Word of South Returns to Tallahassee

Tallahassee's dizzying mashup of the literary festival and the music festival is set to return in April. Salvation South will host a stage.

By Rob Rushin-Knopf

Feb 11, 2022

A useful barometer to judge any community is the vitality of its arts scene. Since antiquity, great places that occupy the imagination are those that boasted of a rich and vibrant cultural scene, either as a source of production or hotbed of consumption; or even better, both. Take a minute and name a place without a robust cultural core that stands out in stature. The list is basically nil.

Tallahassee, Florida, has labored over the years to stand itself up as an arts hub. A notable contingent of local talent has been striving heroically to generate cultural enrichment, but those efforts are primarily local/regional in nature. (Ironically, Tallahassee and its universities are great wellsprings of talent in music, literature, film, and theater, but most anyone looking for career advancement leaves as soon as opportunity knocks.) A few adventuresome promoters occasionally roll the dice on higher-profile touring acts, but a scarcity of decent venues hamstrings this sector. And a once-proud performing arts series has declined to little better than animal spectacles, tribute bands, and similar tote bag/pledge week fare. Basically, there is not much to shout about if you are looking for world-class talent.

The Word of South Festival is one of a few welcome exceptions, and this year it's set to run April 8 through 10. Since its 2015 inception, WoS has presented, according to its website, “a festival of literature and music, [a] unique blend of writers and musicians and an exploration of the relationship between the two disciplines. … The festival showcases authors who write about music, musicians who also are authors, authors and musicians trading places, and everything in between.” I couldn’t say it better myself.

Working with limited funding – like pretty much everyone in the arts space – WoS cooked up a smart mix of regional and national talent to create a destination event in a town known mostly for football fanaticism and legislative lootings. Even better, the festival is free aside from one ticketed headliner each year. They dreamt it, they built it, and people came.

Then, like everywhere else, the arts scene in Tallahassee took a solid body blow when COVID landed. Nearly every performing arts gathering shuttered. Not-for-profit organizations struggled to survive, audiences starved for nourishment, and a fledgling arts scene was left in a state of suspended animation.

Word of South organizers pulled the plug completely just a few scant weeks ahead of the 2020 version. In 2021, careful planning for COVID distancing and attendance caps led to a fully subscribed event, with 3000 tickets reserved weeks ahead of the event. (The fest was still free, but advance registration was implemented for the first time to limit crowd size.)

"The festival showcases authors who write about music, musicians who also are authors, authors and musicians trading places, and everything in between.”

Then, nasty weather – a common scourge of springtime festivals in the South, from the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival to little Sopchoppy, Florida’s Worm Gruntin’ Festival – left organizers scrambling to shift everything indoors, a move that flung the stages out of walking distance. Even still, around 1,950 attendees turned up for at least one event, indicative of the outsized role Word of South plays in Tallahassee’s packed spring festival calendar.

Fast forward a year, and spring hopes eternal once again. The 2022 WoS is slated for the weekend of April 8-10, and the lineup is, once again, deep and eclectic. Space does not allow a complete rundown, but here are some highlights that capture the essence of the WoS programming.

The big name this year is Rickie Lee Jones, touring in support of her 2020 memoir Last Chance Texaco: Chronicles of an American Troubadour. (It is a cracking good read, no surprise for a songwriter known for precise and evocative lyrics.) Jones took the pop world like a hurricane with her 1979 eponymous debut album, led by the impossibly catchy “Chuck E’s in Love,” which earned her the Best New Artist Grammy award. (She nabbed another statue 10 years later for her duet of “Makin’ Whoopee” with Dr. John.) Her post-Chuck E career has been less of a rocket’s glare, fame-wise, but no less artistically fascinating, with a total of 16 albums and five more Grammy nominations. Jones performs solo at the Cascades Amphitheater stage on Saturday, April 9, and reads from her memoir on Sunday afternoon. Expect a scrum.

Another musical highlight is the Sunday tribute to Nat and Cannonball Adderley. These jazz legends — composers of a bucketful of jazz standards and colleagues of Miles, Coltrane, Art Blakey, Bill Evans, and dozens of others — grew up in Tallahassee and studied at Florida A&M, a venerated HBCU just a short walk from the festival site. They got their professional start here with the likes of Ray Charles – he lived in Tallahassee 1940-45 – before striking out for New York’s bright lights. Their gravesite is in the Southside Cemetery adjacent to the city airport.

This all-day spree features a real-deal lineup of internationally recognized artists and members of the savagely talented Florida State University and Florida A&M jazz faculties. Notables include Vincent Herring, Sherman Irby, Rodney Jordan, Roy McCurdy, Longineau Parsons, Leon Anderson, and Nat Adderley Jr. This lineup has deep Adderley connections; many worked with the Brothers, and Parsons actually plays a horn once owned by Nat. Midway through the day, Hank Shteamer, senior music editor at Rolling Stone magazine, will moderate a panel looking at the Adderley legacy.

Allison Russell will headline the Salvation South stage on Saturday night of the Word of South festival.

Like most multi-stage festivals, the option anxiety can be paralyzing. Here’s one example: Overlapping the Adderley set, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, poet, and activist Allison Russell brings her brand of Nashville-steeped ear gravy to the Salvation South stage on Sunday evening. (Salvation South founder/editor Chuck Reece is hosting a WoS stage once again after a couple years’ hiatus.)

Montreal-born Russell is probably best known from the Rhiannon Giddens-convened supergroup Our Native Daughters, but she is quickly becoming a force in her own right. A busy 2021 saw the release of her first solo album, “Outside Child,” which captured three Grammy nominations, four Canadian Folk Music Award noms, and landed her on the long list for the prestigious Polaris Music Prize. And oh yeah: She made her Grand Ole Opry debut last year, too.

“Outside Child" is one of my favorite albums of 2021. While the production lends it the familiarity of your favorite pair of comfy shoes, Russell’s singular voice and vision make the album utterly unique. Despite the intensity of the subject matter – Russell’s abject childhood – the overall mood is hope and possibility, typified by the album’s closer, “Joyful Motherfuckers.” I joyfully hope she rolls that motherfucker out for WoS crowd.

The rest of the Salvation South lineup is jam-packed with treats like Creole musician Cedric Watson; bluesman Buffalo Nichols; Carolina family gospel from Dedicated Men of Zion; and one of the best chroniclers of Florida weird around, Kristen Arnett. You might just pitch a blanket and spend the weekend at this soapbox.

Authorial firepower around the grounds is substantial. Official festival bookseller Midtown Reader hosts a lineup that could keep me in my seat the entire weekend. For non-fiction they offer Mark Kurlansky, Kai Bird, David Powell, Sid Bedingfield, and Gilbert King. Novelist Omar El Akkad and 2020 National Book Award winner, short story writer Deesha Philyaw, bring the fiction.

The Flamingo Magazine stage presents eco-horror scribe Jeff VanderMeer in conversation with thriller writer Meg Gardiner; hot buzz novelist Dawnie Walton (with her debut, The Final Revival of Opal & Nev); Southern foods writer Ronni Lundy; and Tallahassee’s own Capital Dame, Diane Roberts, in conversation with eco-journalist Cynthia Barnett.

But wait, as they say: There’s more, way too much to do justice to here. Wander across the internet to the Word of South website for a full schedule and artist bios.

This outdoor hoolie takes place in Cascades Park, the crown jewel in the Capital City’s impressive array of public parks. And amazingly, aside from the Friday show featuring Jamey Johnson, it is free, all eight stages and 52 events. Just show up with open ears, walking shoes, and sunscreen. Maybe bring a few bucks for the onsite bookseller where you can nab the works of the festival artists, all of them happy to sign your copy. Food trucks stand ready to tame your hunger and slake your thirst.

It’s kinda perfect.