Girls with guitars: Florida's femme composers gather for a jam on Marco

What began as a single concert has turned into Marco's folk homage to Lilith Fair tours. Eight female songwriters/performers take the stage Monday, Aug. 21, at the Marco Players theater.

All of them will offer their personal tuneful takes on the Sunshine State: poignant, narrative and funny.

A number are prizewinners in the Will McLean Song Contest, and some have jammed around the country as well as in Florida. JRobert Houghtaling, the Marco-based songwriter and performer who organized it, seems in shock himself. When he approached the women, they all accepted. 

"It's an emotional experience," he said of the realization that all these songwriters are coming to this event. "I'm going to slice it and dice it so everyone gets a song."

Cindy Hackney is the featured artist, so she performs the first set, before the wine-beer-soda break. A nature lover since childhood, Hackney writes and sings about nature, her adopted home state, the traditions of her husband's family and conservation.

Life has changed dramatically for the "Swamp Buggy Bride," as her autobiographical song details, since the onetime journalist met her husband while covering the Swamp Buggy Parade for the Miami Herald.

Hackney has been composing songs, by her own admission, "since before I could even put them on paper." She won third prize for in the McLean contest for her lighthearted "Gator in the Slough," a toe-tapper that will inspire singalongs during its chorus. Hackney also is in demand as a guide for bird-watching trips both here and in Alaska, her second love.

Hackney says she writes songs about protecting and restoring Florida's ecology, but she has backed away from them being lectures

"I want to make friends with the people who are here, to invite them to come along with us." She points out that so many of Florida's residents have not been here long enough to know the history and the needs of the fragile Everglades.

She said she's happy to be playing in a concert of all female Florida songwriters, and Marie Nofsinger of Naples, a fellow McLean honoree with her "Sweet Home Florida," echoes her.

"I may have played with an all-women's gathering, but that was years and years ago," Nofsinger said. "This is something special."

On the concert list, addition to Hackney are:

» Laura Leary. a classically trained violinist in Naples with experience everywhere from the Jacksonville Symphony to Las Vegas. Hackney calls her the instrumental virtuoso of the group: "When you're writing songs, you're not necessarily working on being the best guitarist around. So it's wonderful to have someone like Laura with you."

» Sabrina Williams, a Marco Islander with what Houghtaling calls "the voice of an angel" and her own wedding song that was performed at the Bob Marley Family Reunion.

»Marie Nofsinger of Naples, a fellow McLean honoree with her "Sweet Home Florida." She is in demand on both coasts of Florida, as a transplanted Delray Beach resident, for her music and emcee skills.

»Carlene Thissen of Naples, who got an early intensive view of performance by attending the original Woodstock Music Festival.  A former corporate vice president in Chicago, she has worked as a volunteer in Immokalee and written two books about the area. She still volunteers, sings and writes songs.

»Rita Youngman, a Seminole woman from the Bird clan of the Seminoles from the Lake Placid area. "The thing everybody loves about her is she’s a strong character," Houghtaling said. "In Seminole culture, it’s the women who pass down from generation to generation the history." 

» Nancy Koerner; a Golden Gate resident who has written songs about the Everglades since she settled here after a tumultuous life in Belize that has been the basis of a book. She was reared in a musical family and sang in its quartet for five years in their Pennsylvania hometown.

»Terry Lynn Melody, a Fort Myers songwriter who beams her own live show on her self-titled website. Melody's music has appeared on National Public Radio's "Gulf Coast Live," on Kix 92,9-FM country radio and on Fox Television. Her disc is in rotation on a number of internet radio stations that play her music internationally.

JRobert Florida Songwriters Showcase

Who: Eight women songwriters and instrumentalists perform songs that include observations on life in Florida as well as ballads, blues and other genres

When: 7 p.m. Monday, Aug. 21

Where: Marco Players Theatre, 1089 N. Collier Blvd., No. 432, Marco Island (entry is in the shopping center off West Elkcam Circle close to Bald Eagle Drive)  

Tickets: $30

For reservations: themarcoplayers.com or 239-642-7270

Something else: If you come early, before 4 p.m. you can see a new exhibition at the Marco Island Center for the Arts, "Under 30 and Over 80," before dinner somewhere on the island; see "Marco Monday" story