Streaming Now • Flatlander: Songs from Wild of Florida
What Is Flatlander?
Flatlander: Songs From The Wild Of Florida, is a bluesy, folksy, rockin, lowland boil of humor and call to action. It is a set of stories in song to be played around campfires, hearths and taverns.
The Songs
1. The Mangroves
Starting with The Mangroves we establish the place deep in the estuaries of Florida. You are surrounded by vast grass flats and sandbars where Mangroves grab hold and create new communities.
2. Sunshine City
Next come people. Restless people in cars who don’t know what they really want or it changes all the time. These people are unsettled and should come to find contentment is in the mind more than a place.
3. When The Hurricane Comes
Everyone knows Hurricanes are the price of doing business in Florida. No one even flinches for a storm below category 3. When the Hurricane Comes, is a primer for how to survive when in the direct path of a large major Florida hurricane.
4. The Ballad Of Skunk Ape
As people do their dirty work of habitat destruction and pollution a specter emerges out of the deep Florida scrub. Skunk Ape is the protector of deep unspoiled wilds. The more we destroy the more Skunk Ape is seen retreating from concrete to defend the last of the wilds.
5. No More Time To Hide
Our Leaders have deceived and misled us. We now are in the most dire of circumstances and can no longer ignore our situation. No More Time To Hide from the truth that we must not proceed as we have with little to no regard for environmental or social sustainability. You can not hide from hurricanes and lightning. They got something for all.
6. Aliens!
Florida has at times been an epicenter of UFO activity, the panhandle in particular. No one seems to acknowledge being closely surrounded by dozens of military ans civilian airstrips. Proof of “aliens” always seems to be a blurry picture or hear say. And yet, unidentified areal phenomenon continue to perpetuate the myth. Who are they? What do they want? Extra terrestrials or Intra-terrestrials? The question of Aliens remains a mystery. For now…
7. When Is Enough?
When Is Enough creates the vignette that the Florida environment and its people are in a toxic relationship. Much like a bad marriage Florida keeps giving and people keep giving her a black eye and missing teeth. When will it stop?
8. The Boogie Woogie Man
The Boogie Woogie Man is the irrepressible polyester Leisure suit with a comb over. White pleather belt and shoes. A cologne from 7-11 that helped defeat the army at Thermopylae. He is the super at the trailer park and every Saturday night he lights up the dance floor at the Colosseum, not in Rome of course but in Gulfport Florida. What a cringy delight!
9 The Gold That You Stole
Everyone from florida is from somewhere else. They bring with them their family histories. This is the true GOld Rush era story of my paternal maternal Great Great Grandparents Victor Francis LaMotte and Ellen O’Driscol. Victor was a minor for the Comstock mines in Hangtown California (Placerville) This song tells their story of travails and the triumph of Love.
10. Last Light
Now that all the songs and stories have been told its time for Last Light. The sun is beyond the tree line sinking into the Gulf and everyone has returned to watch the last burning embers of fire. There is a special quiet in moments like this as the sparkles of sunset reach through the palmettos to draw us into the quiet of night.
