Charles Steadham is no stranger to blues music. He has been playing the blues for years, performing in venues across the South. Not once was he afraid to play onstage in front of a crowd or even to walk into a prison where he was performing.
But when it came to the Ku Klux Klan, that was another story.
“I was straight as a string,” said the 80-year-old Micanopy resident. “I never drank a beer because, when the Klan showed up, I wanted to be straight and sober so I could talk my way out of whatever situation I was in.”
In the 1960s and ’70s, this fear was a reality for many people in the United States. The country was strained with racial tensions at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. Segregation divided neighbors and split communities.
But in Gainesville, it was African American artists in the blues scene who helped bridge the racial gap between communities.
Charles Steadham, known at the time by his stage name Charlie Blade, witnessed this shift in the community firsthand. He was a part of one of the first interracial blues bands in Gainesville. Amid the divides that swept the country, he praised the city’s blues scene for bringing people together.
For Gainesville’s musicians, there was no better haven than Sarah’s Place.
Sarah’s Restaurant, known as Sarah’s Place by locals, was a diner operated by Sarah McKnight on Northwest Fifth Avenue. Four nights a week, local artists played live blues and R&B music there.
These performances were often jam sessions featuring local and traveling blues and soul musicians. Steadham recalls how McKnight kept her doors open to all who wanted to be a part of the music scene.
“It was the most heartfelt, soulful, sincere music,” Steadham said. “It was just infectious.”
However, McKnight's welcoming attitude was not shared by local officials, Steadham said. Politicians disapproved of the integrated audience the diner attracted.
Sarah’s Place closed its doors in 1975, but the heart of the blues community held strong in Gainesville. For young artists like Linda Lyndell, known for her 1968 hit single “What A Man,” it provided a safe space from which to propel their music careers.
Born and raised in Gainesville, Lyndell got her start singing in Black Pentecostal churches. This exposure to gospel and spiritual music significantly influenced her soulful singing style of music.
“You didn’t have words to a song, you just made them up,” said Lyndell, 77. “It was where your heart was… that’s what soul is.”
Growing up, Lyndell and Steadham both attended the jam sessions at Sarah’s Place, leading to their close friendship. Lyndell credits the diner as the place she was first accepted as a singer, as she was a “white girl singing Black music.”
Steadham said they were fortunate to be accepted by the African American community, which welcomed them at Sarah’s Place.
“We were accepted on both sides,” Lyndell said. “Then people started accepting us as musicians.”
They began performing together in a band called The Mark IVs, with Lyndell singing and Steadham on the saxophone. Soon, they began to develop a reputation among performers and concertgoers at Sarah’s Place, leading them to join other respected blues and soul groups.
“Everybody tried to help one another, and we did,” Lyndell said. “That's really not like the music industry, but I think that's what we always tried to do.”
They began touring through the southeast United States, first with Gordon Henderson & the Blues Rockers, then with Lavell Kamma and the 100 Hour Counts, and later with Weston Prim and Blacklash. They performed at clubs along the Chitlin’ Circuit, a group of venues in the Southeast and Midwest known for providing performance spaces and community for African American entertainers.
“They wanted Linda on the poster because it was such a novelty to have a white girl in the band,” Steadham said. "On the Chitlin Circuit, Lavell Kamma was legendary. The 100 Hour Counts was the band to die for.”
But during the Civil Rights Movement, it wasn't easy for Steadham and Lyndell while they were on the road. Their money was stolen from dressing rooms, clubs were raided by the police and they were chased out of Lufkin, Texas, by the Ku Klux Klan. In Louisiana, Steadham faced off with the mayor of Leesville, who had hassled them at performances in the parish.
“All they cared about was that there were two white people there playing with an all-Black band in their town,” Steadham said. “To this day, I drive 400 miles out of my way before I go back to Leesville, Louisiana.”
In 1967, Lyndell recorded and released her first single with Stax Records called “Bring Your Love Back To Me.” While the single wasn’t a hit, she returned in 1968 with “What A Man.” The track was improvised by Lyndell and producer Dave Crawford. The track was a hit, earning the No. 50 spot on the Billboard R&B chart that year.
“We didn't have to go back and correct and write it down,” Lyndell said. “It was already written down in our heads as we were going along.”
In 1993, Salt-N-Pepa and En Vogue sampled “What A Man” on their song “Whatta Man,” interpolating the lyrics over Lyndell’s original recording. Lyndell did not receive credit or royalties for “What A Man” until a Stax Records CD compilation was released in 2003.
“It turned out to be a wonderful thing that they sampled the song,” Lyndell said. “We made friends that we would’ve never met.”
Times may have changed since Steadham and Lyndell were on stage, but the blues scene has endured within communities.
Rob Richardson, president of the North Central Florida Blues Society, said that education is a large part of preserving the blues scene in Gainesville.
“We know if we want to keep the blues alive… you got to make sure younger people hear the music and get exposed to it,” he said.
He said the organization puts on concerts for the community by bringing in national and international touring acts. They also allow local acts to gain exposure by being openers for the shows.
However, Richardson also recognizes the lack of space in the blues scene for women.
“There were so many female artists that would talk to a blues festival, and they’d go ‘Oh, we already booked our female act… one of them’s a woman so that’s enough.’” he said. “Female acts feel like they’re up against a brick wall sometimes.”
He said this led the organization to become involved in the Women in Blues showcase, which is hosted in Gainesville every May. Female-fronted groups have the opportunity to perform for the community.
“We want everyone to see this is what they bring to the blues, particularly the female artist has a different expression,” Richardson said.
He said that blues music’s lack of popularity in the media has brought fans together. In the organization, he has seen how music allows people to bond with one another and build relationships on their shared love of the blues.
“It’s more like, ‘you’re one of my people,’” he said.
For many, blues music is about going through hard times and transcending them, he said. The key to playing blues songs, he said, is artists connecting with an audience through their feelings.
Richardson said that blues music has been played for over 100 years. The genre is special because of its unique place in American culture, as the blues first emerged from African American spaces, he said.
“You’re touching into the history of America when you’re playing music,” he said. “That’s one thing that’s particularly special about it.”
He said that members of the blues community taught one another what they had learned and handed their knowledge down. This made, and continues to make, the blues community rich in culture and history.
“That’s a really big thing that blues music does,” he said. “You learn from the previous generation, you pass on to the next one.”