By Nanette Wiser
Folk & Florida Culture
Every week, music show host Pete Gallagher gathers with his posse (Peppermint Patty, Tim Valle), a few famous Florida singers and songwriters and an eco guest to entertain and educate listeners to what’s happening in Florida (don’t pave paradise and put up a parking lot, wildlife conservation and more). Sponsored by the honorable Will McClean Foundation, this legendary writer, musician, environmental champion and former WMNF host now has The Florida Folk Show, one of the most popular music shows that you can hear on RadioStPete.com and wherever you stream the app. Saturday 10-noon. You can watch live on Facebook, or tune in online. www.facebook.com/FloridaFolkShowPodcast
Gallagher takes a deep dive into authentic Florida culture and he is passionate about the Sunshine State’s heritage and contemporary scene. Wife Diane is usually on hand to take photographs. A resident of Kenwood in downtown St. Pete, the show used to call now defunct Craftsman Gallery home, and with Jeff Schorr selling that building, those days are history. The podcast dives into Pete’s vast archives of music, photos, videos and artifacts that he has created and collected over the last several decades as a journalist, photographer, songwriter and producer. Explore the people, places and culture that define his Florida. Borrowing the signature line from the great Florida Folk artist Bobby Hicks, The Florida Folk Show Podcast: “It’s Florida, need I say more.”
In addition to guests like Geri X, Sandi Atkinson, David Gulino, Big Jim Allen, Grant Peeples and more, Pete has released seven albums of Florida Folk Music: his music combines humor (Dog Peter Gnats, Dog Paw Tea) and pathos (Old Rope Swing, Tamiami Trail, Suwannee River 2023) with intuitive looks at Florida characters (Tom Gaskins, Scott Howard, Don Grooms) and places (Chokoloskee, Girl From Immokalee (co-written with Raiford Starke) everything presented with a pro-Florida environmental theme.
Pete was the winner of the first Will McLean Poetry Contest and is a two-time winner in the Live-Arts Peninsula Foundation’s “Floridian” songwriting contest. From 1981 until 1991, he managed the comeback career of blues singer Mary Smith McClain and was the writer/producer on a short film of her life called “Diamond Teeth Mary.” In May 2010, Pete was awarded the Stetson Kennedy Foundation’s “Fellow Man & Mother Earth” Award, which recognizes performers and composers whose lives and works have reflected their concern for the environment, human rights and traditional culture.
A native Floridian born in Ft. Lauderdale, raised in Brevard County, a graduate of Cocoa High in Rockledge and Brevard Junior College in Cocoa, who has lived in St. Petersburg since 1974, Pete is an award-winning journalist and freelance writer who has been documenting Florida people, places and culture, with a highlight on the preservation of the state’s flora and fauna, since he graduated from the University of Florida in 1972. From his landmark Vanishing Florida column in the St. Petersburg Times to his investigative work (with Charles Flowers) that freed migrant farm-worker James Richardson from prison (after being wrongfully convicted for murdering his seven children) to his work exposing the racial tragedy of Rosewood, the plight of the endangered Florida Panther, and his expose on unethical state government permitting and variance capers allowing the destruction of the world’s oldest aboriginal canoes at Gainesville’s Lake Pithlachocco (for the Seminole Indian Tribune), he has consistently fought for truth and sanity in Florida environmental, civil rights and cultural issues.
Pete spent 10 years as a staff writer for the St. Petersburg Times, much of that time penning “Vanishing Florida,” their first ever environmental column. He spent over 20 years working for Chief Jim Billie and the Seminole Tribe of Florida government, in online and offline Tribal communications, covering Indian Country and producing large-scale entertainment events (including the Discover Native America powwow series, the Fire On The Swamp country music fests and the Phish NYE 2000 show which drew 100,000 folks to a Big Cypress cattle pasture on the millennium.)
TRIBUTE BANDS Not only is 2016 nostalgia trending with young people anxious about the future, so are tribute bands. Hotel California is at the Capitol Theater 2/13, Electric Light Orchestra Experience is 2/21 at Capitol Theater, the Tina: The Tina Turner Musical is 2/19 at Ruth Eckerd Hall, and at Central Park Performing Arts Center, you can catch The Mersey Beatles 2/10, the Everly Brothers 3/22 and Get Ready, the Ultimate Motown Experience 4/1. Fiona Frensche is at Adrian’s Prime & Wine every Thursday night with Rat Pack and American Songbook crooning, and at The Palms in February Friday, Saturday and Sunday with JazzyPopaNova tunes, retro cool and some French chanteuses such as Josephine Baker and Edith Piaf; you can sometimes see her at Marquise Café during brunch. ‘
FESTIVAL FUN Florida Strawberry Festival’s concert series 2/26-3/8 will wow you and kicking it off on 2/26 is The Oak Ridge Boys, followed by Alabama, Jo Dee Messina, Lonestar, John Foster, The Bellamy Brothers, Dierks Bentley, The Marshall Tucker Band, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts and more. The Real Music Series features an exciting mix of talented performers showcasing classic rock, soul, pop, and R&B, kicked off in January and continuing through February with 2/9-13Revisiting Creedence celebrating the timeless catalog of Creedence Clearwater Revival with classics like “Proud Mary” and 2/16-20 Magic Moments Originals featuring singers Theo Peoples, Joe Coleman & Jerome Jackson performing the timeless hits of The Temptations, The Four Tops, The Platters, and The Drifters.