One of the most bizarre stories in all of popular music is the history of  Orange Blossom Special,  arguably the century's best-known fiddle tune. The man credited with its ownership, Ervin T. Rouse, endured tragedy, alcoholism and mental illness. He spent his last years fiddling for tips in isolated taverns at the edge of the Everglades, and died all but unknown. The man who claimed co-ownership, Chubby Wise, achieved fame as the seminal fiddler of the bluegrass genre, but struggled to overcome personal demons and to heal the scars of childhood abandonment and abuse. Johnny Cash, the tortured superstar who made the song a mainstream hit, quietly championed Rouse and earned the enmity of Wise. This trio's disparate legacies are here told and forever linked with the legendary diesel steamliner. "Fascinating ... a compelling story told in an artful and human way. The writing reads like the best fiction." -- Gainesville Sun "If you go back and listen to Ervin and Gordon Rouse's original 1939 recording, it's easy to hear Orange Blossom Special's beauty, elegance and power. It bonds the romance of rambling around on trains with the mystique of a far-away land known as Florida. It is pure country music; it is pure Americana." -- Marty Stuart, Grammy-winning musician "A delightful, well-written, engaging and thoroughly researched journey down the Seaboard Line with a great song and its creators, who were too little understood before now. A great book ... would that we saw many more like it in our field." -- Ronnie Pugh, Historian and author, Ernest Tubb: The Texas Troubadour "A mix of mystery and detective work steeped in Florida lore ... It's a story of the tumultuous lifestyles of musicians touched by rocky personal relationships, alcoholism and mental illness." -- Orlando Sentinel "A lively book ... offers a fascinating glimpse into the country music scene during the Great Depression and the early days of bluegrass." -- Fiddler Magazine Orange Blossom Boys  and the updated and revised version,  Fiddler's Curse , were the basis for a 2007 documentary,  The Special: The Story of an American Anthem  (Northern Light Productions), that showed in film festivals and on with PBS and the Ovation cable channel. Randy Noles is a magazine publisher and editor, and the author of three nonfiction books:  Orange Blossom Boys  (Centerstream Publishing, 2002),  Fiddler's Curse , (Centerstream Publishing, 2007) and Rollins After Dark (2019, Story Farm).  Orange Blossom Boys  and  Fiddlers's Curse  formed the basis of a 2008 documentary film that appeared on PBS. He is also an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in dozens (perhaps hundreds) of periodicals. Editor and publisher of  Winter Park Magazine , Noles earned a Master of Liberal Studies degree at Rollins College. Used Book in Good Condition