The Countdown Continues: Story of a CD compilation

01/03/08 00:36

Its almost time for the guidebook to call itself complete.
In a few minutes I'm going over to WUFT to pick up the accompanying CD.

This very statement constitutes a miracle.

Somewhere along the line we decided that a CD of stories and music from
and about
this Heart of Florida would make the perfect complement to the
guidebook.

Picture this: the traveler picks up the guide and pops the Cd into
their car's player and hits the trail.
On comes a variety of songs and stories portraying this place we all
love.
The Florida Songwriters: from GrandDad Will McClean to Don Grooms and
Dale Crider; we hear
ballads and environmental classics which are accompanied by
contemporary artists like
Cathy DeWitt, Bob Patterson, Bobby Hicks, Anna Moo, Janet Rucker and
the glorious Washington Sisters.
There is even a folk song crooned by Zora Neal Hurston, herself.
Its a beautiful and emotional group of tracks. You can hear the
Sandhill Cranes as the melody
behind McClean's classic 'Dance of the Sandhill Crane'...it gives you
goose bumps.
Young Lee Staley plays fiddle behind our favorite young poet, 7th
generation Floridian,
Callie Thompson and there's an abundance of Florida love songs. Woven
into the songs are stories,
some from the WUFT archives like a funny excerpt from Marjorie Carr's
Memorial Service and a great quirky
piece by JT Glisson about  catfishing on Orange Lake. Shelley Frazier
Mickle explains how the
men of Cross Creek take the romancing of a woman very seriously and
there's a sweet piece
on our literary patron saint, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.

but I'm ahead of myself...

Our only problem was that we knew nothing about compiling a CD of
stories and music...and our timeframe was very squeezed because our
modest 62 page guide
had morphed to 96 pages. With Stewart cloistered away immersed in
layout and Jacqui
running around collecting guidebook content; the Cd fell to me.

What happened is truly a great community story.
First Donna Green Townsend and Bill Beckett
over at the WUFT-FM News Dept, our public radio station agreed
to entertain the idea that they might help us by doing the audio
and editing that audio.
Then Musician and "Across the Prairie" Radio Host,  Cathy DeWitt
agreed to help me pick some Florida Music.
 From there, in the past few weeks these true angels have
adopted this project as their own and passionately walked me through
the making of a CD until today I get to go and pick it up!
Amazing.

Next week the Cd Master gets mailed to be manufactured
and then shipped to where the guide is being printed.
The printers will insert a CD into each guide!

When the 15000 guides come home to us at the end of March...
in one short month; we'll be ready to distribute them and open the trail
at the start of the paintout!

This is our cultural community at its finest.
Be prepared to sing along!

Annie