Podcasts

When people think of bluegrass, they may picture the backwoods of the Appalachian Mountains or perhaps Virginia, Kentucky or The Carolinas. Few realize that the Sunshine state played a role in the development of bluegrass as well. From Chubby Wise to Vassar Clements to the Orange Blossom Special, Florida has enjoyed top billing in bluegrass music. In this month’s podcast we feature a live performance by bluegrass pioneers with their own Florida connection.

When Jim and Jesse McReynolds played the 1998 Florida Folk Festival, it was something of a homecoming. Jim and Jesse were brothers from Virginia who began performing in 1945 with their band, the Virginia Boys, which included for a while Florida’s famed fiddler Vassar Clements. In the late 1950s, the popular duo starred on the Suwannee River Jamboree, a weekly country music program broadcast from Live Oak on WNER. They left the Jamboree to join the ranks of the Grand Ole Opry where they entertained audiences for three decades.

This podcast features a cassette recording of the duo playing the Florida Folk Festival’s Old Marble Stage on May 28, 1998. By this time, Jim and Jesse had been playing music for over fifty years, but as this intimate recording makes clear, they retained every bit of their energy and enthusiasm.

So kick back and enjoy a Florida bluegrass homecoming with Jim and Jesse and the Virginia Boys.

Welcome back to the Florida Folklife Collection podcast series from the State Library and Archives of Florida.

For several decades the Stephen Foster Memorial in White Springs offered an Independence Day Festival that featured live music, dances, games, and food. The festivities took on added significance for the memorial as it was also the birthday of songwriter Stephen Foster, the author Florida’s state song, "Old Folks at Home."

While few recordings of these early celebrations survive, the State Archives of Florida is thrilled to present for your enjoyment the following 4th of July program from 1964. Running a little over an hour, it was captured on reel to reel tape by memorial curator Foster Barnes.

The program offers listeners unique insight into the nature of patriotism in mid-20th century America as well as providing some good, old-fashioned singing and storytelling, free watermelon, home-style fixins and a mess of wholesome fun. Draw yourself a cold glass of sweet tea, and celebrate an old-time Independence Day with Cousin Thelma Boltin and friends way down in White Springs.

Welcome back to the Florida Folklife Collection podcast series from the State Library and Archives of Florida.

Today we feature the very first recording of the long-running Florida Folk Festival. Recorded on reel to reel tape on Thursday, May 6, 1954, it contains performances by local school children, representatives of the Seminole Tribe of Florida, folk singers, and opening remarks by festival director and renowned folk culture magnate, Sarah Gertrude Knott.

The Florida Folk Festival, which was first presented in 1953 as a four-day concert located at the Stephen Foster Memorial in White Springs, has since grown into one of the nation's oldest annual folk festivals, now covering several stages and featuring hundreds of performers and artists.

This earliest recording captures the simple origins of the folk festival and reveals the festival organizers 1950s viewpoint of folklife and what was then considered important for preservation for future generations.

Fortunately, these performances were preserved, thanks in large part to one man, memorial curator Foster Barnes. After the success of the first festival, Barnes decided to record the event. Each year he became a regular sight at the Festival, as he sat stage side with his recorder, smoking his pipe and taking notes. Following his retirement in 1965, other memorial staff maintained the practice. In 1979, when the Florida Folklife Program assumed control of the festival, they too recorded the performances, followed in 2003 by the Florida Park Service

Today, nearly 3500 of these festival recordings reside at the State Archives of Florida as part of the Florida Folklife Collection where they can still be heard and enjoyed.

Now let's go way down upon the S'wannee River and enjoy the sounds of 1954...

Welcome back to the Florida Folklife Collection podcast series from the State Library and Archives of Florida.

Since the early days of European settlement in America, Irish ballads and rhythms have influenced and informed American song.

In this podcast we feature Irish fiddler James Kelly originally of Dublin, Ireland, and widely recognized as one of Ireland's leading traditional fiddle players. He is a recipient of the "Florida Folk Heritage Award" as well as the "Florida Individual Artist Fellowship in Folk Arts Award." In addition, James Kelly has shared his remarkable talent with Floridians while serving as a master artist in the Florida Folklife Apprenticeship Program. This performance was taken from the Old Marble Stage of the 1992 Florida Folk Festival. He is accompanied by George Phillips on guitar.

Please visit us again soon for more music from the Florida Folklife Collection. And now James Kelly and George Phillips. Enjoy.

Welcome back to the Florida Folklife Collection podcast series from the State Library and Archives of Florida.

In this podcast, we present the second installment in our two-part series dedicated to sacred harp singing.

This segment features the Bethlehem Primitive Baptist Church Sacred Harp Singers of Old Chicora Florida recorded by folklorist Dwight DeVane in 1980. Please return next month for more music from the Folklife collection.

Welcome to the Florida Folklife Collection podcast series from the State Library and Archives of Florida.

America's sacred music has long provided a richly diverse field of study for folklorists. From rustic church hymns, or impassioned gospel to popular songs of faith and praise, sacred music has provided an immense body of song. In this podcast, we present the first of a two-part series on one of those sacred traditions: sacred harp singing.

This a capella singing tradition takes its name from the 1844 hymn book, The Sacred Harp and represents the largest surviving branch of traditional American Shape Note Singing. This style of church music utilized four syllables (fa-sol-la-mi) which were represented by four shapes in later hymnals; the triangle, circle, square and diamond. These shaped notes allowed untrained or illiterate church members to participate in the worship service. Frequently the assembled singers would sing the notes first and then follow with the words as you will hear them do in this podcast. In Sacred Harp singing members sit facing inward in a hollow square. The leader will select the tune and beat time with their hand while standing in the center of the square. Any participant is welcome to lead if they so chose. The tradition proved popular with both Anglo and African American churches, especially in rural areas where it is still practiced.

This month, we feature the Florida-Alabama Progressive Seven Shape-Note Singing Convention held in Crestview, Florida and recorded by folklorists Dwight DeVane and Doris Dyen in 1980. Please return next month as we present more sacred harp music.

Welcome to the Florida Folklife Collection podcast series from the State Library and Archives of Florida.

In this feature we'll take a nostalgic look at old time Florida radio with an original broadcast of the Suwannee River Jamboree preview. The Suwannee River Jamboree was broadcast from WNER out of Live Oak, Florida. The program ran from 1952 to 1962 and was billed as the deep south country music show from the heart of the Suwannee River Country.

This broadcast, believed to be from 1958, was created from a tape reel transfer of one of the original transcription discs from the radio program. So, let's sit back and adjust our dial for 1958 and the Suwannee River Jamboree preview, the show's about to start.

Welcome to the Florida Folklife Collection podcast series from the State Library and Archives of Florida.

In this celebration of the Holiday Season we're joined by the staff of the Stephen Foster Memorial Center of White Springs, Florida. The radio program that we're about to enjoy was created by The Stephen Foster Memorial Center in 1963 and broadcast by radio stations in Central Florida.

It features the Starrett Family of Gainesville, Minstrel Mark Moore and the tubular bells of the carillon tower at the Stephen Foster Memorial.

Now, let's tune our dial back to 1963, Happy Holidays and enjoy.