Growing up in the segregated south, Sylvester enjoyed a childhood filled with beauty and natural wonders that often seemed worlds apart from the gruesome reality on the other side of the property line. “I always tell my kids I was born in paradise because we would take off our shoes and run over that dirt with butterflies and hummingbirds and fruit,” he said with a smile. “Anything that you could've wanted is on that land. She farmed cotton and sugarcane and went to church every Sunday. My Mom and Dad met on that farm. He was a quartet singer and during that time was in an acapella group so I got to hear that gospel voice and the blending of the harmonies. When they added the guitar, that was my first introduction to what guitar sounded like with harmonizing voices. I was hooked on music then, just knowing it and feeling the emotion created by African-Americans when they put Blues and Gospel together during slavery. The whole thing was a survival communication thing.”
