Florida folk music singer Benjamin Dehart helped make the Duchesne Arts Council's first event – “A Night in the Park” – a success last Tuesday night.

Known professionally as “The Cracker Tenor,” Dehart played the auto harp and sang bluegrass with his two brothers at local events and family gatherings as a child. Now he focuses on singing songs about Florida history. His songs come from the heart, with a tenor's flair that's not country, western, folk, or opera, but an eclectic mix of all these elements.

“I don’t play in bars,” Dehart said. “If you play in the bar you are background music. That’s not what I do. I play for people that want to hear me. This size of crowd is the kind of prefer. I enjoy the intimate venues.”

Dehart was raised in a small farming community in Florida and grew up around horses and cattle. Although he later moved on to “the big city,” he never forgot his roots and uses them as inspiration for his music today.

“I’m trying to bring Florida’s cow culture to the West,” Dehart said. “There’s a lot of people coming to hear me and hear other people as well. If you play a house concert, you play a small show, they’re coming there to actually listen. They have heart and I can feel that and it makes me perform better that’s why I really like doing that type of event.”

The term “Florida Cracker” comes from the story about cattle being introduced to the U.S. by Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon in 1521. DeLeon dumped his stock as he fled Florida and after many years the livestock took over the land.

When the first settlers started coming into Florida, they came in two-wheeled ox carts. They used long whips to control their oxen, not by beating the animals, but by the cracking sound the whip made. They later used the same technique on the livestock that were running wild. So native Florida cowboys were known as “crackers.”

“I’m not a country music artist,” Dehart said. “I’m hoping here shortly to do an all-cowboy song CD and it’s going to be eastern and western. There is a difference, but cow culture is cow culture.”

Dehart's trip out West has turned into a mini-western tour thanks to the managerial skills of friend and local resident Cindy Warr. She had approached the Duchesne Beautification Committee about Dehart's talents before the arts council was formed; however, once the fledgling group was founded Dehart was brought on board to headline its first event.

“It’s nice to see this many people,” Warr said. “It would be nice to promote this and be able to get a big crowd out. We should start doing this a lot more and have good family entertainment. It’s not going to cost everybody a lot with our economy like it is.”

As children practiced roping straw steers, vendors gathered to sell baked goods, hot food, and cold drinks to the spectators sitting on their blankets or in lawn chairs under the shade trees.

“This is just so awesome that the community will come out and support something like this,” said Duchesne Beautification Committee and Arts Council member Cheryl Ponath. “This is hometown America. This is really what I think America is all about. It’s just sitting here, enjoying our beautiful sky, our beautiful temperature. This is just wonderful.”

Over 100 people gathered on the lawn at Roy Park as the sun began to set and singer after singer stepped to the microphone. Local singers included Katie Barton Bailer, Becky Mathews, Bruce Duncan, Amy Nelson, Cody Giles, Sherry Lott, Kayleena Farley, Taylor Rowley, Shanna Rowley, Emma Rowley, Matalyn Perry, Jennce Gordon, Hailey Winn, Shalynn Green, and Todd Johnson.

Johnson will headline the next “A Night in the Park” event on Aug. 18.

“This is a great success,” Lott said. “We have a lot of people here. The kids are playing, the music is great, and the entertainment is wonderful. I hope this catches on.”

If you're interested in learning more about DeHart or purchasing one of his three CDs they are available on his Website at www.thecrackertenor.com.