Carly Bak
Inverness, Florida, United States | SELF
Music
Press
The annual festival honoring Florida folk musician and songwriter Will McLean
This year’s winners of the Best New Florida Song Contest, sponsored by the Will McLean Foundation, will be presented their awards and will perform their songs at the festival. The winners are Garrison Doles, first place for “This Florida;” Chris Kahl, second place for “Out on Cedar Key” and Carla Bak, third place for “Boil that Sugar Cane Down.”
- Article written by Sharon on Monday, Mar 30, 2009 in Contests, Festivals, People
Art news in brief
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Here is this week's art news:
Sing Florida, win cash
Start your New Year with a Florida Song and it may win you money. Postmark deadline for the annual “Best New Florida Song Contest” sponsored by the Will McLean Foundation for Florida Heritage in Music is Jan. 15.
The lyrics of the songs must be about some aspect of Florida: its history, heritage, land, sky, water or critters, including human. Songs arrive from all over the country, although most come from Florida, say organizers from the foundation. The 2009 winners were First Place: Garrison Doles, “This Florida;” Second: Chris Kahl, “Out on Cedar Key;” and Third: Carla Bak: “Boil That Sugar Cane Down.”
Since its inception in 1992, the contest has inspired hundreds of songs about Florida, according to a news release from the foundation.
Each person may submit up to three songs. Cash prizes are awarded the top three entries. Winners are invited to perform at the annual Will McLean Music Festival, March 12,13,14 at the Sertoma Youth Ranch, Brooksville. - coastalbeat.com Neapolitan
Discography
People & Places I've Been
Is a composite of original songs. Boil that Sugar Cane Down placed third at Will McLean Festival song writer's contest 2009
I am now working on a new album which will be a composite of original songs about Florida's cultural history. This is taking some time because there is a lot of research involved but..... I love doing research and this is quite fascinating to me!
During the great depression, the government hired surveyors to travel throughout the south and record folk life in the form of folklore, song and stories. These surveyors would pass through with recorders that would be consider enormous today; about the size of a coffee table, and would mingle among workers of saw mills, railroads, turpentine camps, shrimp trawlers, and anywhere folk life could be found. I have stumbled on some pretty remarkable written documents and audios! Through these documented experiences, I try to picture myself stepping back in time and working in various trades, placing myself in a range of circumstances, both as a female and male. Then ask how would I feel, what songs and stories would I generate from these experiences, what lingo would I use to express my perception of the situation? Our use and meaning of words has changed drastically over the year! I think about how the melody will best relate to these experiences and time period. Is it best expressed through the blues or perhaps a work song, children's nursery rhyme, or a ballad? There are so many aspects to think about when producing an album like this.
I want to produce an album that people will enjoy listening to, not only because it's pleasing to the ear but also; to invoke memories of past personal family history and to make learning experiential, enjoyable and fun for adults and children. History is not all about dry facts and dates! It is about personal experiences expressed through folklore, songs, and stories handed down from generation to generation, that is what we remember!
Photos
Bio
"Boil That Sugar Cane Down" (form the album People & Places I've Been) placed in the song writer's competition at the Will McLean Festival in 2009.
"I have many passions but all stem from my childhood infatuation with nature, music, folklore and people watching. Writing music is my therapy and a way of sorting out life!"
My Grandpa, Louie Krogman was one of the original cowboys that homesteaded along the Rosebud Reservation near White River SD; before there were fences and established rodeos, He always had plenty of rank horses on the Triangle K Ranch as well as spirited hired hands to break them. One of these hired hands, Wes Wagner, went to Madison Square Gardens at the age of 15 to ride bare back and saddle bronc as part of the Pro rodeo circuit and later married a tenacious tough little cowgirl by the name of Dorothy Krogman *. They just happen to be my parents!
I love to be with people who have true grit that comes from working and living in close connection with nature and rooting deep among there own people. I've lived among the Cowboys and Sioux of South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana, city dudes of Washington DC, fisherman along the Oregon coast, with the Appalachian people of Western North Carolina and the Florida Cracker's. All have created there own unique cultures. Wherever I go, I love to play for small town locals, because this is where you will find colorful down home people and this is where vibrant stories fly, sad songs are sung, underhanded pranks are played and BS runs deep. This is the back bone of good original songs. I love to just observe the energy and dynamics of it all!
Musical influences include:
Cleo Lane
Billie Holiday
Janis Joplin,
Emmylou Harris
Patsy Cline
Big Mama Thornton
Hank Williams Sr
Melanie
Redbone
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