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Florida, Get Ready To Sing A New Song

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By GRETCHEN PARKER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 3, 2008

Gov. Charlie Crist said Friday he likely will sign the state song bill, which would wipe clean slavery references from the old "Swanee River" - a song that has been on Florida's books since 1935 - and simultaneously adopt a new, upbeat tune to represent the Sunshine State.

"We here in Florida are trying to turn some corners. We can begin to see what is behind some of those doors," said Sen. Anthony Hill, D-Jacksonville, who launched the drive for a new state song a year ago.

His effort started out as a push to retire "Swanee River," written in 1851 as a minstrel tune and officially titled "Old Folks at Home." He organized a statewide contest to find a new song, an effort that garnered 240 entries. Choosing from three finalists, Internet voting anointed a winner: "Florida - Where the Sawgrass Meets the Sky."

Anthem Grew On Lawmakers

The new song wasn't an automatic winner with lawmakers, though. They were inundated with e-mail from Floridians who heard a raw, amateur recording of it that the songwriter did on her own. They didn't approve.

With no money, contest organizers did as much of a public relations blitz as they could. They held a news conference in Tampa with King High's show choir belting out the song with piano backup.

When lawmakers convened in Tallahassee, Hill organized live performances of the song before committee votes.

And not everyone agreed that the old song should be replaced. It's one of the most popular songs ever written; the melody is universally recognizable.

So lawmakers fashioned a compromise that would keep "Swanee River" and adopt the new ditty at the same time.

The new song will officially become the state anthem - in effect, a secondary state song - if Crist signs the legislation.

Crist told reporters Friday, the final day of the 2008 legislative session, that he "probably" would sign the bill "out of respect" for Hill's fervent efforts.

Hill says he was motivated to find a new state song after reading in The Tampa Tribune that Crist nixed "Swanee River" from his inauguration ceremony because of its sentimental references to plantations and "darkeys." Former Gov. Jeb Bush also put the song aside in state ceremonies.

The new lyrics of "Swanee River," which originally was written by world-famous songwriter Stephen Foster, have the blessing of experts at the Center for American Music at the University of Pittsburgh, which runs a memorial for Foster.

Compromise Won't Please Everyone

Besides replacing "darkeys" with "dear ones," the revised version takes out the mock slave dialect.

Even the compromise, though, won't please everyone.

"I suspect there are people who feel the bad connotations are not removed by simply changing the lyrics," said James Perry, head of the state association of music educators, which organized "Just Sing, Florida!" to find a new song.

"I think there are going to be a group of people who remain pretty uncomfortable with it," he said. "That's why I'm pleased the other song was adopted as an anthem, so there is an alternative."

The would-be new state anthem, written by Pompano Beach music teacher Jan Hinton, is an ode to a "land of flowers, land of light." She was thinking of the Everglades, she said, when she wrote the line "where the sawgrass meets the sky."

The next generations of Florida schoolchildren are more likely to learn the new tune than "Swanee River" - even the cleaned-up version - several educators said.

"I can speak for myself that when I taught elementary music, that wasn't one of the songs I would teach," said Margaret Griffin, who served on the song contest judges' panel and retired this year as Hillsborough County's elementary fine arts supervisor.

"This new song - I know it will be taught," Griffin said. "It's very singable. It's more updated. I think our students will connect with it a lot easier."

Reporter Catherine Dolinski contributed to this report from Tallahassee. Reporter Gretchen Parker can be reached at gparker@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7562.

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