FORUM Magazine Winter 2004

FORUM Magazine Winter 2004

A Colorful Enigma
Florida folk music is as mixed as alligator stew
By Peter B. Gallagher
Stephen Foster never set foot in Florida, yet he composed the most famous Florida folk song of all time. Jimmy Buffett, the state's most famous folksinger, is a native Mississippian who doesn't even live in Key West anymore. Beloved Florida songwriter Don Grooms was a Cherokee Indian, born and buried in western North Carolina. And modern-day troubadour Raiford Starke is a native Virginian who combined state prison names to create a Florida outlaw image.
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Table of Contents

Humanities Alive!
News of the Florida Humanities Council

Favorite Florida Places
Wakulla Springs
By Tracy J. Revels

A Place of Romance and Pain
They came seeking new lives, but what they found left them singing the Florida Blues
Adaptation by Barbara O 'Reilley

Mystery of the Bluegrass 'Anthem'
Who really wrote 'Orange Blossom Special'?
By Randy Noles

Listen to the Joy of Junkanoo!
It's the sound of freedom
By Janet L. DeCosmo

Sacred Steel
Steel guitars sing in fiery praise
By Robert L. Stone

Miami - Latin Music Center
It's the international capitol
By Marûa Elena Cepeda

Florida Rocks!
From primal to uptown to techno to underground, we've got pop
By Jeffery M. Lemlich

Book Briefs
Journalists tell their own stories