Jimmy Van Meter's last refrain
(Book)

Jimmy Van Meter spent almost thirty years traveling throughout Florida as a prolific singer/songwriter, street-corner busker, and itinerant back-up musician for every Florida music star from Fred Neil, Jerry Jeff Walker, Jimmy Buffett, The Allman Brothers, and Tom Petty. He was an eyewitness to Florida’s musical history of the past fifty years and became unofficially known as Florida’s Balladeer and Florida’s Musical Laureate. He played almost every waterfront bar in the state, traveling up and down the Florida coastlines on his hand-built barge-canal boat, entertaining regulars, rednecks, drunks, and snowbirds with his Florida-based melodies and poetic lyrics. But now, after a terminal diagnosis, he must find a new home for his beloved twelve year-old son. They travel north in his old van, revisiting friends from the past along the way, in a desperate search to find a suitable home for his soon-to-be-orphaned boy. When he arrives back in his hometown of New City, New York, for their final stop, he finds the perfect “replacement dad” in an old, trusted, childhood friend. But the arrangement comes at a cost; a deadly deal with the devil that makes Jimmy question his life. Is someone who has devoted his life to writing poetic song lyrics about the unique Florida lifestyle and landscape really capable of killing someone? An unconventional murder story, filled with music and song from an exuberant Florida of days gone by, a suspicious death, and a thoughtful look at how far parents will go to protect their children.