Swampland.com

Record Store Day Remembrances: Orlando's Park Ave CDs

Orlando, Florida seems an unlikely Southern musical hub.  In the shadows of the all-encompassing mouse south of town, this ever-emerging city has seemingly yet to define itself culturally outside of Disney and its other famous tourist attractions.

Still, the Orlando has had an active musical community for years.  The attractions' need for musicians brought many top notch players to the area a few decades back, and many of them stayed.  Critical Swampland artists like Tommy Talton and Tom Wynn grew up in Orlando where they formed We The People, a classic band amongst garage band afficianados, before later forming Cowboy, a band that deserved much wider notoriety than they got at Capricorn Records during that label's Southern Rock heyday in the 70s.

The city also produced recent pop and rock successes like Matchbox 20, N'Sync, Creed and Seven Mary Three.  Unfortunately, these acts made relatively faceless music that could have come from any suburb of America leaving little momentum for Orlando's music scene today.

I've grown up and lived in Orlando for my entire life.  Like many in the Orlando area from that era, my parents were transplants from the midwest.  During my lifetime, Orlando's growth and change has been a push and pull between its old South agricultural roots in cattle and citrus to its later home as a tourism capital.  In my life I've seen the area grow from around 100,000 to 2 million, and I've only just turned 40.

Orlando's own dual sense of history, the old South lying underneath the inevitable pavement left by growth and development, formed much of the inspiration for the site you are visiting now, Swampland.com.  Despite all the change here in Orlando, there remains a strong cultural underpinning.  It may be about Disney, but its also the place that inspired Zora Neale Hurston's writing and where Ray Charles started his musical career.

Through Swampland and its fine group of writers, we aim to chronicle the many cultural connections throughout our region like the way that many in Orlando still keep the heart of Ray Charles, Cowboy, Zora Neale Hurston, and other area legends beating.

Swampland.com is a tribute to that effort.  Orlando may often lie on the cultural outskirts of our Swampland Footprint, but it remains part of it all the same.  It also represents where the Footprint may be headed as we stand at the early years of our new millenium, if only because of its constant change and growth. 

In this effort, I've had one constant companion on my journey - Park Ave CDs.

Like today's era of music downloads and iPods, my generation saw the music industry change through two critical outside elements - the rise of MTV and the advent of the compact disc.  MTV quickly wore thin with me once I got into high school, but the CD became an important part of my musical life.

The CD allowed me to rediscover old music from Robert Johnson to Hank Williams to the Allman Brothers.  At its height, CD reissues were treasures filled with hours of fantastic music accompanied by excellent writing and photos.  I wasn't even 10 when the Southern Rock Era begin its decline aboard Lynyrd Skynyrd's ill-fated plane, but the Skynyrd box set more than a decade later allowed me to look back on their music with the best kind of perspective, a perspective that continues to grow today.

In my sizable collection of music, easily more than half was bought at Park Ave CDs.  It started as a small vinyl shop at the end of the high end shopping area in Winter Park, FL just north of Orlando.  Steve and Denise Allen bought the store in the 80s and turned it into the first CD-only shop in the area.  These two wonderful people and their loyal staff turned me onto an incredible amount of music over the years.

Here's a brief story to show their importance to my career in music, Steve was responsible for my most important accomplishment in my music career outside of Swampland.com.  Back in the late 90s, Steve pointed me towards a CD called "Sacred Steel" which featured a Florida-based gospel music style played on steel guitars.  One listen and I was hooked.  It was like the Allman Bros at church!

I searched out all I could about this music ultimately leading me to the folklorist behind the collection, Gainesville's Bob Stone.  Later, with the help of another Park Ave CD employee named Matt Gorney, he, I and Stone helped find a home at Rollins College for the 1st Sacred Steel Convention where all the players got together to play music outside of their church.

There I met Robert Randolph, an extremely special musician and person that I still work with today.

Steve and Denise later sold Park Ave CDs to one of their employees, Sandy Bitman.  Steve and Denise looked for new challenges in New Orleans - Steve as a photographer and Denise as a chef.  Sandy and I developed a friendship of our own as I watched him take the store into the CIMS coalition and later move it to its current location where it has become an even deeper cultural hub for Orlando offering more inventory and more in store performances.

Steve was right when he saw that the store needed someone like Sandy, young and dynamic.  Sandy's hard work has allowed Steve and Denise's original vision continues to thrive today.

As another Record Store Day passes, it is important that we give our respects to the people who bring these stores to life.  Their passion for music and culture are most often the path for discovery for those of us equally passionate about music.

Like a neighborhood bar, indie record stores are the comfortable hang out for music lovers.  Not only have I met and been informed by people like Steve, Denise, Sandy, and Matt, I also met another Matt, Matt Caron, member of the Orlando-based History and owner of 8bitOrange, Swampland.com's webmaster/web designer.

To all of you and more that I haven't mentioned, I say a personal and hearty thank you.

In the spirit of all the Park Ave CDs has done for me, I am posting reviews by Orlando-based bands that I found out about through the kind folks at Park Ave CDs.  In this new era of the music business, stores like Park Ave are going to make it possible for local bands to make the next step.  Rather than going away like Circuit City, indie record stores like Park Ave CDs always find ways to evolve and grow in stature.  It's a testament to the power of indie music retail.

First up is Beth McKee's I'm That Way, a record which highlights another aspect of the Orlando scene, our transplants.  McKee is from Mississippi as well as having been a part of music scenes in New Orleans and Austin.  She unites both this group of "imported" Orlando musicians with another long time Orlando scene - the blues rock of the King Snake Records camp.  (More on King Snake soon...)

Next is Thomas Wynn and the Believers' The Reason, a band led by the son of the aformentioned Tom Wynn.  Michael Buffalo of GRITZ did the honors on this review because of his long and important history with Southern Rock.  Thomas's first record with this band is an almost perfect combination of his father's Southern Rock influences with Florida's Tom Petty.

Last, but far from least is Matt Butcher's Me and My Friends.  Butcher's new record may put Orlando on the indie map.  If this happens, he could become the first artist of this decade that Orlando can hang its hat on with some serious pride.

(A special mention must also go to Justin Beckler, a fantastic guitarist who produced the Thomas Wynn and Matt Butcher records.  His growth as a producer bodes well for the continuing creative growth of Orlando's music scene.)

All of these three records show that there is more to Orlando that meets the eye.  These lyrics from Butcher's new record had to be written with Orlando in mind:

This small town charm is wearing thin
Small town walls are closing in
Tried to make a castle on a city made of sand and sin with the tide rushing in

Butcher, Wynn, McKee, and others show a side of Orlando that is real instead of synthetic, the side of this town that still keeps me here still calling it home.

With the help of these artists and the window and nexus point that Park Ave CDs provides, Orlando's culture outside of its too often sterile tourist vibe can grow and thrive.

Special thanks to everyone.  I don't come out of the shadow often, but I am happy to do so for all the people who deserve our thanks.  Expect to hear more from our friends at Park Ave and the other indie retailers throughout the Swampland Footprint.

(Please also read Michael Buffalo Smith's loving Record Store Day tribute to one of his favorites in Greenville, Horizon Records.) 
 

JJ Grey Performs "Orange Blossoms" @ Park Ave CDs
 

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