Good morning y'all from sunny Gulf Shores, AL. Well, like MAB said, this Frank Brown International Songwriter Festival IS AMAZING!! Yes. The shows are amazing! Got to see MAB and Jimbeau twice, and they really entertain the audience! While all the other writers here do have some great songs, they tend to just sing their songs. In some cases, the stories and interaction between the artists is what makes their shows entertaining. BUT, the REAL AMAZING thing about this festival is RELATIONSHIPS. ALL of these writers are just plain down to earth guys and gals. And getting to know some of these folks is what this festival is really about for me. And when I get off the open mic stage, and one of those writers comes up and says, "really liked your songs", THAT is success!! And yesterday, when I played MAB, RiDawn and mine's song, "Bored Games", a lady in the audience was talking to MAB and loved the song so much she wanted "buy" a copy of it. So, this morning I e-mailed her an MP3. And of course it was a gift. I also met Ronny McKinley. He spent several years writing with the late great Hank Cochran. AND, he lives in Lake City, FL, about 1 1/2 hours north of me. Real great guy! He asked me for a business card and said we should get together and write.
So, if you want a report on how great specific shows are, or how great a guy one of the writers is, YOU HAVE TO BE HERE. I met Frank Gilligan from a town near Spring, Texas where Justin lives. Bobby Tomberlin grew up in a small town near Montgomery, AL, real close to the small town I grew up in. Darwin Nelson is from Ocean Spring, MS, and is one of the organizers of the Mississippi Songwriter Festival, and asked me to contact him about possibly getting a slot in next years festival. I carried Bill LaBounty's keyboard to the stage for him last night because he was having problems with his back. These are just some of the exciting things you just cannot experience unless you are here!!
phil g.