There are a handful of people whose music feels like it belongs to everyone who hears it, and J. Robert Houghtaling was one of them. Up and down Florida, and far beyond it, he was known and loved as the Florida Fiddler.

We’re sad to share that J. Robert passed away on June 4 in Idaho. He had moved out that way a couple of years back to be closer to family, but he never really stopped being one of us.

A Florida Musician Through and Through

J. Robert was a fourth-generation Floridian, with roots that ran back to a great-grandmother born in rural Florida in the 1870s. He credited that long line of hardworking, hopeful people for his own steady optimism, and you could feel it in the way he carried himself.

He had lived a full and adventurous life before many of us ever met him, working at one time or another as a forestry hand, a cowboy, a farmer, a sailor, a booking agent, a performer, a producer, and a film composer. But it was always music that pulled the whole story together.

A true multi-instrumentalist, he was at home on the fiddle, guitar, mandolin, dobro, banjo, harmonica, ukulele, and even the Trinidadian steel pan. His signature was the “Florida Fiddler Show,” a musical monologue built around a conversation between a boy and his grandfather that opened into a story of Florida history, heritage, and hope.

He Always Made Room for One More

Ask anyone who knew him and they’ll tell you the same thing. J. Robert shared the stage with just about everyone at one time or another, and he loved nothing more than playing with people. Seasoned picker or still finding your first chords, he loved to play with you.

His “10,000 Songs Show,” which he started with friends and kept going for several years, was never really about the spotlight. It was about the circle of people making music together. He carried that same spirit out to Idaho, where he quickly set up a monthly gathering for local musicians and joined a group of cowboy singers who met each week in an old blacksmith’s shop.

A Familiar Face on Local Stages

If you spent time around here, chances are you heard him play. Locally he performed at Margood Park in Goodland, at the Everglades City Seafood Festival, at the Smallwood Store in Chokoloskee, and at the Marco Players Theater, where I was lucky enough to help bring his shows to life on our stage.

Named Marco Island’s Artist of the Year in 2016, he ran Mangrove Music Studios from the home he affectionately called the Mangrove Mansion, tucked among the very mangroves he loved to sing about.

A Reach Far Beyond the Glades

J. Robert’s talent carried him a long way from home. A BMI songwriter, he wrote and scored music heard on national television, including The Big Bang Theory and Madam Secretary, and for Florida films and PBS documentaries such as The Great Florida Cattle Drive and Southwest Florida’s Mangrove Coast.

His song “Florida Fiddler” took first place at the 1994 Will McLean Festival, in a contest judged by the folk legend Pete Seeger. Over the years he shared stages with artists like John McEuen, Chief Jim Billie, Marie Nofsinger, and Raiford Starke, and warmed up crowds for the Charlie Daniels Band, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and Bonnie Raitt. He even represented the U.S. State Department at the World Nomad Games in Kyrgyzstan in 2018.

A Long Goodbye

When J. Robert gathered his friends for a farewell celebration in October 2023, ahead of his move to Idaho with his wife and son, nobody wanted to see him go. The room couldn’t quite hold back the tears. On May 30, 2025, he returned for a reunion show at the Little Bar in Goodland, and for one more night it felt like no time had passed at all. We all hopped it might become a yearly tradition.

For J. Robert sang about an unbroken circle, the idea that the people and places we love stay connected long after the song ends. For the many of us who got to hear him play, that circle holds, and his music stays with us.

Play on, J. Robert.

You may also be interested in Goodland’s Harbor Arts & Music Festival or the story behind the Stan Gober Memorial Bridge.