Tag Archives: Bobby Hicks

Archival television program features many of Florida’s greatest folk songwriters

The late Don Grooms and Jim Billie
The late Don Grooms and James Billie

The 1988 Pines and Palms television program hosted by the late Don Grooms featured several singer songwriters who have since passed on. They may have left this earthly life, but their music lives on. Their songs can still be heard on the stages of many music festivals around the state.

In 1988, Grooms who was working as a telecommunication professor at the University of Florida, gathered together several of his greatest music friends including Bobby Hicks from the Tampa area, Seminole Chief James Billie from South Florida, Frank and Ann Thomas from Lake Wales and Dale and Linda Crider from Windsor.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The program was recorded in the studios of WUFT-TV in Gainesville. This is a very rare recording as many of the archival tapes from that time period have been destroyed or have been lost. Thanks to Frank Counts who was the producer-director for this program, this copy still exists. Frank was a telecommunication assistant professor at UF and worked for 37 years as the Production Manager for WUFT-TV before his retirement in 2010.

The program ran nearly an hour.  To make it easier to watch, the program is broken up into four separate segments below:

Pines and Palms Part 1

Part 1 includes Bobby Hicks singing, “I’m Florida Need I Say More,” Frank and Ann Thomas singing, “Cracker Cowman,” and Don Grooms singing, “Winnebago.”

Pines and Palms Part 2

Part 2 includes James Billie singing his “Big Alligator” song and a song about a bashful star.  Also featured are two songs from Dale and Linda Crider: “Under the Southern Bald Eagle” and “Last Live Photo”

Pines and Palms Part 3

Part 3 includes Don Grooms as he sings “Vitachuko.” Bobby Hicks sings his Condo/Hurricane song.  Frank and Ann Thomas sing their song “Buttermilk Biscuits” and their song about “Sam Jones.”  James Billie sings his song “Back To The Swamp.”

Pines and Palms Part 4

Part 4 includes Bobby Hicks singing a song about “Zachariah Creech,” Dale and Linda Crider perform their “Proof In the Wild Turkey Sign,” and Don Grooms sings, “Walk Proud My Son.”

The Gatherings (26-Part Music Series Recorded at various Florida festivals and venues)

Musicians perform Apalachicola Doin' Time finale at the Florida Folk Festival in 2000The Gatherings – Folk and Blues From The Land of Flowers   26 part live-music series

(Producer- Bill Beckett and Host- Donna Green-Townsend)

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Program #1- Dale Crider & Roy Bookbinder 

Program #2 Al ScortinoCarrie Blackwell Lon and Lis Williamson 

Program #3 Sue Grooms & Ron and Bari 

Program #4 Mark Smith – Grant Livingston Paul Garfinkel

Program #5 James Hawkins & Frank and Ann Thomas 

Program #6 Valerie Caracappa – Boomslang Bobby Hicks 

Program #7 Under the Water Lilies – Rod MacDonald – Blue Velvet

Program #8 Patchwork & Jim and Jesse and the Virginia Boys 

Program #9 Steve Blackwell & Marie Nofsinger 

Program #10 Don Grooms Tribute

Program #11 The Spiritual Consolators & Pam Laws 

Program #12 Art Crummer & Bill Wharton and the Ingredients 

Program #13 The Spiritual Consolators & TC Carr and the Catch 

Program #14 Upsala and Sno Rogers

Program #15 Tammerlin 

Program #16 Mindy Simmons 

Program #17 Dinella and Gieger & Ken Skeens and Leigh Goldsmith

Program #18 Jeanie Fitchen 

Program #19 Clyde Walker 

Program #20 Magda Hiller 

Program #21 Sam Pacetti 

Program #22 Harvey Reid 

Program #23 Destination Still Unknown 

Program #24 CD Sampler

Program #25 Campfire Tapes 

Program #26 Studio Tapes 

Cattle Ranchers of Florida: Keepers of the Last Frontier

_3JustinGopherwCrackerhorse279
Justin Gopher with cracker horse. Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation, July 2007.

“Keepers of the Last Frontier,” that’s one way to describe Florida’s cowboys.  Maintaining the five century old tradition of cattle ranching in the Sunshine State is challenging as rapid growth continues to encroach on what used to be sprawling cattle ranches.  Donna Green-Townsend talks with two people involved in the effort to save this longtime industry for future generations.  In “Cattle Ranching:  Keepers of the Last Frontier,” she talked with Bob Stone, the Outreach Coordinator for the Florida Department of State’s Folklife Program which has had a travelling exhibit dedicated to the lifestyle of Florida’s cowboys.  She also spoke with the Executive Director of the Conservation Trust for Florida, Busy Shires-Byerly, who is reaching out to cattle ranching families with information about how to conserve their family land through various creative conservation strategies.(From Donna’s audio archives  November 22, 2009)

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The Musicians

West Florida Wrangler -By Maggie and Michael McKinney (Lucky Mud)

Cow Hunter’s Dream – By Benjamin DeHart

I’m Florida – By Bobby Hicks

Cracker Cowman – By Frank Thomas

Links

Florida Cattle Ranching Exhibit

Florida cattle ranching photos

Conservation Trust for Florida 

State Library and Archives of Florida