Robert Thatcher, from Signal Mountain, Tennessee, and Tom Brown, from Dalton, Georgia, accompanied by Bob’s wife, played their song “Roll On, Echo River” and won Best Folk / Americana / Bluegrass Song in the Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest 2024.

Robert Thatcher & Tom Brown, Roll On, Echo River, Best Folk / Americana / Bluegrass Song, Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest 2024

These songwriters wrote about themselves,

Robert Thatcher lives on Signal Mountain, TN and grew up around bluegrass music. His day job is as a communications and web specialist for a large hospital system.Robert plays in a Chattanooga folk band with his wife Alice and has been writing music for about 12 years. He finds inspiration in the rivers and mountains of the Cumberland plateau, hiking, and reading books. With co-writer Tom Brown, he was an awarded third place in the Woody Guthrie songwriting competition, and they were co-finalists in the John Hartford Songwriters contest.

Tom Brown of Dalton, Georgia, is a retired teacher who worked with visually impaired students for many years and more recently served as the part-time director of a local health clinic for the underprivileged. He is a prolific songwriter and has appeared several times on the stage of IBMA Bluegrass Songwriter Showcase. Tom wrote and starred in a bluegrass musical comedy production called Fat Shirley’s Trailer Park Opry, which has been presented in several different states and toured in the United Kingdom.He is a banjo and guitar player as well as the producer of the Dalton Woodsongs concert series.

Here’s a WWALS YouTube playlist of them playing their song, followed by WWALS President Sara Squires Jones awarding the prize:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKwQ5xfKf-QzGZmvkDKo18oAo63Ofv7bE&si=_CDrVM-IlHAXlrBb

Video by Doug Jipson for WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc.

About the song, the songwriters wrote:

Through a minor melody and longing lyric, we wanted to evoke a common of the many people over hundreds of years who’ve lived near, enjoyed and benefited from the Suwannee River. In our current changing times, it’s a plea to recognize the human role as stewards of the river.

Lyrics for “Roll On, Echo River,” by Robert Thatcher and Tom Brown, © 2024 Robert Thatcher and Tom Brown:

Where will this wild river take us?
As it winds along its way
Flowing on to tomorrow
For its life, we pray

Lives and towns long forgotten
Fortunes rise and fall
But the wanderin’ Suwannee
Keeps rolling through it all

Chorus

Roll on Echo River
Roll on clean and free
Wild blackwater beauty
Keep rolling to the sea

We see riches of the river
In the song the bunting sings
In the branches of a live oak tree
By the flow of ancient springs

We think we own the river
But we’re just passing by
Like ripples on the water
Neath a fading summer sky

Chorus

Where will this wild river take us?
As it winds through troubled times
When some would trade true riches
For the promise of a mine

Chorus

We will post videos of more performances soon.

Before the finalists played, everyone listened to the two main speakers, the talks about WWALS, and the headliner at the WWALS River Revue. More about all that later.

Then the three judges listened to the five finalists of the Seventh Annual Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest, and picked the winners.

Thanks to the sponsors, the ticket buyers, and the people who participated in the Silent Auction and the kayak raffle.

Proceeds benefit the advocacy and activities of WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc., a 501(c)(3) IRS nonprofit educational charity, established 2012. Since December 2016, Suwannee Riverkeeper® is a project and a staff position with WWALS.

For more information, see:
https://wwals.net/pictures/songwriting2024

Flyer trimmed: Food, Speakers, M.C., Headliner, Songs, Judges, Prizes, and Sponsors So Far

Y’all come next year.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can help with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable, water in the 10,000-square-mile Suwannee River Basin in Florida and Georgia by becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations/