Video: Jay Jourden singing Save Our Suwannee at SuwRK Songwriting Contest

Jay Jourden sang “Save Our Suwannee” and won a prize, at the First Annual Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest, Saturday, June 23, 2018, at the Salty Snapper, Valdosta, GA.

Jay Jourden
Jay Jourden (photo by Bret Wagenhorst)

If there’s any song other than Stephen Foster’s that anybody knows about the Suwannee, it’s usually this one, which is a call to action:

The water table’s going down, cricks are running dry….
They say we need more power, there’s more rain in the sky….

But where’s that water going, and who says it’s so..??..
Somebody’s got the answers that we’d all like to know..!!..

Here’s the video:


Video: Jay Jourden singing Save Our Suwannee at SuwRK Songwriting Contest
Video by John S. Quarterman for WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS),

This was the First Annual, and we have made many notes for next year, such as triple-check the sound from the lead singer’s microphone, need a follow spot on the singer, let’s place the camera where people are not walking in front of it, oh, and announcers rehearse the finalists’ names.

Singer, Songwriter, Producer, Activist Jade’an Jourden, from Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, outside the Suwannee River Basin, wrote that he wrote his song, “Save Our Suwannee,” June 6, 2012,

Inspired By Conservation groups in N Florida.

As the lyrics say:

“There’s no time to waste and wonder…. if somehow it’s all going to change….
That bridge the Suwannee flows under….might not ever sing her song again…..”

Save our Suwannee…. save our creeks…. save our lakes, our springs, and seeps…. save our waters…. and keep em free….
Save our Suwannee for you and me..!!..

Jay Jourden assembled almost all of the original band that recorded “Save Our Suwannee,” and in this contest won Best Newgrass Bluegrass Americana.

So sing we all:

Performance Verse 3:

Now the answer to the problem is a long and uphill fight….
With the only part that’s easy…. is in knowing that we’re right….

Determined and together…. we’ll see this thing through….
So make that choice and raise your voice for those without a clue..!!..

Instead of taking chances on a gamble we might lose….
Let’s talk it out and think about the water that we use….

The children of tomorrow…. those little ones yet to be….
Have a right to see that river flow….just like you and me..!!..

Here’s Jay’s radio edit of “Save Our Suwannee.”.

We will be publishing videos of the rest of the songs and the rest of the contest finals.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!