Tallahassee Democrat - 04/07/2019 Page : C01

Copyright © 2019 Tallahassee Democrat. All rights reserved. Use of this site signifies your agreement to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy/Your California Privacy Rights , updated March2007. 04/07/2019April 8, 2019 10:01 am (GMT +4:00) Powered by TECNAVIA

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SPECIAL‘SAUCE’

The scent of freshly cooked gumbo wafted

through the recording studio where musician Bill

Wharton was working on his first national record

release. He dipped into the kitchen and saw Shir-

ley Neal — swamp blues master Kenny Neal’s wife

— stirring up a big pot. Wharton asked if he could

add his “Liquid Summer” hot sauce into the bub-

bling mix, and the rest was history.

If you goWhat: Bill “Sauce Boss” Wharton at

Word of South

When: 2-3 p.m., Saturday, April 13

Where: Lyric Stage, Cascades Park 1001South Gadsden

Cost: Free

Contact: For more information pleasevisit https://www.wordofsouthfesti-

val.com/. For more information on BillWharton please visit www.sauceboss-

.com and www.planetgumbo.org.

Bill Wharton mixes it upwith memoir, album andgumbo at Word of South

See WHARTON, Page 3C

Amanda Sieradzki Council on Culture & Arts

Florida blues musician Bill Wharton aka The Sauce Boss will be plying his book and his music at Word of South on Saturday.ERIC ILASENKO; PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY KAYLA FILION/USA TODAY NETWORK; AND GETTY IMAGES

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To steal from the late, great Hunter S.Thompson, “when the going gets weird,the weird turn pro.”

Well, the going these days is unde-niably weird, with us all having to be-lieve six impossible things before break-fast and worry democracy will disinte-grate before lunchtime, so why notchannel this anxious energy into story-telling? It’s a way of “turning pro,” as the

good Dr. T. recommended, making orderout of the fragments shored against ourcollective ruin, controlling the chaos (alittle, anyway) through writing.

It works for me. It might work for you.And where better to sharpen those nar-rative skills than Seaside, Florida on thestill-glorious — despite Hurricane Mi-chael — Gulf coast?

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Here’s the commercial part: you paysome money and you get to study with

authors of your choice. You also get tohang out on the beach with them, buythem drinks and ask them personalquestions.

Star FSU graduate Matt Bondurantleads the field. His best-selling novel“The Wettest County in the World,”based on his moonshining Virginia kin-folk, was made into a 2012 movie called“Lawless,” starring the likes of JessicaChastain, Tom Hardy and Shia LeBoeuf.

Bondurant’s teaching a fiction work-shop. So is Wendy Rawlings, an award-winning short story writer and novelist.Seth Brady-Tucker, who’s won multipleprizes in multiple genres, will run a

prose workshop. Ann Fisher-Wirth, au-thor with Maud Schuyler Clay of thegorgeous verse-and-photography vol-ume Mississippi and an EnvironmentalStudies scholar, will work with poets,and (full disclosure, here) I will be work-ing with nonfiction writers.

There’s a slew of fancy specialguests, too, including literary agents,who can talk to you about your projectand its prospects, poet-essayist-mem-oirist Brian Turner and Rebecca Mak-kai, whose novel “The Great Believer”was a 2018 National Book Award final-

Watch the words roll in at Seaside conferenceDiane RobertsGuest Columnist

See ROBERTS, Page 2C

Tallahassee Democrat - 04/07/2019 Page : C03

Copyright © 2019 Tallahassee Democrat. All rights reserved. Use of this site signifies your agreement to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy/Your California Privacy Rights , updated March2007. 04/07/2019April 8, 2019 10:01 am (GMT +4:00) Powered by TECNAVIA

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“I made a big pot ofgumbo onstage using myhot sauce and a recipe in-spired by [Shirley] forNew Year’s Eve 1990,”says Wharton. “Over200,000 bowls later, herewe are.”

Previously, Whartonhad only carried a few ofhis hot sauce bottles withhim to performances tomake some money on theside. Now cooking is animmersive part of hisshow, and the moniker“Sauce Boss” has stuckfor good. For his upcom-ing Word of South Festi-val appearance audi-ences can get a taste ofthe famous gumbo whileenjoying excerpts fromWharton’s new albumand memoir, “The Lifeand Times of Blind BoyBilly.”

“You share yourselfwith your audience,” ex-plains Wharton. “Havingfood there is just anotherkind of expression as faras I’m concerned. It’sevolved into this mixedmedia performance that Ithink of as a soul-shout-ing picnic of rock and rollbrotherhood.”

Sixty years in musichas given Wharton sever-al lessons in communitybuilding. He started outas a drummer in his ju-nior high school band.Around the same time hetaught himself to play theguitar. Wharton movedfrom his hometown Or-lando to Tallahasseewhere he continued per-fecting his slide guitarblues.

Wharton topped theroots blues music chartsfor 12 weeks, and has gar-nered recognition fromJimmy Buffett and newsoutlets like CNN andNPR’s “All Things Consid-ered” and “Morning Edi-tion.” A force in both culi-nary and music worlds,Wharton has also beenfeatured in “GQ,” “Living

Blues” and “GourmetMagazine.” Eating was al-ways a passion of his,with the principles be-hind sharing food stem-ming from his mother’snurturing.

“She was a great cook,”says Wharton. “Sheshowed me what hospi-tality is all about. It has todo with understandingwhat people need. Com-ing from a big family, welearned that we had totake care of each otherand share.”

His memoir is dedicat-ed to his mother. It was aproject he meditated onfor a while, however afterexperiencing health is-sues, Wharton decided itwas time to write his sto-ry down. He was shockedby the 10,000 words thatflowed out of him in justthree days.

Compared to song-writing, Wharton says theprocess was easier sincethe stories originatedfrom his banter with the

audience at perfor-mances. The book en-gages all five senses as amixed media experience,much like Wharton’s liveshows. Part songbook,part cookbook, partmemoir, you can listen tothe songs as you read andfollow along with makingthe recipes.

“I’ve got my grandfa-ther’s South Carolina bar-becue hash and pulledpork recipe in there,” saysWharton. “I also have mymother’s recipe she calledsalmon haystacks, whichwon a Betty Crocker com-petition when I was a tod-dler. These are recipesthat mean a lot to me andthey’re part of my DNA.”

The book begins withan autobiographical songtitled “Killer Tone,” whichWharton considers a timecapsule and retrospectiveof everything Sauce Boss.It was an exciting processto put down his life expe-riences, and one that he isready to share with audi-

ences at Word of South.Two more standoutsfrom the set will be “BlindBoy Billy” and “Pleasuresof the Deep.”

Wharton refers to thetunes as “artistically put-ting my affairs in order.”They give him vindica-tion and a positive outletfor expressing the upsand downs of his life. It’sthis exchange of energythat he is in constant pur-suit of when he is cookingand playing onstage. It’salso a part of his motiva-tion in taking food andmusic to share with allaudiences, includinghomeless shelters withhis nonprofit PlanetGumbo.

“There are so many

ences will always leavewith full bellies and hap-py souls. He feels fortu-nate to live and contrib-ute to Tallahassee’s mu-sic scene, and is lookingforward to connectingover a warm bowl of bluesat Word of South.

“Part of being a musi-cian or an artist is thatyou are willing to bareyour soul, you rip openyour ribcage and showeveryone your heart,”says Wharton. “Music is adiscipline like a yoga…pe-ople connect and theyconnect in this way that isreally psychic. Everyoneis all experiencing thesame thing at the sametime. That experience canreally give the conscious-ness a lift.”

Amanda Sieradzki isthe feature writer for theCouncil on Culture &Arts. COCA is the capitalarea’s umbrella agencyfor arts and culture(www.tallahas-seearts.org).

beautiful people all overthe world who are in direstraits,” says Wharton. “Ijust want to be an exam-ple, not so much apreacher, but an exampleof when you give to peo-ple that really need it thatboth parties get immea-surable good from it.”

No matter the venue,Wharton hopes audi-

WhartonContinued from Page 1C

“The Life and Times ofBlind Boy Billy”SPECIAL TO THE DEMOCRAT

“Having food thereis just another kindof expression as faras I’m concerned.”

Bill Wharton