ACMA Songwriters at Koreshan State Park
The Friends of Koreshan State Park have partnered with the ACMA (Americana Community Music Association) to present monthly concerts featuring all-original music by talented local artists.
Bring a chair or blanket and settle in for an evening under the stars. If the weather doesn’t cooperate, the show will be canceled and your tickets will be honored at next month’s performance.
The ACMA, a Fort Myers–based nonprofit, is dedicated to promoting original music by local singer-songwriters. Each showcase features artists sharing their songs, the stories behind them, and a lifetime of experiences— Prepare for an evening of professional-quality acoustic Americana music, which blends blues, roots, folk, bluegrass, and country. Details:
- Tickets: $10 (includes parking) Children under 12 free
- Advance Tickets https://friendsofkoreshan.org/event-6366598/Registration
- Schedule: Gates open at 6:30. Show runs from 7-9pm with 20 minute intermission
Nov. 12 Koreshan State Park Songwriter Showcase
Bill Metts, Kim Mayfield & Chakulla
Bill Metts started singing and playing guitar during the country blues revival of the 1960s and fell in love with the art of finger-style guitar. Shortly after moving to Southwest Florida, he was asked to serve on the board of the nationally known Americana Community Music Association. He began writing songs as a result of being asked to host their weekly Songwriter Circle and for four years did so. He also volunteered for “Hope by Song Inc,” a not-for-profit organization, creating songs from the writings of people dealing with great emotional trauma in order to help them heal through the power inherent in music. He has performed at the prestigious Mississippi John Hurt Blues Festival, the world-famous “Ground Zero” in Clarksdale Mississippi, at the Will McLean Festival in Brooksville, Florida, and in the BMI sponsored Island Hopper Songwriter Festival.
Kim Mayfield is also known as half of the Americana duo ‘Reckless Saints,’ (with husband Roy Schneider) and shared in the songwriting for their first two albums. Mayfield’s song “Ring Around the Moon,” described by a reviewer as “haunted by Patsy Cline,” earned a semi-finalist spot in the 2019 International Songwriting Competition. Reckless Saints were finalists in the 2025 Kerrville New Folk competition.
Chakulla (affectionately known as Grandfather Chakulla) is an individual, expressing his music with an organic grove of worldly rhythm’s, unique guitar cords, catchy and memorable melodies. He sings out with an acoustic guitar using a loop pedal enabling leads, harmonica, marimba, conga’s, percussion, and vocal percussion lines to manifest on the spot and live .
He is best described as the Folk/World/Jazz/Americana artist, and in his 4 decades of writing and playing music Chakulla has shared his music at concert venues seating 60,000 people, and in Clubs, at House concerts, Festivals, TV and radio appearances, and singing out in the streets.
He has shared the stage with Richie Havens, Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, Buddy Miles, Aztec Two step, etc. Chakulla has a profound effect on audiences connecting, including, inspiring, and inviting them to participate and to sing along leaving them with a smile.