VALDOSTA, Ga. — Rachel Grubb’s earliest memories are on the Suwannee River.
Through the dreamy haze of childhood, it’s an afternoon picnic with her family on the riverbank. A few months later, there’s a canoe trip on the Suwannee where her (lifevest-clad) younger sister leans just too far over the side, splashing in and bobbing up with a bitter mouthful of tannic water.
“Well, the water is something that draws us to it,” Grubb laughed as she told the story, “so it’s hard to stay away.”
Last weekend, the Lake City native won the Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest with her indie-folk tune “Cruising Down the Suwannee.” The seventh annual running of the contest, held at the WWALS Watershed Coalition River Revue, encouraged musicians from the Suwannee region to explore the history, iconography and environmental importance of the basin’s waters.
Five finalists came from Florida, Georgia and Tennessee to perform their original songs in Valdosta, a city recently infamous for — though not alone in — spilling millions of gallons of raw sewage into the river basin.
WWALS, established in 2012, has trained more than 40 volunteers on water quality testing to detect and monitor spills like these.
The Songwriting Contest is the Coalition’s cultural counterpart to the technical work. It was inspired, ackSuwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman, by a similar songwriting competition hosted annually at Our Santa Fe River’s RiverFest.
Both competitions offer musicians a chance to explore the personal, artistic and spiritual meanings of Florida rivers, capturing the human connection to water in a way E. coli counts and dissolved oxygen levels can’t.
Stew, soul and a baseline
For Billy “Sweet William” Ennis of Palatka, rivers are synonymous with serenity. Although he lives along the St. Johns River, Ennis’ song “Catfish Stew (Suwannee River Blues)” imagines a fisherman’s tranquil afternoon on the Suwannee:
I’ll troll that hook and crawdad, hoping for a bite
Longnose gar or mudfish, but catfish would be just right
A 12-bar blues melody completes the leisurely scene. The fisherman spends all day on the river, returning only when “daylight is fading” for a meal home-cooked with the day’s catch.
“We have fresh catfish stew all the time,” Ennis said of his family, “it’s one of our staples.” Believed to combine Native American and west African traditions, a bubbling catfish stew has graced tables from George Washington’s Mt. Vernon to Elgin, South Carolina’s Catfish Stomp, nearly in its 50th year.
Tea-colored tannins from Suwannee foliage make the river slightly acidic, conditions in which many large fish struggle, but catfish thrive. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission lists channel catfish as one of the most popular species caught by area fishers.
The Suwannee’s wildlife, including its catfish, inspired Ennis to participate in this year’s competition. “Whether you win or not, you win because you are part of the effort to keep the Suwannee clean and environmentally safe for its critters,” he said. Ennis took home awards for Best Blues Song and Best Song from Outside the Suwannee River Basin.
‘Everyone appreciates rivers’
Grubb, this year’s overall first place winner, grew up down a dirt road in Lake City.
Her early memories on the Suwannee gave way to a career as a speech language pathologist, but “something was missing,” Grubb said.
She began to write songs as a creative outlet “and then it really grew a life of its own.” Grubb cut back on hours to be able to dedicate more time to music. She released her first album, “Twists and Tangles,” in 2016. Her second album, Florida Home, is set for release later this year and will include “Cruising Down the Suwannee.”
Grubb’s musical style and themes are, “very much influenced by Florida, especially rural North Florida, which doesn’t get a lot of space, even in Florida folk.” To Grubb, her home’s pine forests, springs and dark rivers are just as iconic of the state as South Florida’s beaches and palms.
Got my baby, got my boat
It ain’t fancy, but it’ll float
“That first little line just popped into my head,” Grubb said. “It seemed right, earnest.”
Jon boats and canoes alike share the Suwannee, reflecting what Grubb says is a larger coming-together over the river.
“There’s not a lot of what I would call environmentalists around, but everyone appreciates rivers,” Grubb said of her hometown. “And sometimes I think it’s just… if we can get to where we all appreciate what we’ve been given, that is what starts conservation.”
