find it neces sary to use materials from fabric or craft stores in place of traditional, time-consuming techniques. For example, silver rickrack and trim are sometimes deemed accept able in place of homemade glittered strips, called "streaks." Although large areas of cardboard must be pasted with fringed crepe-paper strips, even when time is short paint will never be used. Rather than be caught using paint, Junkanooers will stay up all night for as many nights as it takes to have costumes finished on time. Occasionally they will apply large areas of glitter or col ored felt to unfinished areas, usually to the backs of the costumes. Costumes of riotous colors, winking rhinestones and Those Junkanooers who wait swirling feathers are part of the spectacle of Junkanoo. until the last minute and scramble At left, group leader Langston Longley. to finish their costumes are accused of "slunkin’." When it is obvious Besides their skirts, shoulder pieces and costumes have been made too hasti headpieces, female Junkanoo dancers wear tights ly, they are denigrated as looking and t-shirts or shorts. They like to emphasize "picky." Signs, messages, and cos their hand movements by wearing short, white tumes hung in effigy in the shacks gloves. Delightful and humorous moments are are humiliating reminders of what provided by "free dancers" both male and happens if an individual slunks. By female who run up to men, women, and chil contrast, nicely pasted, completed dren standing alongside the parade route to coax costumes are always described as them into joining the dance, if only for a "pretty," whether for a male or female. moment. Junkanoo groups outside of the Bahamas sometimes Ideas about what is appropriate in terms of gender find it necessary to re-use costumes, something that is may also influence the performance of Junkanoo groups not in done Nassau apart from hotel shows. While in Florida. When young African-American men express spectators may not know the difference, Junkanooers an interest in performing as musicians, many of them from Nassau recognize a "picky" or used costume in an refuse to wear skirts as the Bahamian members do. They instant. When costumes are on the verge of looking are unaware that skirts are commonly worn not only by shabby, the decorations are removed, and garments are male Junkanooers in Nassau, but also by African men in burned. traditional ceremonies. In addition, sometimes new male Specific traditions extend to the pants and shoes recruits object to wearing certain colors that male worn by men in Junkanoo parades as well. Junkanooers Bahamians have no problem wearing baby blue and cover pants and tennis shoes with masking tape and pink are good examples. then paste them with fringed strips of paper. When time Another obstacle to a full appreciation of Junkanoo is short, they may use felt. When pants have not been in Florida is that many parade organizers do not realize pasted, loose-fitting satin pants with elastic waists are Junkanoo music is not amplified. Thus, various organiz desirable. A pair of beautifully pasted and decorated ten nis shoes is quite often a work of art.

26 FORUM FL0RIDAHuMAN,T,Escour’4c,L WINTER 2004 ers have placed groups next to loud marching bands, trucks carrying amplified music blasting from large speakers, and even fire engines with their sirens wailing. over, were surprised to see yet another group coming. In addition to unwanted noise, lack of good lighting dur Despite the obstacles to performing at the level of ing nighttime parades may also present a problem. In quality they demand, the inevitable irritants that Nassau there are large spotlights along parade routes so emerge, and the not inconsiderable courage it takes to that the brilliant colors of the costumes may be seen. In perform in front of huge crowds of people who know some events in Florida, such as Tallahassee’s Festival of nothing about the tradition, Florida’s Junkanooers persist Lights holiday parade, streetlights are intentionally left in expressing themselves in their unique fashion because off, making it difficult to appreciate the beautiful colors. of their love for their cultural tradition. The same passion and commitment found in Nassau can be seen here. DeVaughan Woodside, leader of 1n ADd1fiOn, most parades in Florida Tallahassee’s Rhythm Rushers, stated at the end of a progress at a much faster pace than a Junkanoo rush in recent television interview: "I must let everyone know Nassau. Inevitably, parade marshals warn Junkanoo that Junkanoo represents the creativity of my people. It groups to catch up and "close the gap." Since it takes shows the dedication of my people. And that’s the one tremendous energy to continue to play drums, blow and only thing that we really and truly have, and that’s horns, and shake bells on a long parade route without what we really and truly love. And that’s the one and stopping the music, a request to speed up is frustrating. only thing that no one can take away from us as On one occasion, members of the Rhythm Rushers who Bahamians, and that’s Junkanoo." were already the last group in a parade, were not able to speed up. Motorcycle police simply sped in front of JANET L. DeCOSMO is director of the Center for Caribbean them, cutting them off from the end of the parade. The Culture and associate professor of humanities at Florida A&M group continued to rush at their own pace, and rem University in Tallahassee. nants of the dispersing crowds, thinking the parade was

1 L A Texas-based visionary artist who created an outstanding body of work depicting flying machines. Organized by the San Antonio Museum of Art

March 5 - May 28, 2001

THE

900 E. Princeton Street * Orlando, Florida 32803 407.246.4278 * Fax: 407.246.4329 www.mennellomuseum.com MUSEUM HOURS: Tuesday- Saturday 10a.m. -4p.m. Sunday noon -4 p.m. * Closed major holidays

The Men ne/jo Museum ofAmerican Folk Art !j ra1 iijti4ii is owned and operated by the City ofOrlando.

WINTER 2004 FLoRIDA HuMAN,T’EscouuclL FORUM 27 BY ROBERT 1. STONE

S1EEL GUITARS SING Mention "steel guitar" and most people will think of IN FIERY PRAISE; MOVE the weeping sound of the instrument played in country music, Some might think of pedal steel guitars that are routinely found in white country gospel groups and WORSI-I I PPERS TO ShOUT, church "praise" bands. Relatively few would know the electric steel guitar has been the dominant musical IANCE, PRAY, AN I MAIIE instrument fOt more than 50 years in certain African- American Pentecostal churches. The electric steel guitar was introduced into the ‘A JOYFUL NOISE’ IN House of God in the late 1930s and eventually became the dominant musical instrument in its worship services. II OUJSIE OF jOl CII Li RCH ES Over the years, House of God steel guitarists developed distinctive playing styles and repertoire. The unique musical tradition remained little known outside this contract and two Grammy nominations. denomination for more than 50 years, until 1995, when Florida, home to 53 House of God churches far the Florida Folklife Program produced a cassette album more than any other state, has produced many of the titled Sacred Steel: Traditional Sacred African-American denomination’s most influential steel guitarists. But it Steel Guitar Music in Florida. The album was licensed by was in Philadelphia where the steel guitar was first used Arhoolie Records, one of the oldest roots-music labels in in a religious service. Steel guitar music was first broughr the country, and distributed internationally. Critics and to the United States in the early 20th century by fans hailed the music as a major discovery, and eight Hawaiian musicians, and its popularity continued into more Arhoolie albums followed. Today this compelling the l94Os. music is commonly known as Sacred Steel. Several The steel guitar takes its name from the metal bar, groups who play this music are touring internationally, or "steel," the player holds in the left hand and presses and one has garnered a rock-star-magnitude recording lightly on the strings to make notes that often have

28 FORUM FLORIDAHUMANIT1EScOUNCIL WINTER 2004 The Key oftiorida

Decen Mcintosh, Jay C Jeffrey Roper and Eddie photo at right, congregants in pray at a ‘healing’ in Crescent City while Elton Noble plays the steel

singing, voice-like quality. In contrast, players of stan ing tone; and, because notes made on the instrument dard guitars make notes by using their fingers to press were unrestricted by frets, he could imitate the expres strings onto thin metal frets embedded in the instru sive, highly ornamented African-American gospel vocal ment’s neck. style. The other instruments in House of God musical After graduating from high school, Willie Eason ensembles are typical of configurations found in many began to travel throughout the eastern United States to African-American churches: drums, bass, a keyboard play for church services, revivals, and street-corner instrument, and rhythm guitar. Congregants often bring music ministries. He was a powerful, moving singer with percussion instruments such as tambourines, maracas, a magnetic personality. He often made his steel guitar washhoards, and cymbals to "make a joyful noise" from echo the words he sang, or finish his incomplete sen the pews. The steel guitarist leads the musical ensemble tences. A Macon, Georgia, deejay dubbed him "Little to play driving praise music that moves the congregation Willie and His Talking Guitar," and the moniker stuck. to shout and dance ecstatically, provide dramatic empha Willie Eason first came to Florida in 1940 with the sis as ministers preach, furnish a musical backdrop dur Gospel Feast Party, a troupe of musicians and ministers ing periods of meditation, and play swinging march that traveled from New York to southern Florida to hold music for jaunty offertory processions. revivals and worship services under tents in churches. The steel guitar was introduced to the church by Soon he struck out on his own to play street-corner Troman Eason who learned to play it in the l930s by music ministries for tips and donations. For many years taking lessons from a Hawaiian artist he heard over the he spent the fall and winter months in Florida. radio at home in Philadelphia. Eason’s music making Eason knew how to work a crowd and made a good inspired his teenaged brother, Willie, to play the steel living performing on the streets. One of his most pro guitar in the late 1930s. Rather than play in the sweet ductive spots in the l940s and ‘SOs was in front of Buddy Hawaiian manner like Troman, Willie developed tech B’s juke joint on Broadway-today Silver Springs nique that closely approximated the singing he heard in Boulevard-in west Ocala. When Eason plugged in his church. Willie Eason found his approach to the electric powerful amplifier and began to perform, the local steel guitar well suited for the celebratory, cathartic wor African-American community was drawn to his soulful ship services of the House of God attended by his family. music. Today, Eason’s memory is impaired by Alzheimer’s He could play it rhythmically; it had a strong, penetrat disease, but his wife, Jeannette, vividly recalls his play-

WINTER 2004 FLoRlDAHur.1ANITlEscour1cpL FORUM 29 ing in front of Buddy B’s. "So Willie would go down to Buddy B’s, and he’d hook up. That loudspeaker, when it went out, people out in the clubs and the bars and even Dr. Hampton, he would open his windows. He was a dentist. He would open his windows to let the patients hear Willie playin’." Eason’s renown increased as he made seven 78-rpm records for popular black gospel labels in the l940s and l9SOs. He became somewhat of a living legend among House of God congregations and was a major influence in establishing the steel guitar as the dominant instrument in the church. In 1987, Willie and Jeannette Eason moved to St. Petersburg and Festival in Chattanooga marked the first appearance ot a opened the Fat Willie From Philly barbecue restaurant House of God steel guitarist before a national audience at 1371 16th Street S. The business folded quickly, and in recent decades. they retired. Ghent influenced a host of younger steel guitarists Willie Eason’s first wife was Alyce pronounced in Florida, including Darryl Blue of Fort Lauderdale; his Alice Nelson of Ocala. Her father, Bishop W.L. Nelson, cousin, Antjuan Edwards of Ocala; his 17-year-old son, worked tirelessly to establish dozens of House of God A.J. Ghent of Fort Pierce; and Elton Noble, also of Fort churches along Florida’s east coast from Key West to Pierce. Jacksonville. Most of the House of God churches active Noble recently reflected on the power of the instru in Florida today grew from congregations and edifices ment as he recalled an experience in Lake City. "I established by Bishop Nelson. played and I let it moan, and a woman jumped up and Elsewhere in the country, there are more than 8,000 screamed and fell out fainted-just because the guitar members of the denomination in 26 states, most of the was moanin’," Noble said. ".. .1 want it to touch you. churches east of the Mississippi. This denomination, one That’s what I want. If it touch you, I played. If it didn’t of the oldest Pentecostal churches in the country, cele touch you, I didn’t play." brated its centennial in 2003. Pentecostal churches such as the House of God interpret the Book of Psalms literal nother musician who influenced many younger ly-and give praise to God through "loud, joyful music." Florida steel guitarists was Glenn Lee of Perrine. The churches place strong importance on shouting, While he respected the music of Henry Nelson, ecstatic dancing, and speaking in tongues-believing he was determined to establish his own, more such behavioral patterns to be manifestations of the contemporary musical style. He was one of the Holy Ghost. Music-especially in combination with dra first in Florida House of God churches to play the mod matic preaching-helps infuse believers with the Spirit. ern pedal steel guitar, an instrument usually heard in Willie Eason influenced Alyce Nelson’s younger country music. Lee died of cancer at the age of 32 in brother, Henry, who went on to become one of the most 2000. A number of young pedal steel guitarists and his influential steel guitarists in the House of God. Henry family band, the Lee Boys, carry on his musical legacy. Nelson, who idolized the dapper, charismatic, and free Members of the Lee family provide the music that wheeling Eason, took up the steel guitar in 1940 at age drives the spirited worship services at the church built 11. Over the years, Henry Nelson defined what would by patriarch Elder Robert F. Lee in west Perrine-the become the classic form of driving praise music for the most heavily attended of all House of God churches. In church. He died in 2002. addition to playing for worship services, the Lee Boys Henry Nelson’s son, Fort Pierce native Aubrey enjoy success performing at festivals and concerts Ghent, is recognized as one of the finest six-string lap throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. steel guitarists playing in the House of God today. In House of God clergy and congregants take a variety addition to his fiery praise music, he is known for his of viewpoints on musicians playing outside the church. masterfully rendered hymns and powerful baritone voice. The most conservative believe the music should be per His stunning performance at the 1994 National Folk formed only within the church. The most liberal view

30 FORUM FL0RIDAHuMANITIE5 couNciL WINTER 2004 SACR STEEL the presentation of the music at secular venues as a including nightclubs, concert halls, and large "jam band" means of evangelizing. Each musician has to negotiate festivals. By the spring of 2002, he signed a major these issues with fellow band members, family, and local recording contract with Warner Brothers. In December clergy. 2003, his debut CD for the label, Unclassified, received "Right now, our ministry may not be within the four two Grammy nominations: Best Rock Instrumental and walls of our church," said Alvin Lee. "But it’s spreading Best Rock Gospel Album. Randolph’s commercial suc the music that came from the four walls abroad, and it’s cess in the secular world is a controversial topic among touching a lot of people. And that’s what the Lee Boys House of God clergy and congregations, but most wish are all about. To me, that’s a part of the ministry." him well and are proud of his achievements. Much as In March 2000, Crescent City House of God steel neighborhood kids shooting hoops aspire to become the guitarist Marcus Hardy and a handful of volunteers pro next Shaquille O’Neal, dozens of youngsters from the duced the first Sacred Steel Convention at Rollins House of God hone their steel-guitar licks in hopes of College in Winter Park. The event was open to the pub being the next Robert Randolph. lic and held in a secular venue, but its energy Others choose to keep their music within the church. Fort Lauderdale high school student Eddie Harmon serves as a minister and steel guitarist in the House of God clergy and House of God. "I want God to be glorified out of it, not me," said Harmon. "I don’t want to get any personal congregants take a variety of wealth or gain off what I do, because I know it was God viewpoints on musicians playing that gave me this gift. And so, what better way to show my gratitude than to stay in the House and play the music how God wanted me to play it?" outside the church. The most Even though women are in the House of God clergy conservative believe the music and comprise the overwhelming majority of congregants at most worship services, few females have ever played should performed only within steel guitar in church. The only woman doing this in be Florida is Lisa Lang, who calls herself "Lady of Steel." the church. Lang, who is the steel guitarist at the Brownsville church in Miami, perceives differences in how the gen

. ..-. . .:. ders approach the instrument. Henry Nelson at left "We’re not as aggressive as the males are in our play and Willie Eason, 1998. ing. We bring more of a sophistication to it than the Below: Willie Eason in males because, you know, they just drive on that aggres ghateil 940s. sion, where it’s not really in our nature to be aggressive like that." Lang’s example has inspired others to break the gender barrier. One of her goals is to assemble a band composed entirely of women to play in church. "It’ll happen," she says with conviction. As Sacred Steel musicians usher their musical tradition into the new millennium, there seems to be some thing for everyone. Touring groups have audiences from Miami to New approached that of an inspired wor York and from Berlin to Paris, danc ship service. However, unlike wor ing in the aisles and calling for more. ship services where the ministers are And every Sunday from Pensacola to in control, the steel guitarists were in Florida City, venerated masters and charge; it was their show. dedicated younger steel guitarists Among those who showcased make Florida congregations jump for their talents was 22-year-old New joy as they drive their instruments Jersey pedal steel guitarist Robert to swoop, moan, and cry. Randolph. His pyrotechnic perform ance resulted in an alliance with Jim ROBERT L. STONE is a folklorist and Markel, a local man who had been outreach coordinator for the Florida Folklife looking for a Sacred Steel act to man Program He has been researching and age. Randolph and his Family Band soon documenting the House of God steel guitar began to perform at secular venues traditiryn since 1992.

WINTER 2004 FL0mDAHuFIANITIEScOUNcIL FORUM 31 In The Key ofHonda Miami dances at Center of today’s Latin music scene

By Maria Elena Cepeda

ost Floridians are aware of Miami’s evolution over the past half-centu p4 ry from a mere tourist destination into a pan-Latin, pan- American business capital. It may not Music and dance are at the heart of Miami’s annual Calle Ocho celebration. he as well known, however, that the "Magic City" has also emerged in the study of Miami industry ties to Latin the predominant record companies past few decades as the epicenter of America, for many, Miami’s corporate or "majors" underwent a key trans the international Latin-music indus successes have come to symbolize the formation from straightforward pro try. Indeed, by the late ‘90s, Miami triumph of U.S-sponsored capitalism ducers and distributors of music to became recognized as the undisputed over communist Cuba. global conglomerates in the business "Latin Hollywood" for two conti Global politics, however, is not of "integrated entertainment" and nents. the sole force facilitating the central cross-marketing. Their expanded busi How did this happen? The ization of the Latin-music industry in ness included stakes in marketing, answer lies in global politics, starting Miami: The industry’s success has also record chains, television, cable, and with the Cuban Revolution; Cuban- simultaneously depended on the pros satellite services, among other ven American cultural influences on busi perity of locals. The strength of South tures. ness practices; and shifts in the Latin- Florida’s Cuban-American business During this period, in anticipa music industries in the United States community-and its long-standing tion of the predicted growth and and across Latin America. practice of conducting its business increased buying power of the Latino Unlike other music-industry epi largely within the Cuban-American population in the United States, centers Nashville for country music, community itself-has played a key many of the majors began to devise and Detroit during the heyday of the role in the Latin-music industry’s separate departments dedicated to Motown sound the current Miami move to Miami. This business acu Latin music, and made efforts to Latin-music industry does not strictly men is perhaps best embodied in the expand their Latin recording catalogs. depend upon the geographical prox example of Emilio Estefan, Jr., curS Moreover, since the late ‘80s the imity of its perfonners, producers, and rently the industry’s preeminent pro majors have all simultaneously oper technicians for its success. In this ducer. Estefan and his wife, famed ated as both national and global cor sense, the Miami industry’s pan-Latin, Cuban-American singer Gloria porations. By means of consolidation pan-American character reflects the Estefan, are the individuals perhaps with, affiliation to, or acquisition of trend towards increased international best associated with the original companies that had previously limited migration, travel, and communication "Miami Sound." See accompanying their dealings to the United States, in the current age of globalization. story. the U.S-based majors have gained Particularly in the era following Moreover, Miami’s status as the various national footholds in Latin the Cuban Revolution, Miami began center of the contemporary Latin- America and elsewhere. In part due to move beyond its reputation as pri music scene, particularly during the to the considerable growth of the marily a tourist destination, emerging Latin-music "boom" that began in the Latino population in the United as a city vital to U.S. national securi late 1990s, is also the result of numer States more than 35 million individ ty interests in the fight against com ous broader music-industry shifrs that uals as of 2000 and to its increased munism and drug trafficking in the took place during the ‘80s through spending power, the U.S. Latino mar western hemisphere. As scholar the mid ‘90s. According to sociologist ket has emerged as a focus of both George Yudice notes in his recent Keith Negus, beginning in the 1980s, U.S. and Latin American industry

32 FORUM FL0RJDAHuMANFTIESc0uNCIL WINTER 2004 marketing efforts. Industry data now music industry has in turn fostered an general downturn in music-industry often incorporates Latinos in the increase in the number of domestic sales, Latin-music sales hit 27.5 mil United States as part of the greater and especially international musicians lion units in 2003, up from 23.7 mil Latin American music market migrating to the region. Lower over lion the previous year. However, though they are also tabulated as head costs, geographic proximity to while the Miami cultural and business part of the North American market, Latin America and the Caribbean, environment offers many advantages illustrating the links between the two ready access to production facilities, to the major Latin record labels, the markets. More than ever, Latin music and the presence of an ever-increas Miami industry has also suffered its has developed into a joint production ing, low-wage and largely non- share of controversy. In particular, the between U.S. and Latin American unionized immigrant work force recent conflicts over the Latin corporations. have also contributed to Miami’s Grammy awards involving Emilio In addition, in recent years major attractiveness to the music industry. Estefan, Jr. and sevetal New York- and transnational corporations like BMG, In addition, the abundance of U.S. California-based artists illustrates the EMI Latin, Sony Discos, and Latin American television sta growing influence of non-Cuban Universal/Polygram, NARAS, WEA, tions, radio outlets, and print media musical genres and business forces and Warner-Chappell have opened has facilitated cross-marketing of within the Miami music industry. offices in Miami. The Box Music music-industry products within the Significantly, the first Latin Network, MTV Latin America, and Miami area. As a result, the enter Grammy awards, held on September Galaxy Latin America have estab tainment industry developed into the 13, 2000, were televised live on CBS lished themselves in the city as well, region’s most rapidly growing business from the Staples Center in Los And while Miami is still not consid sector by the late ‘90s, and Miami Angeles, not Miami. This was due to ered an ideal market for music sales, materialized as the undisputed "Latin a now-defunct law banning Miami- the rapidly increasing number of pro Hollywood" for two continents. Dade County from dealing with those duction and recording facilities in the According to Billboard Latin who conduct business with Cuba, in area offers proof of its reputation as a music editor Leila Cobo, despite a this case the Latin Academy of prime production site. Recording Arts and Sciences. The concentration of businesses The event was hailed as the and corporations tied to the Latin- first multilingual broadcast on a major U. 5. network, as well as the first opportunity for recordings produced in Spanish- and Portuguese- The ‘Miami Sound’ speaking nations outside the The original "Miami Sound" of the United States to receive 1970$ and ‘80s-as performed by Grammy nominations. Despite groups such as the now-defunct Miami the impossibility of staging the Sound Machine, in which Gloria Estefan ceremonies in Miami, howev Gloria and Emilio Estefan acted as lead singer and her husband er, Emilio Estefan’s presence Emilio as percussionist-embodied the particular hyphenated Cuban was felt as he led the field with six American cultural identity common to the South Florida region. This nominations in addition to receiving sound was "a form of Latin pop, a mellow version of salsa mixed with a pre-ceremony award as the Latin elements of American rock and jazz," wrote James R. Curtis and Academy’s person of the year. Wife Richard F. Rose in one of the earliest academic articles on the Miami Gloria received three nominations. Sound published in the early l980s. Both before and following the Unlike more traditional Latin music forms, the original Miami inaugural ceremonies, complaints Sound disregarded a montuno section in favor of two or three large arose regarding the Estefans’ per musical passages that were repeated several times and that normally ceived control over the Latin music consisted of a verse and a bridge, as in most pop song arrangements. industry in general and the Latin The early Miami Sound employed heavy Latin percussion and horn Grammy awards in particular dubbed lines; while usually sung in Spanish, songs were at times performed in the "Gramilios" by its detractors. English as well. Prominent industry figures asserted The Estefans’ self-proclaimed role as the first musicians to com that as a result of the indusrry’s grad bine Anglo and Latin musical styles in order to produce a musical ual move to Miami-and the subse blend of "hamburger with rice and beans" remains an obvious point of quent restrictions imposed by more contention for many music historians, artists, and industry insiders, conservative, anti-Castro members of given the rich previous history of musical exchange between the the Cuban-American community-a United States and Latin America. Curtis and Rose maintain that the virtual boycott of musicians with con roots of the original Miami Sound can most likely be traced back to flicting political views had ensued. Carlos Oliva, a Cuban-American musician and recording executive who lived in Miami during the same period. WINTER 2004 FL0RJrDAHuFw,wnescouNclt FORUM MIAMI DANCES -I

By Jeff rey 14. Lemlich Estefan and the Academy were also charged with marginalizing Mexican regional music, despite its status as the industry’s highest-selling genre, as few Mexican regional artists received nomina I tions or were invited to perform. In response, hich of the following Estefan maintained that the Latin Grammy Sound? awards had a positive impact on the industry as a best defines the Florida whole by boosting record sales worldwide; he * Rhythmic guitars, punchy horns, and soulful also reiterated his belief that politics and music vocals; should not mix, and expressed his hope that the * Latin-flavored pop with a tinge of jazz; next Latin Orammy ceremony be held in Miami. * Fresh-faced young singers mixing catchy tunes The September 2001 Latin Grammy cere with light touches of hip hop; mony was scheduled to be held in Miami, but it * Bass-heavy rap styles; was moved to Los Angeles a few weeks prior to * An all-out rock ‘n’ roll sonic assault; the scheduled date, amid protests from Cuban- * Caribbean-flavored funk; Americans angered by the inclusion of Cuban * Primal tockabilly. musicians. The 2001 ceremony was ultimately The answer is-all of these and mote. The Florida Sound is a mix that is as diverse as the state’s cancelled in the wake of the September 11 ter rorist attacks on the United States. Los Angeles population. And both continue to grow and change. Florida’s music over the last again became the site of the Latin Grammy cere An overview of pop half-century starts with the early rock ‘n’ roll in the mony in 2002, though Miami was eventually ‘SOs and moves through an assortment of styles that allowed to host the 2003 ceremony. both reflected and influenced the national music Notably, Emilio Estefan’s rise to prominence scene. within the Latin-music industry has occurred As rock ‘n’ roll was shaking, rattling, rolling and alongside Miami’s development into the center changing the course of history, there were artists across for the Latin entertainment industry in the the state picking up guitars and aspiring to be the next United States and Latin America. The ongoing Elvis Presley. While Benny Joy, Tracy Pendarvis and influx of many of Latin America’s most Wesley Hardin might not be household names, they renowned recording artists, musicians, and pro were important in spreading the gospel as told by Elvis, ducers to the South Florida region is but one Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bo Diddley, and Little reflection of the Miami industry’s power. Richard. Two Florida artists managed top-ten hits in Economic turmoil and political instability aside, the ‘50s with a slightly tamer approach, The Dream it has become increasingly difficult for most Weavers with "It’s Almost Tomorrow" and the Kahn Latin artists hoping to "make it big" to do so Twins WSihen solely within the confines of their native coun About that same time, Henry Stone was setting up tties. As a result of changing demographics and a record-distribution network in Miami that would market demands, several years into Miami’s reign give him contact with just about every independent as Latin Hollywood the Latin-music industry has label in America. Stone’s contacts resulted in a nation gradually shifted its focus away from the original al recording contract for Miamian by the way of Miami Sound, with its exclusively Cuban- Rochester, New York Steve Alaimo, a singer who also American influence, onto performers hailing had an ear for production. It was Alaimo who pro from a variety of immigrant groups with expert duced the first recordings of Miami’s Sam and Dave, before they packed their bags for Memphis and the big ise in a broad range of musical styles. The result, what might expanded notion the time. we call an of Stone’s Tone Recording Studio gave local artists a original Miami Sound, emerges as a vivid reflec place to record when national hot shots such as Hank tion of the lived realities of today’s global musi Ballard or James Brown weren’t using the facility. As cians, composers, producers, and consumers. local records began to create a buzz in juke joints or on local radio stations, Stone would call on his contacts MARIA ELENA CEPEDA is professor of Spanish at at Atlantic Records to forge national distribution Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. A former Miami deals, which in turn resulted in national airplay-and resident, she is a specialist in U.S-L.atino and Latin some terrific exposure for many artists among them, American popular music and culture. Alaimo, who’d wind up as a cast member on ABC TV’s "Where the Action Is". Two of the world’s most important icons of the 20th century made indelible impressions on Florida’s 34 FORUM FLORIDAHuMANITIE5c0UNcIL WINTER 2004 Bo Diddley, left, of Hawthorne, and Gainesville’s Tom Petty, right, are two of the many Floridians who have rocked the country.

music scene. When Elvis Presley came to our state in 1961 to shoot the movie "Follow That Dream," many felt that royalty had hit our shores. Among them was a boy from Gainesville, whose uncle worked as an assistant prop man on the film. After young Tom Petty made the trip to Ocala to see Presley in action, his attention turned to music. He followed a dream of his own into eventual superstardom. And then there’s the Beatles’ historic stay in the Deauville Hotel in Miami Beach in February 1964, an event witnessed from coast to coast on CBS-TV’s "Ed Sullivan Show." The emergence of the Beatles brought a new optimism to young people, an affirma tion of life, music, and youth culture. Suddenly Florida was the home to thousands of garage bands; from three-chord wonders to those who really, truly aspired to make a name in the world of music. Radio stations throughout Florida rode this wave, sponsor ing show-dances that helped promote both the bands and the stations. While many of these bands came and went in a matter of weeks, others persevered, garnering local hits and getting the chance to open for national acts that came into town. Among them: The Call it primal, uptown, techno, F LO RI DA or underground, it just means

INS

WINTER 2004 FLORIDA HUMANITIES couNciL FORUM 35 FLORIDA Rocks!

Nightcrawlers "The Little Black ,cJ, ftRtS Egg", Bitdwatchers "Girl I Got News for You", Clefs of Lavender Hill "Stopl Get a Ticket", Montells the controversial, censored "Don’t Bring Me Down", Legends, Tropics, We The People, and Roemans all enjoyed local hits and a smattering of gospel and R&B, aided that not only made national airphay as well. Two Florida by changing production her a worldwide star, bands, Ocala’s Royal Guardsmen and values, made for some but would also Jacksonville’s Classic IV, achieved tremendously joyful, encourage Henry worldwide success with their record uplifting, soul-stirring Stone to break free ings, paving the way for others that music. Henry Stone was from Atlantic would follow as the decade wore on. amassing an impressive Records and establish Few of Florida’s ‘óOs garage bands roster of performers in his own TK record are household names, but they were Miami, but he wasn’t empire. vitally important in nurturing the tal alone. Willie Clarke Florida also had a and Johnny Pearsahh good share of "girl ent that would result in greater suc Former Tampa resident cess for many of our state’s musicians. formed Florida’s first Stephen Stills did a short stint groups" in the ‘60s, You might not know The Epics, but independent, black- at the University of Florida inspired by Motown’s you know Tom Petty. You might not operated record labels, before going on to form such success with the know The Second Coming or The Deep City and Lloyd, in influential folk rock bands as Supremes, 1965, exploding on the Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Marvelettes and Bitter md, but members of those Stills, Nash & Young. bands would play an important part scene first with Martha & The in the Allman Brothers Band. These Clarence Reid, Paul Vandellas. The ‘60s bands were the pied pipers and Kelly, and Helene Smith-and later Marvells later known as the pioneers. They were the ones fighting with a 13-year-old girl with a woman’s Fabulettes, Coeds, Lovells any early to wear their hair long and to play voice, an instrument so rich and version of ‘7Os hit-makers Faith Hope their music loud. They were the ones majestic as to cause astonishment to & Charity, Quivettes, Twans, and spearheading the revolution that anyone coming in contact with this others paved the way for the more many others would later take advan precocious youngster. Clarke first dis successful female-led acts of the disco tage of. There would be no Creed covered Betty Wright in a Miami and freestyle dance eras. In Pensacola, without the Clefs of Lavender Hill, record store, singing along to Billy James & Bobby Purify were reaching no Sister Hazel without The Shaggs Stewart’s note-bending rendition of the national charts with hits such as or the Squiremen IV. "Summertime" no easy feat. "I’m Your Puppet," while in DeLand, The British Invasion of the ‘6Os Wright’s first recordings for Clarke Noble "Thin Man" Watts was blowing might have spurred on the garage- and Pearsall’s Deep City label didn’t up a storm with his magic saxophone. band phenomenon, but that wasn’t sell, but by 1968 she was on her way And let’s not forget Ray Charles, who the only musical revolution. As pri to stardom with her anthem "Girls began his career right here in the sun mal rhythm & blues gave way to Can’t Do What The Guys Do." Three shine state, or Wayne Cochran, the uptown soul music, this fusion of years later Wright would strike gold flamboyant, blue-eyed soul singer who with "Clean Up Woman," a record made a huge impression on television

36 FORUM FL0RIDAHUMANmESc0UNcIL WINTER 2004 in "The Jackie Gleason Show" and mate bankruptcy. ‘N Sync and the Backstreet Boys. Like inspired the Blues Brothers, who Things kept changing, hut them or hate them, they’re certainly recorded his signature tune, "Goin’ Florida’s local musicians never gave up. popular, and have been for many years Back to Miami." Dance music evolved through high- now. The late ‘ôOs brought turbulent energy, track-based music think An overview of Florida music is times for our nation, and a lot of the Expose, and through the Miami-led not complete without mentioning naiveté in the music was lost. The freestyle movement, into house and Criteria studios in North Miami, at draft broke up many a band, and in an techno-driven sounds. Hip hop would one time a single room that recorded era of drugs, political action, and defi move out of New York City to become primarily local acts. Criteria would ance of authority, musical constraints a worldwide phenomenon, which in become "Atlantic Records South" in were being broken. No longer tied Florida meant bass-heavy, party-inten the late ‘60s and ‘7Os, with Eric down to radio-friendly, under three- sive rap music think the booty rap of Clapton and The Bee Gees leading minute tunes, bands such as the Two Live Crew. Hip hop would move the way for a procession of musical Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and from the underground to the main superstars. And extremely influential Blackfoot were fusing rock, blues, and stream, and would fuse itself with both in the state’s music scene were radio country together into a new form of metal and hardcore rock styles. Punk disc jockeys Rick Saw, Roby Yonge, Southern rock. These are bands that and ska would come together to form a Mike E. Harvey, Nickie Lee, Wildman could have a message one moment, poppy, accessible hybrid that Florida’s Steve, and many more. For a music and then ask you to party with them punk-rock pioneers never could have scene to thrive, there must be artists, the next. After the national traumas envisioned. A country music band that producers, venues, studios, and sup of Kent State, an escalating war, and started in Miami The Mavericks port. Florida has been fortunate to presidential scandals, divisions were would go on to win a Grammy Award. have it all. forming in rock music ranks. At one A Latin music empire would spring up time rock ‘n’ roll was the undisputed that would bring salsa, merengue, Latin JEFFREY M. LEMLICH is author of Savage music of youth, but as musicians were jazz, and sophisticated Latin pop to a Losr: Florida Garage Bands, The ‘6Os and getting older and moving into authori worldwide audience. And then there Beyond. This anicle is reprinted from the ty roles, new revolutions had to take are Orlando’s "boy bands," including Summer 2001 issue of South Florida History. place. And they did.

J he punk-rock bands of the late 1 ‘70s and early ‘80s didn’t top The Civil Rights the charts, but they sure pro vided inspiration to many of the bands that followed and found great Movement in Florida success. A couple of years ago, The Eat, The Reactions, The Cichlids, Conference Critical Mass, and Charlie Pickett & A gathering veterans, scholars, The Eggs started to gain the recogni of movement public tion that eluded them in the early officials, journalists, students, and the community. punk-rock days, when they were forced to play dingy clubs on specially June 3-6, 2004, St. Petersburg, Florida designated "new wave nights" usually a Tuesday night. There would be no A confrontation Marilyn Manson, no Matchbox between black Twenty, without the sacrifices these de,nonstrotors and hands made, sometimes playing before white segregation ifls at St. Augustine five to 10 people, and rarely getting Beach, 1964. paid. Photo courtesy of As the ‘7Os wore on, there were the Florida State milestones that would change our Archives state’s musical landscape: Tom Petty and his band Mudcrutch later known Sponsored by the florida Studies Program as The Heartbreakers left Gainesville for L.A.; a plane crash would kill key at USF, St. Petersburg members of the band Lynyrd Skynyrd For more information please contact: including its guiding light Ronnie [email protected] Van Zant; anti-disco sentiments Or call 727 553-4872 would contribute to TK Records’ ulti

WINTER 2004 FLOPJDAI-IUMANITIESc0UNcIL FORUM 37 Book Briefs REVIEWS OF FLORIDA INTEREST

Orange Journalism: Voices from Neuharth included, that was OK. I think Florida Newspapers rarely stop thinking for the first time in Edited byJulian M. Pleasants about their craft, my life, I had found a 339 pages. University Press of Florida. whether at home, on home. I loved Miami $27.95 vacation, or at some the way some men local watering hole. love women. I wrote Reviewed by Robert W. Dardenne Neuharth was about Haitian driven by a force not refugees, anti-Castro range Journalism: Voices from uncommon to many guerillas, brutal cops, Florida Newspapers is an edit of the other journal pitiful crack whores, 0 ed selection of interviews ists. This becomes riots-I still don’t hear with Florida journalists and, for that apparent as they use real good out of one ear reason, has immediate appeal for any their own words to because I got hit with a one interested in the press. But even describe their com chunk of concrete dur those who don’t like journalists, or mitments to something they love. ing a riot in Liberty City..." even journalism, will find something Look at Garth Reeves, African- Of the 15 interviews, two are interesting in this odd collection of American publisher of the Miami with women: Diane McFarlin of the personal histories and experiences. Times, who said that, despite coming Sarasota Herald-Tribune and Lucy The book’s oral-history approach from a journalism family, he wasn’t Morgan of the St. Petersburg Times. allows the journalists to tell their own initially drawn to journalism. But his Morgan, in talking about being a sin stories in their own words. In so experiences during World War II gle mother and journalist, said of her doing, they reveal themselves as peo changed his outlook: "Then, having children: "Sometimes I took them ple with passions. No, not the kind of come out of the army and having with me to news stories. They have political passions that writers of let been treated like I was, made me take probably seen more fires and traffic ters to the editor claim to see between a different look at the newspaper part accidents and things like that than the lines, but passions about truth, of [journalism}, the power of the most anybody’s children. I was a sin about information, about the news, press.. They were waving that flag at gle parent trying to juggle these two and about people. me, but they treated me like a damn jobs and three children..." The interview with Al Neuharth, dog, because I am black. It was a terri Among those interviewed was for example, provides some insight ble thing to accept; you are laying reporter and novelist Carl Hiaasen of into the man who started Florida your life on the line; you are overseas; the Miami Herald, who said that as Today, the successful Brevard County and you see them treating the long as "there’s a tiny little spark of newspaper and precursor to his later, German prisoners better than they outrage out there" waiting "to be kin more famous start-up, LISA Today. treat you. It just does something to dled into something bigger, then you When he became boss of Gannett, you. It takes your manhood away." got to keep writing." Also included which owned almost 100 newspapers You get some of the same type of are political cartoonist Don Wright of around the country, his decision to insight into Rick Bragg, an award- the Palm Beach Post; founding editor launch the national newspaper, USA winning writer recently in the news Horacio Aguirre of Diario las Today, was based largely on his suc himself for a parting of the ways with Americas; the irrepressible Tommy cesses on Florida’s east coast. This the New York Times and for writing Green, founder of the Madison County book doesn’t break any new ground Jessica Lynch’s book I Am a Soldier, Carrier "...people told me, as bad as I on that, but because of its Q&A for Too: The Jessica Lynch Story on her spelled, I probably meant to say mat, it gives you the details in Iraqi capture and rescue. Before all Courier and did not know how to Neuharth’s own words. He says, for that, he worked for the St. Petersburg spell it"; and others from large and example, that the idea to put the Times, often covering Miami. "I rent medium-sized dailies and small weekly "Today" in USA Today came to one of ed a house in Coconut Grove," he newspapers. his colleagues in the middle of the said in the interview conducted by Many interviewers asked com night, maybe as he was closing down Kelly Benham, now a St. Petersburg mon questions, but a strength and some local tavern. A point the book Times feature writer, "and the first perhaps weakness of the book is that makes is that these journalists, night someone stole my stereo, but it covers considerable ground without

38 FORUM FL0pJDAHUMANITIESc0uNcIL WINTER 2004 a great deal of focus. The result is a good, but scattered, read. Readers may also draw the conclusion Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings that a good, comprehensive history of Writers Workshop Florida journalism needs to be written. Julian Pleasants, director of the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program at the 7 Writing the Region University of Florida, opens the book with Discover the nuances and techniques of regional writing a brief history. Even his bibliography Fiction, Poetry, Non-Fiction, Historical Fiction, shows that the state’s remarkable journal Freelancing. Mystery, Editing. Query Letters, istic contributions and history appear to Contracts, Writing for Children, Memoir, be chronicled through only about mid- Humorous Essays. Publishing. & More. 20th century, and then ever so sparsely. FACULTY INCLUDE: Bob Mayer, Sarah Bewley. Bill But, as subsequent chapters in this book Belleville, Sue Cerulean, Michael Gannon, Jeff reveal, Florida’s journalistic endeavors are 0 Klinkenberg, Bill Maxwell, Kevin McCarthy, Peter Meinke, rich and varied-with local, national, and Shelly Fraser Mickle, Sidney Wade, & others. international impact-and certainly Visit the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historical Site deserving of a comprehensive history. This book whets the appetite to learn July 21 - 25, 2004 more about how Florida came to he one of Gainesville and Cross Creek, Florida the best newspaper states in the country. Call toll free 888-917-7001 or 352-378-9166 This workshop is funded in part by a Tourist Development Grant from J Aiaehua county, the state of Florida Division of cultural Affairs, and ROBERT W. DARDENNE is an associate profes the city of Gainesville sor in the Department of Journalism and Media Studies at the University of South Florida-St. Petersburg.

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iltI 1110111 IltiflIlIlti iii IF I torrrnri r - HISTORY tHUR Florida. Dive in.

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