Donna Green-Townsend
Multimedia Productions
You can listen to all of the Top Ten Songs if you scroll down past the Top Three winners. Winner- Jim Bickerstaff, “Sister Mary” All of the Top Three finalists will be performing their winning song at the Will McLean Music Festival scheduled for March 8th – 10th, 2024 at the Florida Sand Music Ranch … Continue reading Song Contest Winner and Finishers in the 2024 Will McLean Best New Florida Song Contest
(Click on an artist’s link to view and hear a feature about them) Jessie (Townsend) Armstrong The Currys Garrison Doles Willie Green Chris & Red Henry Mike Jurgensen Will McLean Walter Parks Punch Brothers Gamble Rogers Pete Seeger Shana “Banana” Smith Tom Shed Walter Strauss Lee Townsend “Doc” Watson Jesse Winchester The Bills De Lions … Continue reading Artist Features
The late Father of Florida Folk, Will McLean, wanted to save Florida through music. For more than 25 years, a festival named in his honor, has sponsored a song contest to help facilitate McLean’s passion. Each year a winner and two top finishers are selected by a panel of judges and are given the opportunity … Continue reading Archive of the Winners and 2nd and 3rd place finishers of the Will McLean Song Contest Since 1992
To hear all the Top Ten Songs scroll down past the Top Three Winners Singer/songwriter Daniel Childs calls the Florida Gulf Coast home, performing roughly 250 live shows per year. Originally from Tennessee, Childs says he began writing and performing music at a young age, and by 30, he had traveled the breadth of the continental … Continue reading Song Contest Winner and Finishers in the 2023 Will McLean Best New Florida Song Contest
During the 2022 Will McLean Festival, five-year-old Emeline made her first major stage appearance singing the Will McLean song, “Cryin’ Bird.” It’s a song about Florida’s Limpkin, a bird that has disappeared from many areas of the state because of the loss of the apple snails that they depend on. Emeline has loved this song … Continue reading Passing on Will McLean’s legacy to the next generation
To hear all the Top Ten Songs scroll down past the Top Three Winners The winner of the 2022 Will McLean Best New Florida Song Contest is Jim Terry from Napa, CA. The song highlights a dark time in Florida’s history when the 1928 hurricane ravaged the communities surrounding Lake Okeechobee. Terry says, “As a … Continue reading Song Contest Winner and Finishers in the 2022 Will McLean Best New Florida Song Contest
To hear all the Top Ten Songs scroll down past the Top Three Winners Scott Jackson from Summerfield, FL works as a dentist by day and a musician by night and any other free time he has. Jackson is the 2021 winner of the Will McLean Best New Florida Song Contest with the song, “Florida … Continue reading Song Contest Winner and Finishers in the 2021 Will McLean Best New Florida Song Contest
The Currys have been staking their claim within the Americana music scene for years, cutting their teeth in the oyster bars and listening rooms of the Florida Panhandle. Brothers Tommy and Jimmy Curry and cousin Galen Curry have been praised for their “tight-as-a-rubber-band” harmonies and “infectious” songwriting. Their winning song in the 2020 Will McLean … Continue reading 2020 Winner and Finishers of the Will McLean Best New FL Song Contest