Will McLean Music Festival, March 8,9,10 2002

The music festival takes place at the Sertoma Ranch located out in the country half way between Brooksville and Dade City, Florida. It's about an hour's drive from home (Beverly Hills).

I went over on Friday afternoon. Arrived about 5pm. I took a bunch of cheese cubes and crackers for the pot luck supper, which started at six. The food was fabulous! There were enough contributors so that a large variety of choices was available. Especially notable was a black whole turkey. It had been smoked for four days. Deelicious! 

This year was the best attendance in the four years I have been going. Other tell me it was the best ever. The campground was heavily occupied, and someone else had already claimed my favorite space. I got a nice one further away from the main activities (but nearer the bathrooms). The extra exercise of walking slightly up hill to go back and forth was good for me.

The first thing one notices is that music is coming from everywhere. There are singles, small groups and even some large circles from which music just flows. They are constantly changing in membership and a stranger with a guitar or dulcimer or any other instrument is welcome to sit in 'most anywhere.

I got tired and hit the sack in the van about 9:30. I got up about midnight and wandered out to see what was happenin'. I took my little blue keyboard and my bass box and sat in with a couple of other people for some tunes. One of the women was playing a little twelve bass piano accordion. I hadn't see once since I was a kid. That was my first musical instrument. Somehow when I was around ten my parents scraped up the money for a few group lessons and the rental on a 12 bass accordion. So the keyboard has always been my preferred way of addressing music.

We finally broke up around 1:30 am and I hit the sack again. Music was still flowing.

Had a good night's sleep and was up and scrounging around for coffee and breakfast about seven. Unfortunately the food places weren't open for business until eight.

There were several new food vendors- very good ones too. Breakfast when it was available was grits, scrambled eggs, corn muffin, sausage and butter and jelly. All for $3.00, a real bargain. Of course the coffee came from the coffee wagon. It was another $2.00, not much of a bargain (large though).

The formal music started at 10 am, complete with stages, amplifiers and large audience. The performers were all professional or semi-professional. That is they all have music as their main interest in life and all had years of practice. There were two main stages, each had a different group (or individual) performing every half hour.

In addition there were a couple of music circle locations which had a gamut of good to great performances or just a circle of friends pickin' and singin' . These had not just music, but poetry and story telling.

Saturday's formal stuff went to 10 pm, followed by another night of music all over the place. I hit the sack about midnight and slept to the endless tune of music and hilarity.

Sunday was a repeat of Saturday. The closing performance, starting at 4:30 was especially great. Many of the groups which had performed came up and did one Will McLean song each. The finale was all of them on the stage at once with all the children who had participated in the children's workshops-- singing Will McLean's "Hold Back the Waters", the traditional theme song of many Florida folk get-togethers. 

I was home by 6:30.

Now for some random happenings and thoughts in no particular order.

The winner of the 2002 Florida song writing contest was Amy Carol Webb. She took away first place, third place and tied for forth. (People are allowed to submit up to three entries.) She has a wonderful voice and, of course sang her songs as she was presented with the plaques and trophies.

My favorite Florida folk singer is Okeefenokee Joe. He has a deep, resonant voice sounds good, when the sound engineer doesn't put too much bass in and boosts the treble a bit. But most important the songs he writes have a real message without being too preachy and the melodies are catching and fit his voice well.

My favorite female Florida folk singer is Mindy Simmons. She has a great voice, writes great songs and performs with enthusiasm and joy. She also edits the Friends of Florida Folk (FOFF) newsletter and does a great job with it. She also supports great causes and works hard for people in general.

There is a little creek in the camp ground running downhill right by where I camped, past the main area and into the now-mostly-dry lake. It is about 2-3 feet wide and sunken a couple of feet below ground level. This made a wonderful play thing for kids. They waded by, up and down. A couple of kids went by with big nets. They were netting out a lot of the fallen leaves and natural debris and putting it up on the banks. They were having a great time and making things nicer for all the kids to come. There are little log and board bridges every so often. The waders had a great time clambering over and around them.

The lake is very low. It's trying to become a swamp. But because of the low rainfall in the past several years, it has left a large area which used to be bottom now as a flat meadow. This made a great place for a lot of campers to pitch their tents. If the lake had been full, the campground would have been very overloaded.

Sunday morning at 9 there was a gospel sing. Mostly it was some of the best performers doing their favorites. The audience was invited to sing along. It was nice and was good to hear some of the old songs and at the same time not be preached to.