This is a story about a brainy guy in a cowboy hat who plays hard rock, soft love songs, ballads, blues, white gospel, black gospel, medium-weight metal and all sorts of other music, from Afrobeat to zydeco, from Aerosmith to ZZ Top.

And yet he’s not a moody, egomaniacal, self-absorbed exhibitionist. He’s not even a pampered super star, although there are fans who would follow him almost anywhere.

Lucky for us, we don’t have to go far to see, hear and appreciate the raw talent of a man called Raiford Starke, a stage name dreamed up mostly as a joke. (More about his names a bit later.)

Starke also plays often at the Seminole Casino and has a long, close relationship with a lot of the Seminoles. He met and became musical director for Native American singer/songwriter and Seminole Tribal Chairman, Chief Jim Billie. The Seminole chief’s influence on Starke was seminal.

A song Starke and a friend wrote is emblematic of that. It’s called “Girl From Immokalee,” a tune that sticks in your head after you hear it once and you can’t escape it unless you have an Ambien night. And you really don’t want to.