Flora-Bama & Jezebel’s Chill’in legend Larry Strickland was last remaining Boystowne resident
Flora-Bama & Jezebel’s Chill’in legend Larry Strickland was last remaining Boystowne resident
By Fran Thompson
The Flora-Bama nailed the announcement of Boystowne soul survivor Larry Strickland’s passing:
“Strick9 was an avid novelist, one of the ‘Bama’s first sound engineers, and a mainstay in the cast of characters that have defined the unique persona of the Flora-Bama for decades,’’ the ‘Bama staff posted.
Strickland recently passed away of prolonged health complications.
Besides playing keyboards for one of the Bama’s most popular bands ever, Jezebel’s Chill’n, Strickland was mayor of Boystowne before it was developed into the ‘Bama Yacht Club.
An RV Park mostly for wayward musicians, Boystowne was a mass of maybe a dozen campers, broken down vans, tents and the occasional abandoned 5th wheel.
Located on a Flora-Bama owned parcel across from the famous bistro, Boystowne’s initial patriarch was Dennis Arsenault, Captain D in Strickland’s first novel.
Arsenault passed the mayor’s gavel to Strickland when he moved away in the early aughts.
“There was no pay, just headaches from people coming over to complain about this or that. Now I’m the only resident. So, I guess I’m the mayor of myself,’’ Strickland said in an earlier MW profile.
“I think we had 14 people living there when I left,’’ Arsenault said. “It got kind of crazy. But we had a lot of good times, and that included a lot of stuff you probably wouldn’t want to put in the paper.’’
How Strickland came to be the Boystowne lone wolf is a great story in itself.
Hurricane Ivan’s northeast quadrant in Sept. of 2004 destroyed Boystowne, the Flora-Bama, the road from Perdido Pass to the Intracoastal Bridge and many, many homes.
According to Strickland, the wooden porch in front of his camper was still standing after Ivan. Everything else on the parcel was gone.
When John McInnis III rebuilt the Flora-Bama and eventually turned the Boystowne area into the Flora-Bama Yacht Club, he built out the restaurant around that porch and moved Strickland up to a camper behind the Flora-Bama Liquor Store.
“John said as soon as the Yacht Club was up and running, he’d move me back down here,” Strickland said. “He didn’t have to do that. But he is a man of his word. John put his arm around me and said I don’t ever have to worry about moving anywhere.’’
Strickland first made his bones at the Flora-Bama playing keyboards in Jezebel’s Chill’n with Donna Slater and Cathy Pace.
That band traded sets with the genius that was Rusty McHugh and guitar wiz Mike Fincher every weekend afternoon during the early 1990’s. Slater is the last survivor of that magical double bill.
“I always wanted a group called Jezebel and Larry said we gotta have something else like children. So, I added Chill’in,’’ Slater said.
When Strickland left for Defuniak Springs and Pace for Chicago, Slater recruited Jack Robertson to play guitar and Pete Carnley to play bass in the band. Strickland later returned to join Robertson, Pace and Slater for Jezebel’s pre-Ivan duration.
“The thing about that band was that we were very eclectic about our song choices and we entertained ourselves on stage,’’ Slater said. “People in the audience responded to that. We never practiced. We would kid around and say it would screw things up if we did.’’
Strickland also played in Cool Running and played possible/probable ‘Bama gigs in bands with Luther Wamble and Leanne Creswell.
Strickland was always quick to thank then Flora-Bama based writer Chris Warner for his guidance as editor and mentor.
His novels, just like Boystowne circa 1993, are filled with various musicians, artists, bartenders and vagabonds.
The setting for his first was the AL/FLA state line and, while marketed as fiction, it was based on true characters, including Strickland, Arsenault and Bobby Rodriguez (Possum). Lillian’s Pizza and Doc’s Seafood are also mentioned in the book.
“Well, the protagonist is Strick9, which is my nickname. He lives in Boystowne. He is a honky tonk keyboard player at the Flora-Bama, and he’s a private investigator. So, there you have it,’’ Strickland said from a rocking chair in front of his two room cottage directly on Ole River and east of the Yacht Club.
Larry kept a raised bed garden outside and always thought it hilarious that he was able to look across Ole River and wave to the “rich folk’’ on Ono Island.
After stepping back from the stage, Larry worked a few hours a day at the Flora-Bama making sure there was recorded music playing from all three stages when the bars opened at 11 a.m. Up until his death, he wrote just about every day.
Strickland’s writing career started when he penned his memoir, “Tales from the Davenport.’’ He described it as “revealing,” which does not seem to say quite enough about a book full of graphic stories that you just can’t make up.
A graduate of Pensacola High (1969), Strickland said he first played at the Flora-Bama around 1985. Impressed by then majority owner Joe Gilchrist’s love for original music and musicianship, he decided to make playing at the beach dive a priority and, eventually, Boystowne his home base.
“I’d never met a bar owner like Joe before – a guy that encouraged us to play original music,’’ he said. “I thought, wow, this guy is incredible. This is where I want to work, and that’s what I did, thank God.’’
Strickland played his last gig for pay in March of 2018 when he was in a duo, Men of Leisure, with Downtown Larry Brown, who also recently passed.
“What we were doing with Men of Leisure was not what you would call family friendly stuff anyway, and we had no desire to play anything but original music,’’ he said. “Not that there is anything wrong with playing the hits for people. I’ve done it all my life.’’
Strick-9 seemed very much at peace with his life in his later years.
“I don’t have a woman. I don’t have a desire to go anywhere. I’m happy right here doing what I do. John (McInnis) told me I’m not going anywhere. So, all I have to worry about is another hurricane,’’ he said.
“I don’t know if you can write about my stories about him. How do you put some of the stuff in print? You’d have to edit the whole damn thing,’’ Slater said.
“He was a great player. Just a monster talent, and Jezebel’s had ourselves a good run. We had some fun and we were rockin’ back in the day.’’
