While revising this story I realized it repeats things that are shared in other posts, but I felt I should leave it in as not everyone is reading every post (There are over 50 now! 😊).

 One of my most cherished relationships with a folk singer was with Gamble Rogers. I first heard him perform at the Flick, the famous coffeehouse in Miami, while still in high school in the 60’s. We met and became friends when a colleague of my father’s decided he needed a business deduction by opening a competing coffeehouse across Dixie Highway from the Flick. He knew that I knew the counter cultural community because by then I was publishing one of the two underground newspapers in Miami, The Paper. I say he needed a business deduction because it was not long before he failed to provide the capital we needed to keep going.

I have a good memory, but I cannot remember what we named the coffeehouse nor anyone other than our first bookings. They were Bunky and Jake, a very curious duo, and the inimitable John Hammond, bluesman extraordinaire, son of the legendary producer John Hammond, and the first white bluesman to gain acceptance by black blues musicians. Getting to know him that early in his career was alone worth getting screwed by Larry B. the businessman. Yes, as often the case for me over the years, my love of and belief in things we did didn’t pay off financially because I was too naïve to make sure I would get paid. I just figured! Yeah, sure. He must have figured, I was publishing the paper The Paper, and had a full-time job on the research team in the Everglades and was doing this for love! Well, yeah. What did I need the money for? The bastard. Never paid me a penny and I found and introduced him to the engineers, sound men, his emcee/host, the A+R (Artists & Repertoire) people and most importantly, his cook, who we callously stole from the Flick.

More importantly than meeting John Hammond, it led to my 25-year personal friendship with Gamble Rogers. An aside before we get back to Gamble. This was November, 1968. Our coffeehouse team included insiders in the music industry. One night a team member came in with an album that had a white cover. It had not yet been released, but of course had been distributed in advance to what we used to call “record stores” when we had “records.” Yes, The White Album. Another moment that made it all worthwhile! We were on a 6-lane divided highway street level, U.S. 1, Dixie Highway, when we heard to “Why don’t we do it in the road”, so we did! Out we went in a conga line down the median strip in the middle of all that traffic, doing it in the road! There is another post with a picture of the highway.

I had heard Gamble perform but did not know him personally. One afternoon I went to the Flick, around to the back door, to recruit the cook away. There was a red Cadillac convertible with its top down. Gamble was sitting with his butt on the trunk and his feet down on the backseat, playing his guitar, next to him was a bottle of Jack Daniel’s and a Dixie paper cup. This was in the middle of the day. I asked if the cook was in the kitchen. He said yes, reached out to shake my hand, and said, “I’m Gamble Rogers.”  Perhaps he knew who I was because of The Paper.

A side note: it wasn’t until 2021 that I finally read “Gamble Rogers: A Troubadour’s Life” by Bruce Horovitz, University of Florida Press. I was doing an open mike story telling about Gamble and wanted to see if there was more I could add to my story. You came away from that book thinking Gamble was a lifelong teetotaler. My personal knowledge led to disappointment in the book since I knew differently. I was also quite disappointed in that so many of Gamble’s fellow musicians and friends, such as George Blackwell, received no mention in the book. I never specifically personally knew the extent of Gamble’s drinking. One day he and I were talking not long after he met Nancy Lee in St. Augustine who was to be the love of his life. He was still quite young. Gamble had 4 stepchildren from 2 of his previous marriages and they loved him as a father. He had a daughter of his own. I asked if he thought they would have a child together. He said no because he had failed his daughter and did not think he deserved another chance. I only write this now because he is gone these 30 years. ,

“Gamble, I know you. I do not believe you do not deserve a second chance.”

 I took it to mean two things. One, the effect touring had on family life. Two, alcoholism. But I have no direct knowledge of the second. I cannot buy the depiction of Gamble as a non-drinker in the biography, though.

A funny moment occurred when he and I were together with our ladies at the time. He and Liz Corrigan (She like so many of those I knew has since passed on but her performance of “Dulcinea” from Man of La Mancha left everyone breathless! Still miss her.) had performed at my music club the Down Under at FSU. We were having dinner. I was dating Darlene, a doctoral candidate in education. At least one reason I we broke up was a side effect of the academic life. Our next academic positions, my doctorate in Anthropology and her first assistant professorship, were across the country from each other. Difficult to maintain long distance relationships, especially one with such a physical dimension as ours had! I was still a very damaged human being from my mother’s abuse (This is covered in a controversial post which has been unpublished at least for now. A close friend, a psychiatric PA who worked with PTSD at the VA hospital, strongly urged its removal. I respect him and listened. He said there were bad people on the net who would try to use it against me. If this all ends up as a book, as so many people have commented, it WILL be in there!). Darlene unfortunately experienced that. It took my marriage to Janis years later to have someone demand I exorcise my demons.

During dinner Liz discovered Darlene was older than me. She was older than Gamble.

“I guess we’re both robbing the cradle.”

Gamble died in 1991 trying to save a tourist drowning in the riptide at the Flagler Beach State Recreation Area. It is now the:

Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area at Flagler Beach.     

Gamble was one of the most notable Folk Singers and Tale Tellers amongst Florida’s native sons. He told his tales for years on PBS’ All Things Considered. His manager and Agent, Charles Steadham of the Blade Agency in Gainesville (himself a musician and a friend of mine as well) has created a foundation in his memory. His music can be ordered from the Foundation. If you would like to know more about my friend, please visit:

http://www.gamblerogers.com/

There is a touching tribute to him on the site by Jimmy Buffett.

There is a Gamble Rogers Folk Festival held every year in St. Augustine.

I am in Miami when we heard the news. A number of us found ourselves gravitating to SoundTrack, Gamble’s fellow folksinger George Blackwell’s recording studio. George said:

“That’s how Gamble would have wanted to go, saving a Pilgrim.”

Pilgrims were one of Gamble’s themes in his tales.