Category Archives: Features

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings: Video Highlights of Events at the MKR Historic State Park

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The late Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings is best known for her novel The Yearling which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1939 and was made into a major motion picture. She penned many other books including Cross Creek, South Moon Under, Golden Apples, The Sojourner and Blood of My Blood. Rawlings died on December 14th, 1953 but her legacy lives on and continues to inspire writers around the world. The farm is now a Florida State Park where thousands of people continue to visit the farm and community that inspired Rawlings’ literary works. The community service organization, “Friends of the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Farm,” works to support the needs of the park. For more information on the Friends of the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Farm go to MarjorieKinnanRawlings.org or follow the organization’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/FriendsofMKR. You can view and listen to many of the organization’s activities below:

On December 12, 2021 The Friends of the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Farm sponsored the showing of the 1946 classic film, The Yearling, at the Marion Theatre in Ocala. It was the 75th anniversary of the premiere of the MGM award-winning film. Prior to the movie the audience was treated to an onstage interview with Claude Jarman, Jr. who played young “Jody” Baxter in the film.

Claude Jarman, Jr. interviewed by Donna Green-Townsend

On April 6th, 2021 documentary film producer Donna Green-Townsend talked with Claude Jarman, Jr. who played young “Jody” Baxter in the 1946 MGM film, The Yearling. The movie was based on Marjorie Rawlings’ Pulitzer Prize winning book. Jarman was a special guest on December 11th and 12th, 2021 in Cross Creek and Ocala, Florida as the Friends of the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Farm organization celebrated the 75th Anniversary of the Premiere of The Yearling.

The Yearling movie told the story of a pioneer family in the Florida Scrub of Marion County, Florida and starred actors Gregory Peck, Jane Wyman and young first-time actor, Claude Jarman, Jr.

The Yearling depicts the coming of age story of a young boy and his orphaned pet deer and the tough decisions his family had to make to survive. The movie received seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, taking home Oscars for Best Cinematography and Art Direction. Young actor Claude Jarman, Jr. won an Academy Juvenile Award.

Friends of the MKR Farm featured on WUFT’s Greater Good program

On March 26th, 2021 the Friends of the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Park was featured on WUFT-TV on the program, “Greater Good.” Here’s a link to the feature that aired.

In December of 2020 the park wasn’t able to have the usual holiday open house because of the pandemic. Instead, park staff and volunteers offered a virtual tour of Marjorie’s home all decked out for the holidays, just as Marjorie would have done when she lived there.

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ Cross Creek Christmas 2020

Marjorie and Me: Ron Haase Discusses Cracker Architecture and His Inspiration From Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

Ron Haase is Professor Emeritus at the University of Florida where he taught design and historic preservation. He is a specialist in the area of Florida vernacular architecture. Ron is also the author of the book, “Classic Cracker: Florida’s Wood-Frame Vernacular Architecture.” In this video he pays a visit to the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park and shares his personal inspiration from Rawlings writings. He tours MKR’s barn and home with Park Manager Scott Spaulding and shares his knowledge of “Classic Cracker Architecture.”

On August 8th, 2020 The Friends of the MKR Farm decided to have a virtual birthday party for Marjorie because of the pandemic. Below is a special video presentation offered online about the friends and neighbors of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings in Cross Creek. DVDs of the video are available to purchase for $15.00 plus $4.00 for postage and handling.  All proceeds will benefit projects on the farm.  Please make your check payable to Friends of the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Farm., and mail to PO Box 337, Micanopy, FL  32667-0337.

Life and Times in Cross Creek: Memories and Reflections

Celebrating MKR’s 123rd birthday (August, 2019)

The Pound Party Play

On May 4th, 2019 a variety of children participated in a play based on Chapter 4 of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ book, “Cross Creek.” The play was written by James M. Stephens. A variety of audience members took video of the play and this video is taken from what those audience members captured.

The event was sponsored by the Friends of the MKR Farm and the MKR Historic State Park in Cross Creek, FL. To learn about other future events check out the facebook page: The Friends of the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Farm. Cast members: Director- Scott Spaulding Cast Members: Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings- Samantha Briscoe Samuel Townsend – Lee Townsend Leila Townsend- Donna Green-Townsend Dorsey Townsend – Ty Briscoe Ella May Townsend – Abby Briscoe Floyd Townsend – Jaylen Riley Glenwood Townsend – Carter Cutter Preston Townsend- Lucas Wunner Beatrice Townsend – Emeline Floyd Baby Christine Townsend – Emery Swilley

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ Antiochers

Many of the Cross Creek, Florida friends Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings wrote about in her book “Cross Creek” are buried in the Antioch Cemetery near Island Grove, FL just east of Cross Creek. James M. Stephens has written what he thinks many of those friends would say about themselves and their relationship with the late Pulitzer-Prize-winning author. He shares those narratives in this unique walking tour of the Antioch Cemetery.

The Artistic Ties Between MKR and Robert E. Carson

Robert E. Carson was a professor of Humanities at the University of Florida from 1946-1971. Professor Carson, or “Doc” as many called him, was a self-taught artist who began in watercolors at the age of 35. In 1966 author Gordon E. Bigelow asked Carson to provide sketches for his book, Frontier Eden, The Literary Career of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. Following the publication of Bigelow’s book, the University of Florida asked Carson if he would be willing to provide tours of the late Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings home in Cross Creek. From 1968 to 1970 Carson and his wife Estelle stayed at the historic MKR home on weekends and served as the first hosts. Sadly, he died following a car accident leaving Cross Creek in 1971. Carson’s daughter, Elaine Carson Spencer shares how she is keeping her father’s legacy alive in this video about the artistic ties between her father and MKR.

Celebrating Marjorie’s 122nd Birthday at the MKR Historic State Park in August of 2018

Visitors who attended the 122nd Birthday Celebration for Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings in Cross Creek, FL in August of 2018 were treated to recipes from her Cross Creek Cookery book, music and tours of the farm. Volunteers with the Friends of the MKR Farm and staff from the MKR Historic State Park served up watermelon sherbet, mango ice cream and black bottom pie as well as birthday cake. Music was provided by Eli Tragash and Virginia Carr.

MKR friend Carol Fiddia Laxton Tours Historic Cross Creek Home

On March 3, 2018 Carol Fiddia Laxton toured the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Home in Cross Creek, FL. She had last visited the home when she was 18 years old many decades before. Her father wanted her to talk to Marjorie about what she was going to do after high school. Marjorie encouraged Carol to go to college for at least two years.

After touring Marjorie’s home, Carol Fiddia Laxton shared her memories of the late Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. Her talk was sponsored by the Friends of the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Farm organization and the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park. Carol’s father and grandmother were good friends of Rawlings. The late author lived with the family for a time to gather information for the books she was writing, including, “South Moon Under” and “The Yearling.”

Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of MKR’s Cross Creek and Cross Creek Cookery

Hotel Thomas Porch Party September 16th, 2017

Musicians, singers and dancers gathered at the Thomas Center in Gainesville, FL for the Hotel Thomas Porch Party on Saturday, September 16th, 2017. It was a part of the year-long 75th anniversary celebration of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings publications, “Cross Creek,” and “Cross Creek Cookery.” The family-friendly event treated guests to traditional music and dance—and some unconventional entertainment. Guests enjoyed music by Sam & Eden, as well as musical guests (and descendants of Cross Creek characters) Jessie & Lee Townsend, Andy Garfield and young performers from We the People Theatre, dancing, percussive dance demonstrations, crankie theatre, and an old-time music jam. And there were plenty of homemade pie by the Pie Gals.

Happy 121st Birthday Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings: August 5, 2017 Fish Fry Birthday Celebration

Two versions of a video produced by Dorsey Lee Townsend III for a class project while in Santa Fe College:

Longer Version

MKR and the Invasion of Privacy Trial

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The old Alachua County Courthouse in Gainesville, FL

The 1946 “Invasion of Privacy Trial” of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings vs. Zelma Cason has captivated lawyers and literary experts alike.  On June 18th thru June 20th, 2015 the public got a flavor of the famous trial  when the award-winning play by Larry Parr, “Invasion of Privacy,” took to the stage of the Fine Arts Hall at Santa Fe College.

It was after Marjorie Rawlings won the Pulitizer Prize for “The Yearling” that she continued her success with her book, “Cross Creek,” a book which captured what her life was like as well as her neighbors in the small fishing community.  But one friend of Rawlings, Zelma Cason, didn’t take “too kindly” to the way Rawlings described her in her book and decided to sue the famous author.  Click here to read more about this famous legal case.

Park Ranger Lee Townsend being interviewed on November 13th, 2009 at the MKR home about Marjorie’s life at the “Creek.”

Shelley-Fraser-MickleA True “Mother’s Day” Story About Romance in Cross Creek by Shelley Fraser Mickle

I have a friend who lives at Cross Creek. She moved there over a decade ago from up North, and she would have left probably any number of times except that she fell in love with a man from the Creek. And that made all the difference. Apparently men at the Creek take the romancing of a woman very seriously.

For instance, a first date might be only a midnight fishing trip under a full moon on Orange Lake. It might be a frog gigging, or a beer shared out on a wooden bench near the Creek until it is dark and quiet, so that then you can listen to the alligators bellow in Lochloosa.

 Click here to read more…

Cross Creek Summer

MKR on her porch

The first  weekend in August of 1997 kicked off the first annual Cross Creek Summer, Arts and Culture in Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ Florida.  Organizers hoped the week-long event would introduce people to the Florida Rawlings loved and attract those ecotourists looking for the real Florida. To hear the report produced by Donna Green-Townsend  Click here

50th Anniversary of “The Yearling” Celebration on the MKR farm in Cross Creek in April of 1988

In 1988 the community of Cross Creek, FL came together to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Pulitizer Prize Winning novel, “The Yearling,” by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. Not only did the event bring out a diverse group of Creek folks, but also noted entertainers and storytellers such as Cousin Thelma Boltin, and Florida Artists Hall of Fame winners Will McLean and Gamble Rogers. The video was captured on a VHS recorder by volunteers at the festival.

My Friendship With “The Black Hat Troubadour” Will McLean

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Will Mclean who was the first folk artist inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame in 1996
Will McLean, the first folk artist inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame in 1996

By the time I met Will McLean he had already penned most of the hundreds of songs and poems he has become famous for.  He’d already performed at Carnegie Hall and made friends with the late Pete Seeger.  His glory days performing on the “Old Marble Stage” at the Florida Folk Festival were long since past.  The truth is, the day I met him I didn’t even really know him by name.  But I think therein lies the reason we became fast friends.  Will McLean was one of the most humble men I’d ever met.

It was in mid-November in 1985.  I was working in the WUFT-FM newsroom in Weimer Hall at the University of Florida when a tall man dressed all in black (that’s how I remember it) walked into my office and kindly, almost demurely, asked if he could post some fliers on the bulletin boards in the hallway to promote his concert that was to take place that following Sunday night November 17th in the Thomas Center in downtown Gainesville.  Just having someone come in and ask to post something was rare.  Thinking back on it, I’m surprised I didn’t just say yes or no.  I remember being intrigued by this man because of the soft-spoken way in which he asked me.  Maybe it was the way he was dressed and his stature that caused me to begin asking him questions, questions that today I’m a bit embarrassed that I asked, but so glad I did.

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Photo on Will McLean’s “Florida Sand” album

I remember questioning him about what kind of songs he’d written.  Instead of being surprised and offended that I didn’t know who he was he began to softly tell me some of the song titles and what they were about.  That’s where my friendship with Will McLean really began.  When he got to the song, “Hold Back the Waters,” my heart actually fluttered.  I had no idea how popular that song really was or the true history behind the song of the 1928 hurricane in Florida over Lake Okeechobee.  Geez, people in Florida had been singing this song like an anthem for more than 20 years.  But in 1985 I had only been living in Florida for a little more than two years and was just getting to know Florida history and area musicians.  But, I knew that song.  I fell in love with “Hold Back The Waters” when I was helping produce a national music series while out in the state of Kansas called, “The Walnut Valley Festival.”  The public radio station I was working for as news director, KHCC-FM, had produced 26 one-hour programs for national distribution.

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Album cover to record by Red and Murphy & Company I purchased at the Walnut Valley Festival in the early 1980s

My job was to interview all the musicians and produce features for the series.  It was my first real introduction to a genre of music you just don’t come across on the radio every day.  One of the groups performing in 1982 was Red and Murphy Henry, a bluegrass family band from Florida (now Virginia).  I can distinctly remember Murphy Henry introducing the song, Hold Back The Waters, saying it was about a hurricane.  Of all the songs I heard at the Walnut Valley Festival those two years in the early 1980s, this was the one song I sat down and wrote out the lyrics to and learned to sing. Listening back to the original tape I can hear Murphy Henry mentioning Will McLean’s name, but at the time I learned it I wasn’t as interested in the artist who wrote it as much as in the story of this devastating storm that pushed Lake Okeechobee’s waters over its banks and drowned between 3,000 to 4,000 people.

truck carrying victims of 1928 hurricaneThe 1928 storm was before television and the weather channel and before hurricanes even had names.  It intrigued me that the Seminoles living in Florida may have warned the storm was coming but people didn’t pay attention.  This storm is the reason there is now a dike all around Lake Okeechobee in South Florida.  There are many accounts from people recalling the storm describing how they were tied to trees by their families so they wouldn’t be swept away.  There are stories about the mass graves following the storm….some marked and some unmarked.  Yes, this was an intriguing song about history and my first introduction to what hurricanes could really do.

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Photo on Will McLean’s “Florida Sand” album

I loved “Hold Back The Waters.”  As soon as Will McLean mentioned it I remember blurting out, “I know that song.”  When I told him where I first heard it his eyes just lit up.  I wasn’t prepared for him to then ask, “Why don’t you come to my concert and sing it with me.”  He had just met me.  He didn’t know if I could sing or not.  I’m sure I thanked him kindly for asking, but he surely didn’t need me to come and sing.  It was his concert after all.  He insisted.

Will McLean waiting to performBefore he left the station I introduced him to our operations manager and our chief engineer and it was decided that WUFT would send its remote recording truck to the concert.  I remember sitting in a little room at the Thomas Center that night in November of 1985 practicing the song with Will.  I was so afraid I’d forget the words or forget how to play it on my guitar.  My fears were relieved when I saw Murphy Henry walk into the Thomas Center, the person I first heard sing the song out in Kansas.  It turned out that I didn’t have to worry about playing the guitar, I only had to sing the song with Will and Murphy.  My fears about forgetting the words disappeared.  Here is the introduction to the song that night in 1985


and here’s the recording of Will McLean, Murphy Henry and me singing “Hold Back The Waters.”

In 1985 I was engaged to be married to Lee Townsend from Cross Creek.  He was with me at the Thomas Center.  As it turns out, Lee knew Will for a different reason.  When he was working as a mechanic in Gainesville he often worked on Will’s old vehicles, doing his best to keep them running, many long after they should have been abandoned.  That night Will dedicated a poem to us. It was a poem so appropriate for a couple who lived in the woods in Cross Creek.

Florida's Black Hat Troubadour I will only say that following that November concert, for whatever reason, that professional recording got stashed away on a shelf and misplaced for nearly 12 years….a whole different story in itself.  Eventually, it resurfaced at just the right time because the new program director at WUFT-FM, Bill Beckett, had an appreciation for what this recording meant to history.  Working together with the Executive Director of the Will McLean Foundation, Margaret Longhill, we turned the recording into the CD, “Will McLean and Friends, Live at the Thomas Center.”  I met Margaret Longhill the same week I met Will in 1985.  She truly understood how rare this professional recording of Will McLean was.  We’ve been friends now for nearly 32 years.

Will McLean standing beside the van he used to travel around the state writing songs about his Florida sand
Will McLean standing beside the van he used to travel around the state writing songs about his Florida sand

Because of the way Will McLean lived, he had very few possessions.  After his wife Alice died of cancer Will spent most of his last years travelling around in an old beat up van and hanging out at campgrounds where he could fish or just plug in his extension cord at the homes of various friends.  He pawned many of his guitars to obtain money to buy wine and  he gave away cassette tapes of his recordings to just about everyone he met.  I think he enjoyed revisiting the places around Florida where his grandpa had taken him as a boy.  Those trips were the inspiration for many of his songs and poems.

Not all of the stories about Will McLean are pretty, but he was a unique individual….a treasure.  About a month after the Thomas Center concert Will came to Cross Creek to help me celebrate my 28th birthday.  I remember having a nice little music jam on my screened porch over Cross Creek.  What I also remember is that Will chose to just sit back and listen to everyone else sing and play, not wanting to be in the spotlight.  As much as I wanted him to play for us, I can now look back and appreciate how he didn’t want to be center stage the way some musicians do.  I liked that quality in him.

The same thing happened on March 15, 1986 at my wedding reception in Cross Creek.  Someone told me Will McLean had just arrived and was looking for me.  He had a wedding present for my husband Lee and me.  It was a cassette full of recordings he had made around the campfires at the Florida Folk Festival and other places.  Not wanting to be the focus of my wedding reception he kindly gave us his “best wishes” and disappeared. After getting to know Will better over the coming months I invited him into the WUFT studios to do a long interview in 1987.  You can hear my first interview with Will in 1985 when I was just getting to know him and the second interview where I knew Will a little better by clicking here.  Let’s just say I’m really glad I have those recordings.  There are stories in those interviews that needed to be preserved forever.

Painting of Will McLean by Marianne Dinella
Painting of Will McLean by Mary Ann Dinella

Will died in 1990 from cancer.  Friends gathered for his memorial in the Thomas Center, the same venue where I sang with him less than five years before.  Both floors of the Thomas Center were packed.  Many of his friends performed Will’s songs and told stories of how they knew him including the late Gamble Rogers, Don Grooms, Bobby Hicks, Dale Crider, Seminole Chief James Billie, Jeanie Fitchen, Mary Ann Dinella, Doug Gauss, Dennis Devine and Wayne Martin.  The list is long.  There were tears and much laughter as well.  I don’t think I’ve ever cried so hard.  He touched so many of us in so many ways.  This is the first time I’ve ever really written my thoughts about it.  Thank goodness someone actually video-taped the service.  It is a real treasure to see.

 

Will McLean holding a puppy on a chilly day Afterwards many of us went to Gore’s Landing by the Ocklawaha River to disperse Will’s ashes.  Some of those in attendance were Margaret Longhill, Don Grooms, Dale Crider and family, Donna Green-Townsend and family, Wayne Martin, and Bobby Hicks to name a few.  Gore’s Landing was one of Will’s favorite places to camp.  I saw him there while my family was also camping not long before he got so sick.

Sign dedicated to Will McLean at Gore's Landing
Sign dedicated to Will McLean at Gore’s Landing

Margaret Longhill chose the Ocklawaha River because before he died, McLean had told her that he had hoped to light a small campfire one last time at Gore’s Landing, his favorite campsite.  In this brief recording, you will hear a small portion of that special ceremony at the river:

the late Will McLean considered to be the "Father of Florida folk"
The late Will McLean considered to be the “Father of Florida folk”

In 1996 because of his artistic contributions Will became the first folk artist inducted into the prestigious Florida Artists Hall of Fame.  Friday, March 11th – Sunday, March 13th marks the 33rd anniversary of the Will McLean Music Festival.  

One of the highlights of the festival is the hour when the winners of the Will McLean Best New Florida Song Contest perform their winning songs.  Will always wanted to “Save Florida Through Music.”  It’s amazing how many songs there are now about his beloved “Florida Sand.”

 If you’ve never been to the Will McLean Folk Festival you really should check it out.  It’s truly a “songwriters festival.”  It’s held at the Sertoma Youth Ranch just 7 miles west of Dade City.  It’s small in comparison to many music festivals, but that’s why it’s so special.  The performers and the people who attend are all in the same campground, playing music throughout the night.  

Jessie and Lee Townsend
Jessie and Lee Townsend

My children have grown up there.  In 2016 my son Lee and daughter Jessie Townsend performed on both Saturday and Sunday at the festival and honored many songwriters who have passed on in a special “Florida Set.”  

 

I love sharing the legacy of Will McLean with the younger generation.  That being said, I can’t tell you how sweet it is that my granddaughter literally fell in love with one of Will’s songs as an infant.  If she was crying, it soothed her.  When she began to talk, she asked for the song to be played.  By the age of two she was singing the words with her Aunt Jessie and Uncle Lee.  Here’s a version of them singing it together.

As the late singer-songwriter Pete Seeger said, “Will McLean’s songs will be sung as long as there is a Florida.”  Rest in Peace Will McLean, my friend.

Song Contest Winner and Finishers in the 2022 Will McLean Best New Florida Song Contest

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To hear all the Top Ten Songs scroll down past the Top Three Winners
1st Place winner Jim Terry
Mercy In The Storm

The winner of the 2022 Will McLean Best New Florida Song Contest is Jim Terry from Napa, CA. The song highlights a dark time in Florida’s history when the 1928 hurricane ravaged the communities surrounding Lake Okeechobee. Terry says, “As a songwriter, one thing that has become increasingly clear to me is that you never know when or how inspiration will arrive in your mental inbox. The inspiration for Mercy in the Storm came from an unusual source for me – from a piece of art in the form of a sculpture.”

Terry and a companion were strolling the grounds of the Storm King Art Center in Hudson Valley, New York. Stacked on a peninsula extending into a lake were two towers of tambourines, perhaps 30’ high and painted white. It was a sculpture by a young New York artist, Allison Janae Hamilton. The sculpture is entitled “The people cried mercy in the storm.” The title is a lyric from a song called “Florida Storm” by Judge Jackson which became popular in 1928 following the Okeechobee Hurricane. That storm killed thousands of people when the levies of Lake Okeechobee breached, and is reported to be the second deadliest hurricane in US history. Terry says, “So many people died that they couldn’t be buried. The few white people who died were properly buried.” Many black migrant workers were buried in mass graves. Terry added,

“As I was contemplating the stack of tambourines, I started thinking about Hurricane Katrina and the similarities between Okeechobee and what happened in New Orleans 77 years later when the levies of Lake Pontchartrain breached. There it was, the inescapable trifecta of systemic racism, climate change and those tambourines representing the role of folk music in building resilience in an oppressed culture. This was subject matter for a song. Allison reminded me in an email that it was a song that inspired the sculpture and now, full circle, the sculpture inspired a song.”

Terry is part of a family band. “It began with a tiny violin presented to my oldest son James, then 3 1⁄2 years old.” It wasn’t long before Jim, a guitarist himself, began playing along with his three sons, teaching them lyrics to popular songs. “Our favorite song was ‘Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road’ which we sang at our first official gig at the UC Alumni Camp Lair of the Bear,” says Terry.

Now, years later, the Terry Family Band is comprised of Jim and sons Clark and Graham (son James lives in Atlanta and sometimes joins the band). The music comes from the complex experiences of life, the country, and the world, while the roots of American folk music are prevalent in their playing style. Clark and Graham are multi-instrumentalists (violin, mandolin, bouzouki, guitar, vocals) while Jim writes the music and handles lead vocals while keeping the rhythm pulsing in the background with his acoustic guitar. Graham toured nationally as the bass player for Tornado Rider, a power rock group featuring Grammy nominated Rushad Eggleston on cello. Graham and Clark are also members of the Bay Area based Indie Folk group Middlesleep. Bass player Rob Wright is a versatile musician with jazz, classical, and deep bluegrass roots having shared the stage with the likes of David Grisman and Tony Rice.

The Terry Family has won 29 West Coast Songwriters (WCS) awards, including the 2018 Napa chapter Song of the Year “Fire in the Wind” and the overall winner of the WCS Song of the Year in the 2019 WCS Grand Finals competition at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley for “The Walls Stand On and On,” a stirring account of the story of Emmett Till. Terry Family’s debut album “Hometown Tragedies” is currently being released and promoted to North American folk radio by Art Menius.

2nd Place Finisher Joshua Reilly

The second place finisher in the 2022 Will McLean Best New Florida Song Contest is Joshua Reilly from Clearwater, Florida. Reilly says he is a songwriter whose music flows seamlessly through and around the edges of the folk, country, and blues genres. Originally from the Midwest, Reilly makes his home in the Tampa Bay Area and continues to write music and showcase his raw delivery and undeniable connection to the spirit of his songs. His song is called, “Gibsonton” written from the perspective of someone who is a part of the carnival community in Gibsonton.

Gibsonton

“Gibsonton is a song that was the product of several different points of inspiration,” says Reilly. “I chose the topic of “Florida” Songs as the theme of an ongoing songwriting group that I facilitate. My wife suggested that I write a song about Gibsonton, FL and its close connection to the circus. I loved the idea.” Before even writing the song, Reilly went on air with WMNF on The Florida Folk Show to promote the event where his group would perform their new “Florida” tunes. The other guest that day was John McEuen of The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Reilly says, “At breakfast, following the program, I spoke with John about my desire to write a song about the circus-folk from Gibsonton. I told him I was having a tough time finding a way to approach the song. He thought for just a moment and said, “Joshua… if you write the song as if you were one of them, I don’t see how you’ll have any trouble at all.” 

Here’s how Reilly describes his music, “Every now and then, a song, a voice, a lyric, splits your soul right in two and then proceeds to feed both sides. Raw yet refined, mournful yet optimistic, heartbroken yet inspiring… such is the dichotomy, the paradox, and the musical delivery of Joshua Reilly.” Reilly says he was born, raised, and marinated on the cornfield-lined country roads of central Illinois, and then cultivated, ripened, and baked on the beaches and concrete swamps of Florida.” He says he understands hard times, he knows redemption, and this unfiltered honesty pours out through his music. It’s a slice of life served clever and real.


Reilly has performed around the country, including a national tour in support of his 2017 album Mercy on the Strange. He has opened for acts such as Billy Joe Shaver, Robbie Fulks, and Slaid Cleaves. And while deepening his roots as a family man in Florida, Reilly has become one of the most respected and beloved musical acts in the Tampa Bay area. 
Reilly’s style and message are all his own. His lyrics and music convey the poignant truth that life can be brutal or grand as we navigate the road ahead and face up to the road behind. As New York Times best selling author Tom Robbins wrote, “Vocally and instrumentally, Joshua Reilly has a delivery like the last train out of Real Town before the android invasion. Clear the tracks!”

3rd Place Finisher Joe Virga
Key West Time (Manny’s Song)

Florida musician, philanthropist, singer/songwriter, and Florida Folk Community Member Joe Virga placed third for his song “Key West Time.” Virga moved to Florida from New York where he had been part of the Greenwich Village Music Scene. He was an accomplished guitarist and singer-songwriter who was known for his passion for helping fellow singer-songwriters attain performance opportunities in the Cup Of Joe Songwriter Stages at the regional Folk Alliance Festivals. His Facebook page is full of tributes attesting to his kindness through the years. Sadly Joe passed away in early December before learning of his placement in the song contest. The photo montage below and video featuring Joe’s song are thanks to Gail Carson. RIP Joe.

4th Place, tie, Cindy Bear, Jacksonville, FL, “Cow Ford”

4th Place, tie, Paul Smithson, Eustis, FL, “Freedom”

5th Place, Jane Fallon, Dunedin, FL, “Seminole Cowboy”

6th Place, tie, Cindy Bear, Jacksonville, FL, “Firehouse Brigade”

6th Place, tie, Andy Cohen, Darlington, SC, “Fine Florida Day”

6th Place, tie, Panayotis League, Tallahassee, FL “Golden Harvest”

7th Place, Bill & Eli Perras, DeLand, FL, “Happy Jack”

 8th Place, David Ross, Naples, FL, “On Florida’s Old Shoreline”

9th Place, Craig Carlisle, Gainesville, FL, “Protect Mother Earth”

10th Place, tie, Kim Blackburn LeCouteur, Hawthorne, FL, “Sweetwater Preserve”

10th Place, tie, George Gray, Tallahasse, FL, “Boondocks in Miami”

Back to the Will McLean website

Back to the list of winners since 1992

Remembering “Tuck” Tucker

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Dobro master “Tuck” Tucker has passed away

Editor’s Note: So sad to learn of the death of my friend and musician “Tuck” Tucker.  He was a dobro player extraordinaire.  His talent graced the recordings and stages of many musicians, not only in Florida, but around the country.  I bought a baby Taylor guitar from him a few years back. I think of him every time I play it. Nine years ago while I was working as the Features Unit Executive Producer at WUFT I invited him to the studio to talk about his latest CD at the time. I pulled it up today and thought you all would enjoy listening to his love for songwriting and music.  RIP “Tuck” you will always be remembered.

Aired on WUFT on January 27, 2012

New CD from dobro master James "Tuck" Tucker
CD from dobro master James “Tuck” Tucker

Donna Green-Townsend sat down with Tucker who talks about his latest CD “Smugglers Notch” and his love for the dobro.

Oscar winner Claude Jarman, Jr. Reflects on The Yearling Movie’s 75th Anniversary

Arts

December 2021 marks the 75th Anniversary of the Premiere of The Yearling movie.The MGM film, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by the late Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, told the story of a pioneer family in the Florida Scrub of Marion County, Florida and starred actors Gregory Peck, Jane Wyman and young first-time actor, Claude Jarman, Jr.

The Yearling depicts the coming of age story of a young boy and his orphaned pet deer and the tough decisions his family had to make to survive.

The movie received seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, taking home Oscars for Best Cinematography and Art Direction. Young actor Claude Jarman, Jr. won an Academy Juvenile Award.

In this April 6th, 2021 Zoom interview Jarman talked with documentary film producer Donna Green-Townsend.

Jarman will be a special guest on December 11th and 12th, 2021 in Cross Creek and Ocala, Florida as the Friends of the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Farm organization celebrates the 75th Anniversary of the Premiere of the film. For more information watch for details on the organization’s website: MarjorieKinnanRawlings.org or follow the organization’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/FriendsofMKR…

Bluesman Willie Green- The Real Deal

Arts, News, , , , , ,

Photo courtesy of Kara Lippert
Willie Green 1 2007 FL Folk Fest

Willie Green passed away on June 14th, 2021 at the age of 85. He will be greatly missed. The Yearling Restaurant where Willie performed for 18 years issued this statement:

It is with heavy heart that we announce the passing of Mr. Willie Green June 14th, 2021, at 85 years of age. As some of you may know, Willie was a regular here, playing nearly every day for 18 years!! Willie had other gigs, opening for many big names, but he always felt at home here, and wanted to stay. Our staff  took great personal care of him while he was here, from taking him home for Christmas, to buying his clothes, endless harmonicas, restringing his guitars, and driving him to and from The Creek.  We became his family. We all learned a lot from Willie too, as did his many fans listening to the stories of his BIG life. The memories he left for all of us will last a lifetime.  (We always thought he had 9 lives!) To those of you who had a chance to hear him play, or tell stories, lucky you! For those who didn’t, we suggest you look him up, as there is much written on him. To say that he will be missed seems an understatement…  He is and will always be part of what makes The Yearling so special.  Our history.  Old Florida. Listen close, and you might be able to hear that ol harp….

Thank you, His Friends at The Creek

Earlier Posts I included on this website about Willie Green

Bluesman Willie Green has just won the 2017 Florida State Heritage Award!  

 Patrons of the Yearling Restaurant in Cross Creek, FL are treated every weekend with the Delta blues sound of Willie Green.  Music is Willie’s life.  He began playing harmonica as a teenager and eventually picked up the guitar after being inspired by the music he heard in Florida clubs like the Blue Chip, the Down Beat and the Diamond Club.

Life wasn’t always kind to Willie in his early years.  He was born in the mid-1930s to a family of sharecroppers and migrant laborers in Pine Level, AL, outside of Mongtomery.  He had to quit school at a young age to help support his family by travelling from farm to farm throughout the Southeast harvesting peanuts, fruit and vegetables.  Later in life he ended up in Ocala, FL, though the 1980s were also hard times for Willie as well.

Willie Green performing at the 2018 Florida Folk Festival in White Springs

Now in his “golden years” he’s attracting a tremendous following for his authentic blues music.  He’s become a favorite at various state festivals such as the Florida Folk Festival, Magnolia Fest, Springing the Blues, the Gamble Rogers Festival and at blues competitions such as the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, TN.  Willie has opened for well-known blues musicians including Robert Cray and Eric Clapton, Grammy-winning blues musician John Hammond, shared the stage with the late “Honeyboy” Edwards and collaborated with Southern rock group J.J. Grey and Mofro.   In 2010, he received Stetson Kennedy’s Fellow Man and Mother Earth Award.

Reporter Trimmel Gomes and Donna Green-Townsend brought Willie into the WUFT studios in 2005 to hear the story of his life and to hear him play a little blues.

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Below are a few more of the songs Willie performed at the Yearling Restaurant in Cross Creek on June 15, 2014:

Song 2

Song 3

Song 4

Song 5

Song 6

Willie playing Baby You Mine

Willie singing a song about Muddy Waters called Hoochie Coochie Man

Willie performing Blue With A Feelin

OCL-LOGO

Willie Green

By

On October 15th, 1935, or there abouts, a baby boy was born in a rural Alabama sharecropper’s cabin. His mother Mattie and father Willie Green Sr. named him Willie Grant Green. The Grant comes from the famous Union general. Willie doesn’t know the name of the little farm hamlet, only that it was near the city of Montgomery. He doesn’t have any family photos or even a birth certificate. Only that his family were sharecroppers and travelling migrant workers. He was lucky to go school for a of couple years, but was soon pulled from the 4th grade to start working in the fields, picking everything from peanuts to potatoes. Travelling around the southeast in the back of a truck, field to field, farm to farm, he picked vegetables and fruits through his teenage years and into his twenties. By then he had left the family following the crop harvest north as far as Maine, he met a girl there, a local farmer’s daughter. He says he always wished he would have stayed, but time to head back south: more crops coming in the spring. His brother was called to Vietnam. Willie never saw him again.

While still at home as a teenager, Willie would sneak out at night, sometimes catching a ride on a passing freight into Montgomery to the juke joints. He wanted to hear the music, the BLUES music, from the greats like John Lee Hooker, Little Walter, Muddy Waters; all those cats getting home before sunrise to the welcome of a belt in the hands of Mama Mattie, who wasn’t fond of the juke joint scene.

Willie-Green Old City Life
Photo Courtesy of Old City Life publication

One day an old boy gave Willie a harp, and the rest is history. He continued his migrant worker job, with the harp in his back pocket, playing when he could, sitting in with anyone he could. In the 1960s Willie found his way to Florida, were some cousins lived in Pompano Beach. During this time he was called back to Alabama one time. Mama Mattie had passed away on the farm. This was the last time he saw the place and his only relatives there. Willie remembers he inherited her refrigerator, but had no way to haul it home on the Greyhound bus. Back in Florida he found new jobs like pipe laying, driving a pulp wood truck, laying cement roads; anything that made a little dough. Heven started learning to play some guitar to go with the harp. He got to sit in with some of the great blues players travelling through. Cash was king, no bank account needed…..

Song Contest Winner and Finishers in the 2021 Will McLean Best New Florida Song Contest

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To hear all the Top Ten Songs scroll down past the Top Three Winners
Winner Scott Jackson (photo by Gail Carson)
Florida Highway

Scott Jackson from Summerfield, FL works as a dentist by day and a musician by night and any other free time he has. Jackson is the 2021 winner of the Will McLean Best New Florida Song Contest with the song, “Florida Highway.”

“Florida Highway came to me as I was thinking about going home and where I grew up,” says Jackson. “The feelings of a place familiar, but also realizing that the friends and family associated with a certain place, is what really makes it home.” He placed fourth in the contest in 2020 and performed the song on the Cypress Stage during a “Songwriters In The Round” set.

Jackson also won second place in this year’s contest with his song, “Freedom Had to Wait,” a civil war tune about the bloody “Battle of Olustee.”

Freedom Had to Wait

“The battle took place 100 years before I was born, yet there are similarities that take place today,” says Jackson. “The way this year has been going, not only with division, but with social unrest, made me think that even though we have come a long way, we still have a ways to go.”

Jackson was born in Hialeah, Florida. He says music was an instant part of his life, “Our father was a guitar player, as well as a banjo player. My dad taught me how to play the banjo when I was five years old and I played a lot of bluegrass music growing up. As I got older, my sister turned me on to acoustic folk music, which included James Taylor, Jim Croce, and Paul Simon.”

He says he started playing the guitar as a teenager and really grew attached to the folk music scene. He only started writing within the last 10 years or so, and then, only a handful of tunes. He is looking forward to playing at festivals either solo, or with his music buddy and orthodontist, Andy Cohen, in the group Wound Tight. 

Third Place Finisher- The Duo “Bear and Robert“

Cindy Bear and Franc Robert

The third place finisher in the 2021 Will McLean Best New Florida Song Contest is the duo, “Bear and Robert” with the song, “7-Mile.” Cindy says, “7 Mile” was written as a song of healing for the son and family of an old friend, who left us too soon this year,

“It was inspired by the story of his extraordinary life as an avid fisherman, a Veteran, and to how much he loved his son, his family, and returning to his Florida home. His dream of teaching his boy how to fish began to come true when he was still in diapers, and the first time he took him fishing in the Florida Keys shortly after that was one of the proudest days of his life. They shared a lifetime of adventures while fishing all over Florida, but their trips to the Keys were always extra special.”

She adds the song also explores the parallels of how fishing is a lot like life,

“No matter the weather, if you are following your passion with someone you love, you will always remember those times as the best days of your life. 

Together the acoustic sound of “Bear and Robert” has been described as a deep well of Folk, Blues and Americana with a high-energy je ne sais quoi! They have played Folk, Blues, and Acoustic music festivals, house concerts, charity fundraisers, and venues all over Florida, the Mississippi Delta, at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tennessee, and internationally in Canada. Franc has also toured solo and with his previous bands from the Southeastern U.S. up through Canada. They also both love performing with their electric blues-rock band, the “Black Water Swamp Band.” 

The singer-songwriter duo also placed 9th in the contest with the song, “Pollen Rag,” a song Cindy describes as a funny take on pollen in Florida which has an apocalyptic effect on our olfactory senses! She says The song was born on the ukulele, and inspired by the extremely heavy pollen season in Florida this year, and written after camping for 5 days at a music festival in the spring.

Pollen Rag

“The pine pollen was so thick on our blue van that it literally turned green! When we tried to rinse it off before we left, there were these huge, endless clumps of yellow pollen and brown catkins that kept sloughing off to the ground, and all we could think of was how many pounds of pollen we had shaken off that weekend every time we sneezed!”  

Bear and Robert released their first acoustic CD, “Hearts in Blues” in 2019, and Franc has recorded and released six solo/band CD’s with the Back Alley Blues Band, and the Box Car Tourists. A CD of Cindy Bear’s original folk songs is currently in motion!

Cindy and Franc are active volunteers and supporters of Florida folk music by bringing artists and opportunities together across the state as active board members of the North Florida Folk Network (NFFN). Cindy is also a board member for the Florida Music Food Initiative (FMFI), which helps feed the hungry and homeless in Florida. She says, “Be the change, one song at a time.” 

The “Top Three” contestants in the Will McLean Best New Florida Song Contest usually perform at the annual Festival in March. The pandemic caused the cancellation for 2021. Scott Jackson and “Bear and Robert” will perform at the next Will McLean Festival scheduled for March of 2022.

Here is the list of the Top Ten Songs for 2020.

Scroll down to hear the audio of all the Top Ten Songs.

Listen to all the songs in the 2021 Top Ten:

1st place, Florida Highway by Scott Jackson, Summerfield, FL
2nd place, Freedom Had to Wait by Scott Jackson, Summerfield, FL
3rd place, 7 Mile, Cindy Bear and Franc Robert, Jacksonville, FL
Tie for 4th place, Okeechobee by Razz Taylor from Arcadia, FL
Tie for 4th place, Take Care of the Santa Fe by Jane Fallon of Dunedin, FL
5th place, State of Confusion by Paul Smithson, Eustis, FL
6th place, Old Marble Stage by Bob Patterson, St. Augustine, FL
7th place, The Fountain of Youth by the Lubben Brothers, West Palm Beach, FL
8th place, Ancient City Moon by Don Cooper, St. Augustine, FL
9th place, The Pollen Rag by Cindy Bear and Franc Robert, Jacksonville, FL
Tie 10th place, Saving Safety Harbor by Jane Fallon, Dunedin, FL
Tie 10th place, Rosewood by Greg Thomas, Inverness, FL
Tie 10th place, The Old Man and the Sea by Bertie Higgins, Tarpon Springs, FL

Click here to return to the Will McLean website

Click here to return to the list of winners by year

Life & Times in Cross Creek: Memories and Reflections

Arts, Features, Video, Videographer and Editor, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

(DVDs of the video are available for purchase to benefit “The Friends of the MKR Farm” which supports the MKR Historic State Park in Cross Creek. Scroll down for ordering information)

Life & Times in Cross Creek: Memories and Reflections is a very personal endeavor for me. I first presented a program on the topic at the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Farm in December of 2019. I have continued to add pictures and video ever since. It tells the story of many of my friends and neighbors in Cross Creek, some who have personal memories of the late Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “The Yearling,” Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.

The program features very unique historic video, audio and photos of many of the characters Marjorie wrote about in her book, “Cross Creek,” including “Snow Slater” and Berney Bass who both took care of her orange grove. Berney also took Marjorie fishing and gator hunting through the years. You’ll hear from the late author and artist from Evinston, J. T. Glisson, and the late actor “Rip Torn” who was nominated for an Oscar for his role in the Hollywood production of “Cross Creek.” You’ll also meet the Townsend family that Marjorie wrote about in Chapter 4 of “Cross Creek” entitled, “The Pound Party.” The Townsends were also one of the many families who were part of the catfishing heydays in Cross Creek, another special segment of the video.

Here’s an outline of the various segments in the documentary:
Segment 1: Friends & Neighbors of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings- runs 10:37
Segment 2: Visiting “Snow” & Ella Mae Slater- runs 5:41
Segment 3: Catfishing Days in Cross Creek- runs: 23:13
Segment 4: The Movie Business Comes to Cross Creek- runs 4:26
Segment 5: Memories of Marjorie- runs: 8:35
Segment 6: Reflections & Credits- runs: 5:10

Music included in the documentary was provided by:
The Creek by Paul Garfinkel- reverbnation.com/paulgarfinkel

Atlantic Crossing by Jim Hurst & Roberto Dalla Vecchia
JimHurst.com

Daisies for Judy by Jim Hurst Trio
JimHurst.com

Margaret by Mike Jurgensen-
reverbnation.com/MikeJurgensen

Catfish by Danny O’Keefe-
dannyokeefe.com

Stillness by Mark Smith-
coralbay2@gmail.com

Isle of View and The Light and the Longing by George Tortorelli and Lisa Lynne- MedicineWind.com

This video premiered on August 8th to celebrate Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ birthday.

DVD cover of the video “Life & Times in Cross Creek”

DVDs of the video are available to purchase for $15.00 plus $4.00 for postage and handling.  All proceeds will benefit projects on the farm.  Please make your check payable to Friends of the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Farm., and mail to PO Box 337, Micanopy, FL  32667-0337.

2020 Winner and Finishers of the Will McLean Best New FL Song Contest

Arts, Music, , , , , ,
Winners of the 2020 Will McLean Song Contest– Galen, Jimmy and Tommy Curry
Gulf Coast Home

The Currys have been staking their claim within the Americana music scene for years, cutting their teeth in the oyster bars and listening rooms of the Florida Panhandle. Brothers Tommy and Jimmy Curry and cousin Galen Curry have been praised for their “tight-as-a-rubber-band” harmonies and “infectious” songwriting.

Their winning song in the 2020 Will McLean Best New Florida Song Contest, “Gulf Coast Home,” is a song about lost love, but it’s also a love song for home. The country-tinged nostalgia of the lyrics pays homage to the Currys’ roots in the Florida Panhandle. In the wake of Hurricane Michael, the band offered a free advance download of the song in exchange for donations to disaster relief efforts. To date, the campaign has raised nearly $8000.

From left to right Galen, Jimmy and Tommy Curry

The Currys have three full-length albums to date: their studio debut “Follow” (2014) and “West of Here” (2016). Their new release, “This Side of the Glass,” once again features their tight vocal harmonies, but the album has ambitions, at times straying beyond the borders of the folk/singer-songwriter tradition. The trio shares songwriting duties, each in turn offering his take on the time-worn themes of life and love. For more on The Currys visit their website: https://thecurrysmusic.com/

(Note: Scroll down below the third place finisher and click on the video to see live performances by the 2nd and fourth place finishers as well as the presentation giving recognition to the first two scholarship winners announced by the Will McLean Foundation. Thanks to Gail Carson for the production.)

Second Place Finisher John Butler
Bridge to Sanibel

The second place finisher is John Butler from Matlacha in South Florida with a song called, “Bridge to Sanibel.” Butler says the song is a tribute to one of the most beautiful, laid-back spots in Florida, Sanibel Island: the beaches, the Ding Darling preserve, the hospitality culture and the “no hurry” atmosphere.

Butler is no newcomer to the Will McLean Festival. This is the third year the he has placed in the Will McLean Best New Florida Song Contest. In 2018 he placed second for his song, “Miami Bound.” In 2015 he placed second for, “Oh Miami.”

Most of Butler’s song writing is inspired by what he describes as serendipity, “…a random phrase uttered by a stranger, a simple gesture evincing a strong emotion, seeing a symbol that conveys a vivid meaning, and sometimes juxtaposing in my head elements of the rational and the absurd into a whole that makes me laugh out loud.  Sometimes the song just blasts out of me, and sometimes the initial impulse has to marinate for years before I begin to develop it into a song.” Butler adds he loves story songs, ” They’re like a three-act play compressed into just a few minutes.  But I also love songs that are more evocative than informative, that create an atmosphere for contemplation.”

Butler is well known in South Florida from playing in a number of bands through the years.  For more than two decades he composed music for industrial marketing films.

His songwriting achievements also include being selected as a winner in the 2018 Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Competition for Emerging Songwriters at the Kerville Folk Festival, winning first place in the 2011 North Florida Folk Festival Americana song writing contest, a first place in the 2014 “Hope by Song” song writing competition in southwest Florida, and a win (as one of three co-equal winners) in the 2015 South Florida Folk Festival song writer competition. One of Butler’s songs was included in the soundtrack of the 2013 feature film, “Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3-D.”

Third place finisher Jim Bickerstaff
Jim Billie, Chief of the Seminole

The third place finisher in the 2020 Will McLean Best New Florida Song Contest is Jim Bickerstaff from Southport, NC with his song, “Jim Billie, Chief of the Seminole.” Bickerstaff co-wrote the song with Pete Gallagher from St. Petersburg, FL. (Gallagher hosts the Saturday morning “Florida Folk Show” on 88.5 FM, WMNF, a community radio station in Tampa.) Jim Bickerstaff also tied for 7th with a song called, “Sister Mary.”

As a four-year house engineer for legendary producer, Johnny Sandlin, Bickerstaff has worked at the top of the music business as an audio engineer for groups such as Widespread Panic, Col. Bruce Hampton & the Aquarium Rescue Unit & The Dixie Dregs on releases by Capricorn Records and Warner Brothers Music.

Additional projects and artists include Scott Boyer, Tommy Talton, Chuck Leavell, Butch Trucks, Eddie Hinton, Loretta Lynn, Roger Hawkins, T Lavitz, David Hood, John Hiatt, Ry Cooder, Gladys Knight, Kelvin Holly, Spanky Alford, and many others.

As an independent producer and engineer, Bickerstaff has worked with Jupiter Coyote, Jeannie Fitchen, Mindy Simmons, Raiford Starke, Joey Errigo, Clyde Walker, Sam Pacetti, Vassar Clements. John McEuen, Bela Fleck, Upsala, and hundreds of other Indie artists.

“Most of my music career has been behind the console, but I have always been a writer,” says Bickerstaff. “The opportunity to play with so many great musicians while working at Johnny Sandlin’s studio and traveling in a mobile studio created a chance to cut some of my songs.”

Bickerstaff’s latest CD entitled, “Florida” began as a concept project in early 2018 when he decided to return to writing and recording after a long hiatus.

“I wanted to capture the essence of a Florida I have come to love from the people and places you don’t see on the tourist maps,” says Bickerstaff. “This is a Florida I have seen through the eyes of the Seminole people, Margaret Longhill, Frank Thomas, Don Grooms, and J.U. Lee, absorbed through countless nights recording and picking music around campfires. It is a Florida you feel while sitting on the bank of the Withlacoochee, paddling through the mangroves in the Keys, or camping in the middle of the Everglades.”

Here is a video produced from the live performances at the Will McLean Festival on March 13th of not only the first two scholarship winners from the Will McLean Foundation, but also the winner and two of the finishers of the 2020 Will McLean Best New Florida Song Contest produced by Gail Carson.

Click here to go back to the Will McLean Festival Web Site

or

Click here to go back to the list of winners by year

Meet the Inventor- David Norman reflects on his grandfather, silent film producer Richard E. Norman

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David Norman, the grandson of the late silent film producer Richard Norman, giving a talk at the Cade Museum in Gainesville, FL

From June 14 through August 18, 2019, the Norman Studios presented an exhibit entitled, Norman Studios Presents The Flying Ace, at the Cade Museum for Creativity & Invention in Gainesville, Florida.

Visitors touring the Flying Ace Exhibit at the Cade Museum in Gainesville, FL

The exhibition highlighted the early days of silent films in Jacksonville, Florida, and in addition to The Flying Ace (1926) , the only Norman Studios film existing in its entirety, featured vintage movie posters and other vintage items.

Poster for the silent film, The Flying Ace

The exhibit dovetailed with the Cade’s museum-wide themes of aviation and optics, film & photography. The exhibit was the result of an exciting collaboration envisioned by Phoebe Cade Miles of the Cade Museum and Barbara Wingo of Norman Studios.

As Barbara Wingo, Norman Studios Board Member and Curator of the Exhibit, remarked: “The Norman Studios exhibit highlights the early motion picture industry in Jacksonville and Richard Norman’s career as a producer in the silent era. The Cade Museum is a particularly appropriate venue for this exhibit because Norman’s work epitomized creativity and invention as well as entrepreneurship, just as did the work of Dr. Robert Cade, the namesake for the museum.”

In addition to silent films, Richard Norman was also known for his early work on the camera-phone

In addition to producing, directing and writing “race films,” motion pictures that portrayed African Americans in non-stereotypical and aspirational ways, Norman was an inventor. Early in his career he developed “Passi-Cola,” and at the close of the silent era he invented the Camera-Phone to facilitate synchronization of film and sound.

On August 11 David Norman, a grandson of Richard Norman, participated in a “Meet the Inventor” conversation at the Cade Museum to explain his grandfather’s Camera-Phone. He also discussed his living at the Norman Studios property as a youngster, his grandfather’s legacy and his hopes for the future of the Studios.

About Norman Studios: Founded in 1916 as Eagle Film City and purchased by Richard E. Norman in the 1920’s, Norman Studios was among the nation’s first to produce “race films” with African-American characters in positive, non—stereotypical roles. Norman’s five-building complex, now a National Historic Landmark, survives in Jacksonville’s Old Arlington neighborhood.

The original Eagle Film City building
The Norman Studios renovated main building

The mission of Norman Studios Silent Films Museum, Inc, a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization, is to preserve, present and promote the history of silent motion pictures in Northeast Florida and the history of race films through the reunification and restoration of the Norman Studios complex as a museum, education, film and community center. Learn more at normanstudios.org