Original 1954 Berenice Abbott Photo. Route 1 - Miami
MIAMI :: FIELD REPORT :: ROUTE 1 PROJECT
They told me it might not be the smartest time to head for the Florida Keys. Hurricane Irma had left its mark with curfews, power outages, and enough uncertainty to make most people postpone the trip. I didn't. The Route 1 Project was always intended to be improvisational, and I wanted the journey to unfold on its own terms. It was a hell of a way to begin. Recording equipment refused to cooperate, incompatible technologies seemed determined to sabotage every plan, and more than once I wondered if the project was over before it had really begun.
After a few interesting days in Key West, Miami offered something I hadn't realized I needed—a chance to regroup. I found a decent bed, reorganized my equipment, caught my breath, and spent an afternoon at Mac's Club Deuce, one of America's last great dive bars. While living in Key West, I had often stopped there to visit an old friend. We first met when he was the guitarist for Sleep Chamber and I booked their West Coast tour. During the OZ years he worked the door at The Middle East, and now he was holding down the fort at Mac's. In a city where twenty-dollar cocktails had become the norm, Mac's was still serving ice-cold Budweiser for less than five bucks. Over a couple of beers I unveiled my latest obsession—the Route 1 Project.
I had hoped to connect with DJ Le Spam of the Spam Allstars, whose performances at the Green Parrot in Key West had made a lasting impression on me. We never managed to cross paths. Instead, I wandered into the Wolfsonian–FIU and stumbled onto an exhibition I never expected to find: North and South: Berenice Abbott's U.S. Route 1. In 1954 Abbott had driven the same highway I was following, photographing its people, places, and landscapes from New York to Florida before turning north again to Maine. Seventy years earlier, another traveler had been asking many of the same questions I was asking now.
From there the road began introducing me to itself. I found myself diving headlong into the history of Coconut Grove and the work of Fred McNeill. My musical radar lit up with Charlie Pickett & The Eggs' Overtown, and, through the remarkable legacy of TK Records, an unexpected introduction to Blowfly, Betty Wright, Timmy Thomas, Gwen McCrae, and Steve Alaimo. I really knew nothing about Henry Stone at the time. That revelation—and many others—would come later.
That's the nature of the Route 1 Project. Every stop seems to uncover half a dozen more roads worth following. Miami wasn't simply another city along the highway. It was an intersection. The photographs were taken. The notes were written. I arrived looking for one story and left with a dozen more.
