Tonight (8/17/2013) there was a reunion of sorts. That’s when musicians Gabe Valla and Sam Pacetti gave their long-awaited second performance in Gainesville’s Thomas Center. The two guitar players, who now both live in the St. Augustine area, first met as teenagers at a memorial service for the late Gamble Rogers, who is now honored in the Florida Artists Hall of Fame. Valla, who grew up in Gainesville around the acoustic music scene, talked with WUFT’s Donna Green-Townsend about the uniqueness of the scheduled show:
The concert was sponsored by the Shakerag Culture Center and the City of Gainesville Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs.
Gabe Valla and Sam Pacetti performing at the Thomas Center on August 18, 2013 (photo by Lee Townsend)Gabe Valla and Sam Pacetti performing at the Thomas Center (photo by Lee Townsend)
Click to hear the 2000 Edward R. Murrow Award-Winning documentary on “Apalachicola Doin’ Time” produced by WUFT’s Donna Green-Townsend, Bill Beckett, Daniel Beasley and Josh Azriel.
“This lawsuit will be targeted toward one thing – fighting for the future of Apalachicola. This is a bold, historic legal action for our state. But this is our only way forward after 20 years of failed negotiations with Georgia. We must fight for the people of this region. The economic future of Apalachicola Bay and Northwest Florida is at stake,” he said in a statement.
The suit will be filed in the U.S. Supreme Court and will seek to limit the amount of Apalachicola headwaters Georgia can use.
Florida State Senator Bill Montford
A five-minute audio interview by Donna Green-Townsend with State Sen. Bill Montford (D-District 6) can be heard below. He discusses how the Apalachicola Bay will be a priority in the state legislature and his hopes for the federal government to take a stronger interest in the Tri-State Water War involving Alabama, Florida and Georgia over the river system they all share. Montford also addresses the criticism of those who say besides the drought in 2012, oysters were overharvested just after the BP oil spill.
Original story: There was much emotion Tuesday at the congressional field hearing scheduled to examine the lack of water flow into the Apalachicola Bay.
Due to decreasing levels of water flow into the bay from the Apalachicola watershed, the town’s once-thriving oyster industry has collapsed. The town of Apalachicola, known for its oysters, has reported that this season has found an insignificant amount of the mussels to be harvested from the bay.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection calls the Apalachicola one of the most productive bays in the nation, providing approximately 90 percent of the oysters consumed in Florida. In addition to oysters, the bay supports extensive shrimping, crabbing and commercial fishing. Only 20 percent of the river lies in Florida, according to FDEP. The Apalachicola River headwaters, which actually begin in Georgia’s Chattahoochee River, becomes the Apalachicola where it crosses the Florida-Georgia line.
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio scheduled the field hearing at the Franklin County Courthouse in Apalachicola to hear evidence concerning the oyster collapse. Speakers blamed the collapse on last year’s drought and poor water conservation practices in Georgia along the Chattahoochee river.
Senators Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio headed the field hearing because Congress has the authority to direct the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to provide the freshwater flows necessary to save the Apalachicola Bay.
(pictures from the day’s hearing below: Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Full Committee Field Hearing on “Effects of Water Flows on Apalachicola Bay: Short and Long Term Perspectives.” August, 13, on August 13th, 2013 2013, Franklin County Courthouse Annex Bldg.
The late Will McLean spent his life writing songs to save Florida through music. Now the foundation named after the father of Florida folk is marketing an environmental CD trying to continue McLean’s lifelong mission. The acoustic CD features musicians from across the Sunshine State singing about a wide variety of environmental stories and issues. As Donna Green-Townsend reports even the CD title, These Diamondscarries a story behind it.
Flutist George Tortorelli performing with harpist Lisa Lynne
Flutist George Tortorelli and harpist Lisa Lynne can often be found at Gainesville’s Downtown Arts Festival each November. You can also often find them performing at the Florida Folk Festival in White Springs on Memorial Weekend…that is when they’re not touring across the country with their New Age Music. For many years George Tortorelli played music in a rock ‘n roll band. These days he prefers the soothing sound of his homemade flutes from his bamboo forest around his Gainesville home. Along with music partner Lisa Lynne, they’ve had a number of CDs top the New Age charts. He talked with Donna Green-Townsend about the switch in his musical taste.
Christmas CD cover
Tortorelli talking about one of their latest projects, a Christmas CD performed on ancient acoustic instruments:
The late Mem Semmes from Dunnellon loved music. Not only did she write hundreds of songs, but she also helped provide a long time venue for Florida’s singer songwriters through the monthly concert series, The Sunday Sampler. Just a few years before she died her son Jon Semmes helped Mem produce her first CD. Mem talked about songwriting with Donna Green-Townsend in this one hour special aired on WUFT in December of 2007 on Across The Prairie.
Mem Semmes on These Diamonds CD Project
The late Will McLean spent his life writing songs to save Florida through music. Now the foundation named after the father of Florida folk is marketing an environmental CD trying to continue McLean’s lifelong mission. The acoustic CD features musicians from across the Sunshine State singing about a wide variety of environmental stories and issues. As Donna Green-Townsend reports even the CD title, These Diamondscarries a story behind it.
Dale Crider performing at the Will McLean Folk Festival in 2012
Singer Songwriters Steve Gillette and Cindy Mangsen from Bennington, Vermont often tour in Florida. While in the Gainesville area for a house concert the popular duo met up with WUFT’s Donna Green-Townsend.Gillette, who has had a number of his songs recorded by national recording artists, has ties to one of Florida’s legendary guitar players. Steve and Cindy recalled how they first met the late Gamble Rogers. Rogers, who is in the Florida Artists Hall of Fame, is nationally known for his quick wit and guitar playing ability, all while weaving stories about a mythical Oklawaha County in Florida. He died in 1991 trying to save a drowning man off Flagler Beach. Gillette and Mangsen talked with Donna Green-Townsend at the home of environmental troubadour Dale Crider from Windsor, Florida about their mutual friend.
Cousin Thelma Boltin, Gamble Rogers and Will McLean 1988 50th Anniv of The Yearling in Cross Creek
Rod MacDonald performing at the Florida Folk Festival in 2001
Rod MacDonald with Donna Green-Townsend
Rod MacDonald performing at the Will McLean Folk Festival in 2012
Singer/songwriter and educator Rod MacDonald‘s name is synonymous with the 1980s folk revival in Greenwich Village clubs in New York City. He’s a graduate of the Columbia Law School. Following law school he joined the staff of Newsweek magazine, but his heart was really in music, choosing to write and sing about today’s issues through song. In the 1990s he gained national stature performing at folk festivals and coffeehouses around the U.S., Canada, and Europe. He currently lives in Delray Beach, FL.
Donna Green-Townsend has this profile of singer songwriter Rod MacDonald who’s not afraid to tackle social and political issues through song.
In March, 2014 MacDonald asked several other musicians and the audience at the Will McLean Folk Festival to join him in a tribute to the late Pete Seeger:
Here’s a 21 minute 13 second radio special with Rod MacDonaldrecorded before a Gainesville performance a few years after 9/11 which includes his songs, “My Neighbors In Delray,” “American Jerusalem,” and “The Man Who Dropped The Bomb on Hiroshima” in their entirety.
Rod MacDonald performing a funny, yet provocative song about pythons taking over the Everglades. (Recorded at the 2017 Will McLean Music Festival)
And one of MacDonald’s recent political songs called, “I’d Love To Be Wrong.”
Rod MacDonald in an interview before performing at the Theatre of Memory in High Springs
Jon Semmes, Pete Hennings, Pete Price and Ingrid Ellis
Jon Semmes and Ingrid Ellis have been performing together in the band, “Jon Semmes and the Florida Friends,” for more than a decade now. Band members also include Pete Hennings and Pete Price. Jon currently runs Singing River Tours on the Rainbow and Withlacoochee Rivers in Marion County.
Jon Semmes talking with Donna Green-Townsend before one of his scheduled performances at the Florida Folk Festival.
(Above) Jon Semmes of Dunnellon leads educational singing river tours of the Rainbow and Withlacoochee Rivers in Marion County, FL. Trent Kelly and Donna Green-Townsend give a snippet of what those tours are like.
Jon Semmes singing a song written by his mother Mem Semmes called, “My Dunnellon” at a Sunday Sampler on September 9th, 2012 at the old Train Depot in Dunnellon,FL.
Swamp blues guitarist Walter Parks performs at Shake Rag Art & Culture Center
By Donna Green-Townsend- WUFT-FM Airedon June 15th, 2012
Veteran blues guitarist Walter Parks with Florida’s 89.1, WUFT-FM’s Donna Green-Townsend.
Veteran blues guitarist Walter Parks who built and international career as the lead guitarist for Woodstock legend Richie Havens recently brought his unique style to Melrose. Parks is also the leader of the southern swamp blues group Swamp Cabbage. He talked with Florida’s 89.1, WUFT-FM’s Donna Green-Townsend.
“Danny Wooten & Southern Slang” performs for “Free Fridays” concert series
By Donna Green-Townsend – WUFT-FM Aired on August 5, 2011
Danny Wooten, lead singer and songwriter of Southern Slang (picture by Donna Green-Townsend)
The Country band “Danny Wooten & Southern Slang” takes to the stage tonight for the “Free Fridays” concert series in downtown Gainesville. Florida’s 89.1, WUFT-FM’s Donna Green-Townsend talked with lead singer and songwriter Danny Wooten about the style of music the band will bring to the Bo Diddley Downtown Plaza.
