Join the St. Petersburg Museum of History in celebrating the artistic works of Florida’s own Highwaymen from June 11 through June 30th. The Highwaymen are a group of 26 artists, all of African-American descent and living in the Indian River area of Florida. These “backyard” artists created colorful landscapes and often sold them along Florida roadsides. Most are still living, some are still painting. Their artwork is recognized as the beginning of Florida’s contemporary art tradition.
Tarpon Springs' Mike Jurgensen is a longtime standard fixture on all the prestigious Florida folk music venues; his talents as an award-winning songwriter have been well known and embraced by his fans for more than 25 years. 2PM, however, combines Mike with accomplished musicians/singers Pete Price and Pete Hennings into a trio of incredibly blended 3-part harmony vocalists. Employing a diverse mix of material, from original songs to well-known standards by the Beatles and Everly Brothers, from country and western to contemporary Florida folk, these guys do the songs and arrangements that few, anywhere, will dare to even touch. With Jurgensen on guitar and harmonica, Price on guitar and bass, and Hennings on guitar, bass, mandolin, and violin, these three performers combine tight instrumentation with pristine vocal harmonies to delight audiences of all musical tastes. All three are talented songwriters and have performed solo as well as with other bands: Hennings and Price with Jon Semmes and the Florida Friends, and Jurgensen and Hennings with Myriad. The newest rising stars in the Florida folk music world, this combination of Pete, Pete, and Mike as "2PM" is a trio quite unlike any band most have ever heard.
The Green Grass Boys combine folk, bluegrass and alternative country musics with guitar, fiddle and harmonica to drive the group's large cache of original songs and unique old standard arragements. The Green Grass Boys have been performing for more than 25 years in the Tampa Bay area under many different names and combinations. The group consists of rhythm guitarist/songwriter Pete Gallagher, Florida state fiddle champ Fiddlin' Elan Chalford, lead guitarist Raiford Starke and national harmonica wizard, T.C. Carr. A special feature of the group is their expert exploration into the music of the greatest Florida fiddlers - Vassar Clements, Ervin T. Rouse, Arthur Smith, Chubby Anthony and Chubby Wise - breathing new fire into old classics like "Lonesome Fiddle Blues," "Bill Cheetham," "Faded Love," "Florida Blues," and the "Orange Blossom Special." Their original songs cover the Florida landscape, from their "Suwannee River 2023" call to attention to "Chokoloskee," about the last beautiful days of a SW Florida fishing village. From the "Devil West Down to Georgia" and "Mama Tried" to "Minor Swing," you won't ever run across another band quite like the eclectic, always entertaining, Green Grass Boys.
