The South Florida Folk Festival

by Philip Chien

After a two year hiatus due to hurricane Wilma the South Florida Folk Festival returned to Ft. Lauderdale. The Martin Luther King Day weekend event brought 50 performers and about 1200 attendees together for a weekend of music.

According to organizer Bob Singer, "It couldn't be held the last two years because of FEMA trailers in Easterlin Park. Our festival has always been at Easterlin, but FEMA and budget cuts made it impossible. This year we decided to try another park in order to keep the festival going." The replacement park was Markham Park. One minor annoyance I had was finding the festival; signs on the road, in particular at the highway exits, would have helped.

The headliners were "Chad and Jeremy," one of the first groups in the "British Invasion" in the 1960s, and Mason Williams, best known for his instrumental "Classical Gas." But it wasn’t just about famous published performers. Many talented local musicians performed, and some traveled from as far as Vermont.

One of my favorites was "The Kennedys," a group which does songs from the 1960s. But they aren’t from the 60s - in fact they were barely alive in the 1960s! It’s his real name and there’s no connection to the more famous Kennedys. Pete and Maura did a workshop on Saturday, which was basically a sing-along, and a concert set the next night.

Saturday night’s events culminated with a performance by Chad and Jeremy. They didn’t attend the rest of the festival and just came in for their performance with full VIP treatment - chauffeured in golf carts.

The pair’s greatest claim to fame has to be appearing as themselves in the 1996 TV show "Batman." In the two part episode "The Cat's Meow" / "The Bat's Kow Tow" Catwoman stole their voices and demanded a ransom of $22,440,000 (8 Million British pounds). Catwoman stole their voices and they had to do some acting, pretending that they couldn’t speak or sing. The duo noted that when Catwoman proved that she actually had their voices by opening the box where she had stored the purloined voices it wasn’t just their voices but their instruments too! The response to the blackmail from the British government was - "Millions for their records, not a cent for their ransom." Fortunately for Chad and Jeremy Batman came to the rescue and their voices were restored.

Jeremy now calls Sun Valley Idaho his home. He told the audience about how he was surprised to hear his tune "A Summer Song" played on the Superbowl in 2006. His immediate thoughts were "We’re going be rich with these residuals!" and "I’ve got to call Chad." He forgot the seven hour time difference and immediately called Chad in England, waking him up from a sound sleep. As an Englishman Chad’s response was naturally, "What’s the Superbowl?"

In the musical world Mason Williams is best known for his instrumental song "Classical Gas." He also co-wrote the theme song for the Smothers Brothers show. Williams performed "Classical Gas" on the Ed Sullivan Show, the Smothers Brothers show, and numerous other occasions. It’s the most played instrumental piece for guitar. But Williams is actually more of a writer. Among other items on his resume he was the head writer for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and Saturday Night Live.

Williams was accompanied by John Doan who played a rather unusual instrument, a HarpGutiar. The HarpGuitar has the normal six guitar strings, plus an additional 16 harp strings which are plucked. It produces an amazing sound but the performer spends almost as much time tuning the instrument as playing it.

After the success of "Classical Gas" Warner Brothers records asked Williams what else he could do and he suggested a version of "Greensleeves" in the style of "Classical Gas." While it wasn’t as big a hit, it was interesting to hear the classical song with a different variation.

Regrettably the weather turned colder on Sunday and it rained. About 50 attendees sat through the end, but it was worth it. Williams’s "Classical Gas" is an extremely beautiful song. Normally it’s performed with a full orchestra, but for this performance it was done as a duo by Williams and Doan. The performance at the South Florida Folk Festival kicks off the song’s 40th anniversary tour.

Overall the South Florida Folk Festival was an excellent experience and I wish I could have spent more time there. The music was excellent and interacting with other folk music fans was a lot of fun. I look forward to attending again next year.

Links

South Florida Folk Festival
Broward Folk Club
Chad & Jeremy
Chad & Jeremy’s performance on "Batman"
Mason Williams
John Doan

About the author

Philip Chien has played the guitar since he was 8 years old and has enjoyed folk music for about as long.

Home