LAKELAND BOY MAKES GOOD

Congratulations to Lakeland native David Macias, who won the Grammy award Sunday in the catagory of Best Traditional Folk Album as co-producer of the compilation album Beautiful Dreamer: The Songs of Stephen Foster.

Mr. Macias is a graduate of Lakeland High School (Dreadnaughts keep on winning!), and founded his company, Emergent Music Marketing, four years ago in Nashville to distribute, promote, and handle other tasks for independent labels and musicians.

Regardless of the fact that his catagory was relegated to the afternoon pre-broadcast session, it's always a huge accomplishment when your work is honoured in such a way by your peers.

His next project, scheduled for release next year, is a 50 song history of America in music and is called --- what else --- Song of America. The project is the idea of former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, who is from Miami.