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.
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.
Orange blossoms in the spring, Made many singers sing Everglades in the fall, Summer rains made the sawgrass tall
Who’s gonna sing about the Florida Sand, When all those singers no longer can
Who’s gonna write one more Florida Song, One where everybody wants to sing along…oh…
And if those singers were still here, Maybe they’d sing about the small key deer Or sing about Florida’s whispy sky, In the winter with the clouds so high
Who’s gonna write one more Florida song, Who’s gonna write one more Florida song
Or maybe they’d sing time is so short, How to save God’s earth you got to go to court And how it seems we can hardly win, But their songs made us try again and again
Who’s gonna write one more Florida song, One where everybody wants to sing along
Now the sky is a wintery blue, Over the pines and the cypress too And a new song in the air so still, Sing it for ‘em if you will
Lets sing about the Florida sand, Lets sing about it while we can Lets sing one more Florida song, Now everybody sing along
Lets sing one more Florida song, One more Florida song
Brad Boone
2nd place Brad Boone “State of Harmony”
Jon and Mem Semmes
3rd place Mem Semmes “My Dunnellon” (performed here by her son Jon Semmes)
