Florida Folk Show co-host Jim Mason has over forty years of experience in the music industry, and continues today to be involved in record production, songwriting and publishing, live performance, artist management and marketing.

He has received industry recognition, including seven gold and platinum record awards for sales exceeding a million copies each.

Jim has co-written songs for Peter Paul and Mary, including the hit, “I Dig Rock-n-Roll Music” and “Hymn”. He has produced gold and platinum recordings for the band, “Firefall”, produced albums for Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame members Chris Hillman of the Byrds, and Richie Furay of Buffalo Springfield. Other production credits include Poco, the Cate Brothers, and Noel ‘Paul’ Stookey of Peter Paul and Mary, who originated the timeless, “Wedding Song, (There Is Love)”. Jim also produced or mastered Noel's recordings "Virtual Party" and "Facets" .

Jim performed backing vocals on recordings by former Beatle John Lennon, ("Rock and Roll") for Alice Cooper, ("No More Mr. Nice Guy") and has worked on numerous projects with Eagles bassist Timothy B. Schmit.

Other notable industry persons with whom Jim has worked include Ahmet Ertegun, Phil Ramone, Clive Davis, and the legendary John Hammond, who signed Jim to Columbia Records. Jim has been a recording artist on several major labels, and has toured with and opened shows for the Mamas & The Papas, Janis Joplin, Paul Revere and the Raiders and Gladys Knight.

You have only to see and hear Jim on stage for a few minutes to realize he is a entertainer who loves what he does and does it well. His accomplishments are many in the music industry but it is his charismatic personality that draws the audience into his performance. Jim recently released his first solo recording, "A Face in the Crowd".

Freelance Videographer Gary Horrell has worked on projects ranging from producing Web site videos for small businesses to personal oral histories. After earning his certification in television production in 2006, Horrell established Whistle Entertainment. Folk Lure, his first locally produced TV show, featured area singer-songwriters. Horrell produced, directed and edited a total of 12, 30-minute shows which were aired on local cable in 2007. Horrell also worked as cameraman and technical director on other shows learning many of the ins and outs of TV production.

Horrell met Pete Gallagher in December 2006 and invited him to perform on a Folk Lure show. Taped in January 2007, Gallagher's performance along with Raiford Starke and Elan Chalford aired in March and April of 2007. Later Horrell was invited to videotape Gallagher's Florida Folk Show at WMNF; that show aired in June of 2007.

In late 2007 and 2008 Horrell started creating “guerrilla”style” performance videos of some of Florida's finest folk musicians who were performing at area festivals. Many of these videos can still be viewed on YouTube.

After a year or so of working in the emerging field of video webcasting, Horrell found the Internet finally became fast enough to successfully stream audio and video.

After a test run in November 2008, Pete Gallagher, Raiford Starke and Gary Horrell were ready to debut the newest addition to the Florida Folk Show: the Florida Folk Show Webcast.

On January 1, 2009, Horrell started live Web-casting Pete Gallagher's Florida Folk Show from the WMNF radio studio in Tampa, Florida. In addition to watching the show live via the web at www.WhistleEntertainment.com, viewers could now share comments and interact with each other in the show's Chat Room.

With Raiford on the road and unable to make the show each week, Horrell was asked to step in and serve as co-host. Not only is Horrell webcasting the show live, his quick wit offers wry commentary to show's ever changing cast of characters. In late 2009, Jim Mason came aboard to join Gary and Pete as co-hosts of the Florida Folk Show. Gary went on to create the popular Facebook page “The Florida Folk Show” at https://www.facebook.com/events/188426724587521/#!/FloridaFolkShow

After recording the show's live performances and saving them to his YouTube page, Horrell attaches information about the Florida Folk Show to the videos. The result: the Florida Folk Show is now seen and heard with verified viewers tuning in from countries as far as Scotland, Japan and Australia.

Past shows can be viewed at www.WhistleEntertainment.com.

“Sunset Beach” Pete Gallagher, a native of Ft. Lauderdale who grew up in Cocoa/Rockledge and has lived in St. Petersburg since 1974, has been writing and singing about Florida for more than 35 years. An award-winning journalist, accomplished grant writer and freelance writer, Pete has been involved in Florida preservation pursuits since he graduated from the University of Florida in 1972. From his landmark Vanishing Florida column in the St. Petersburg Times to his investigative work that freed migrant farmworker James Richardson from jail (after being wrongfully convicted for murdering his seven children) to his work exposing the tragedy of Rosewood, the plight of the Florida panther and his expose on unethical state government permitting and variance capers that allowed the destruction of the world’s oldest aboriginal canoes (for the Seminole Indian Tribune), he has consistently fought for truth and sanity in Florida environmental and cultural issues. He spent 15 years working for Chief Jim Billie at the Seminole Tribe of Florida, directing Tribal communications and producing large-scale entertainment events (including the Discover Native America powwow series, the Fire On The Swamp country music fests and the Phish NYE 2000 show which drew 100,000 folks to the Big Cypress cattle pasture on the millennium. ◙ Pete has appeared at the Florida Folk Festival each year since 1972, most of that time as a member of the original Green Grass Revival (Florida bluegrass/folk band) and in duos with former WMNF co-hosts Raiford Starke and Kelly Green. ◙ Pete also plays guitar in the Green Grass Boys original Florida bluegrass band, with Florida State Fiddle Champ Elan Chalford, national harmonica whiz T.C. Carr and guitarist Raiford Starke. ◙ Pete has released four albums, the legendary “Live At Tampa Theatre” LP with Green Grass in 1979, “Florida Folk Music I,” “Florida Folk Music II” and “Dog Peter Gnats” (with Raiford Starke) and “Songs of Florida,” a special project with collaborator Kelly Green of Live Oak. Pete’s music combines humor (“Dog Peter Gnats”) and pathos (“The Old Rope Swing,” “Suwannee River 2023”) with intuitive looks at Florida characters and places, everything presented with a pro-Florida environmental theme. ◙ Pete was the winner of the first Will McLean Poetry Contest, and is a two-time winner in the LiveArts Peninsula Foundation’s “Floridian” songwriting contest. ◙ From 1981 until 1991, he managed the comeback career of blues singer Mary Smith McClain and was the writer/producer on a short film of her life called “Diamond Teeth Mary.” ◙ He (with co-hosts Jim Mason and Gary Horrell) the Florida Folk Show (Saturdays 9-10 a.m. on WMNF 88.5 FM Community Radio Tampa Bay) and ◙ co-host (with Pat Barmore) of Florida Folk Night at the Ka’Tiki, Sunset Beach, Treasure Island (Thursdays) and Kojak’s Palmetto RibHouse (Tuesdays), two of the area’s top acoustic songwriter showcases ◙ Pete is a voting member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and has been the executive producer on three nationally-released (Grammy nominated) CDs Pete and Fiddle champion Elan Chalford present a “Tribute to the Florida Fiddler” themed live concert show. They strive to educate their audiences about Florida’s unique “Cracker Jazz” fiddle music, exploring the styles and songs of Vassar Clements, Arthur Smith, Chubby Wise, Erwin T. Rouse and others. You can contact Pete at pgallag2@tampabay.rr.com or visit his Web page at www.floridapanther.com .

http://www.floridapanther.com