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BOCA RATON Magazine
SOUTH FLORIDA AT ITS BEST
"Best of  Issue"

FLORIDA FOLK
By R.S. Pollack
Photo by Warren Salowe

VALERIE C. WISECRACKER - Rebel with a Tune

In her song "Valerie's Back Yard," Marie Nofsinger sums up Valerie C. Wisecracker's philosophy in just a few words.

"Don't mess with Florida," she sings. "It's Valerie's back yard."

A Florida native who still makes Miami her home, Wisecracker is indeed a singer/songwriter who makes the state's environment—and protecting it—a big part of her music.

"I take on people who I think are taking advantage of Florida," she says. "And there's just so much to do."

In her song "The Dirty Little Rat that Ate Orlando," Wisecracker takes Disney to task for buying up the city's land. She's gone after Lykes Brothers for closing the Fisheating Creek recreation area to the public, and she's tackled developers trying to pave over the Everglades.

And in "Stop Runnin' My florida Home into the Ground," she takes on just about everyone from Big Sugar to big developers.

Yet Wisecracker's not exactly what you'd call a "tree hugger."

"I'm not against development," she says, "I just believe in responsibility."

And if her words don't convince you, her actions certainly will. When she's not onstage talking about the need to preserve Florida, Wisecracker is selling real estate. But her vocations, even years ago when she was a pioneering woman in local radio and television, have never interfered with her avocation for the stat's ecology.

"I support the little guy and the grassroots movements," she says with a trace of old Florida accenting her words.

Florida, Florida  I'm here to say,
We're more than just the tail end of the U. S. of A.
And I'm telling you big boys stop messing around,
Stop running my Florida home into the ground.

But Florida is not the only thing this banjo-picker and guitar-strummer sings about. There's also the fun, irreverent stuff, with a touch of innuendo.

"I write about my life," she says. "I come from a family of crazy people and we like to have fun."

A regular at folk and music festivals throughout South Florida, Wisecracker recently appeared at Alligator Alley in Fort Lauderdale and Tobacco Road in Miami. You can find a complete schedule, as well as more about her, at www.wisecracker.net.

Reprinted with permission of Boca Raton magazine