The South Florida Bluegrass Association officially got its start on New Years Day 1971 with one hundred people attending, according to a 2008 interview with Bill Caudill just before our 30th Everglades Bluegrass Festival. Bill Caudill was elected the first president of the association when the South Florida Bluegrass Association was chartered by the state of Florida in September 1971.
SFBA's First President
1977 was a banner year for the Association as they were preparing for the first Everglades Convention that was actually held in the smack middle of "The Glades."
Click on The Bluegrass Strings to view the full two page ad for the first Everglades Convention. Flyer designed by Lloyd Liles
The South Florida Bluegrass Association has been reconized as being part of "American Folk Life."
"The Bluegrass Strings," the published record of our Association, are on microfilm in the Library of
Congress. There have been many good people who have enabled this non-profit organization to prosper
and a handful of them from the 70´s are still around. Some of the folks who have been associated with this
organization for more than thirty years are the legendary fiddler and Dobro player, Charlie Hudson.
Lloyd Liles stills puts in lot of miles to ensure that the sound system is taking care of business and eighty-
year old Mort Glosser is still
giving new members corn-pone names while he performs his Grandpa Jones routine. Through the years Mort
may have had as many band members as Bill Monroe had. Bill Monroe, the father of Bluegrass, and some
say the father of rock and roll, with one version of his Bluegrass Boys was the headliner of the star
studded first Everglades Bluegrass Convention that was really held in the Glades. Click on the Bluegrass
Strings to check out the first line-up that stated a thirty year tradition here in South Florida. The next year,
Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys headlined. All of this would not have been possible
without the bonding of a special people with a dedicated purpose to preserve their heritage.
Thanks to all who have made this organization what it is today.