Live Music Series- James Hawkins/ Mike Jurgensen
Sunday, February 14th
12:30- James Hawkins
Hey there folks my name is James Hawkins. I am a Kentucky native who has lived in the Venice/Sarasota for about 30 years. After getting out of the Navy I started doing community theatre and performed at the Venice Little Theatre, Sarasota Players and the Port Charlotte Players off and on for about five years. I started writing songs and hitting the open microphones around the Venice Sarasota area in the mid-80’s. While at one of these open mic’s someone told me about the Florida Folk Festivals that were happening so I packed up my guitar and went to White Springs and from that day I was totally hooked. From the first festival I was knocked out listening to some truly amazing songs and songwriters such as Will McLean, Don Grooms, Jim Belew, Gamble Rodgers, Frank Thomas, Steve Blackwell, Bob Patterson and Bobby Hicks. The more I watched and listen to these artist the seeds of my own songs were sown. I must say that I never got to meet Will McLean, Jim Belew, or Gamble Rodgers but I did get to meet Don Grooms and have had the pleasure to sit down and have many a long talk with Bob Patterson, Frank Thomas, Steve Blackwell and Bobby Hicks about Florida songwriting and Florida history. Will all this tutelage I have had success with my own music as well. I have had six songs recorded by five Florida artists and a song on both of the Friends of Florida Folk CD compilations and one on the Florida Music Food Initiative compilation CD as well.
Check out his music at: https://www.reverbnation.com/jrhawkins
1:30- Mike Jurgensen
Mike Jurgensen, originally from Chapel Hill, NC, has lived in the Tampa Bay area since 1968. In 1992 he discovered the Iron Horse coffee house in Tarpon Springs, where he began playing open mics. Since then, Mike has played at acoustic venues and folk festivals around the state of Florida, and has opened for such notable performers as Cheryl Wheeler, Richard Shindell, and Rod MacDonald, and has been the featured artist on numerous live music radio shows on WMNF 88.5FM in Tampa.
Mike is a 3-time finalist in the South Florida Folk Festival national songwriting competitions, and a 3-time winner in the Will McLean Festival “Best Florida Song” competitions, and has placed in the top 10 four times. Mike is now a regular judge for the Will McLean song competition. In addition, two of Mike’s songs are featured in an award-winning radio documentary, “Apalachicola Doin’ Time”, produced by WUFT in Gainesville, and his song “The Golden Fleece of Tarpon Springs” is featured in a Florida Humanities Council project. Mike’s songs have also been used in a couple of WGCU (SW Florida) documentaries. Mike’s debut solo CD “The Road Away From Home” was released in early 2002, and he also has a sampler CD, containing some of his Florida-themed songs.
From 1994 until 2002, Mike performed as a member of the well-known Florida acoustic group, Myriad. Together with Myriad, Mike produced 3 recordings: “Live at the Iron Horse”, “Song Circle” and “New Strings”. Several of Mike’s songs are featured on the Myriad recordings. After Myriad disbanded, Mike performed solo and with his son, Ian. Mike and Ian have a live CD, recorded at the Gamble Rogers Folk Festival. Most recently, Mike has been performing with Pete Hennings and Pete Price in the trio “2PM” (2 Petes and a Mike), and “2PM” has released its first CD, “Keepin’ Time”. “2PM” has performed together at numerous acoustic venues and festivals around the state of Florida, and will begin working on their second CD in the coming months.
Learn more at https://www.reverbnation.com/mikejurgensen