The winner and 2nd and 3rd place finishers in the 2027 Will McLean Best New Florida Song Contest are Paul Garfinkel, Trevor Bystrom and Jamie Granger. All three will perform their winning songs at the 2027 Will McLean Music Festival March 12th – March 14th at the Florida Sand Music Ranch near Brooksville, FL. Let’s meet the musicians:
Paul Garfinkel has been a Florida based singer-songwriter for more than 40 years, taking much of his lyrical and melodic inspiration from the people, places, and history of the Sunshine State. His winning song, Stowe, is about Harriet Beecher Stowe, who spent many winters in Mandarin, Florida (now a part of Jacksonville) on the Saint Johns River. She was an advocate for civil rights and hoped to lure “liberal” thinking northerners to Florida and establish a forward-thinking population sympathetic to people of color. She wrote travel pieces to do that. She also wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin. When she met President Lincoln, it is speculated that he said “So this is the little woman who began this big war.”
Garfinkel, before moving to Deland, FL, lived in Jacksonville for 30 years where he performed as a solo and duo act, releasing his first CD, Good Enough For Me in 1996. That album was named a top ten independent release by WDIY radio and the title cut was arranged and recorded by the Sons of Bacchus a cappella choir at Yale University.
In 1998 Paul teamed up with fellow Floridian Al Scortino to form The Ashley Gang band, that quickly became a popular addition to the regional folk / Americana music scene. The band was selected as a favorite performer by the Folk DJ group at the 2000 International Folk Alliance conference, has released three CDs, and continues to perform around the southeast. Paul has won seven songwriting awards from the Will McLean Foundation, including first place for his song The Creek in 2000. The Creek has also been the subject of a segment on the History Channel UK, used as soundtrack by an Australian videographer, and used as soundtrack for publicity videos for the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic Site in Cross Creek, Florida.
Paul has also been a finalist in the South Florida Folk Festival songwriting contest. He has recorded two additional solo CDs – Songs From Sand Lake, and The Last Good Mile, on Gatorbone Records. Paul continues to write and perform as a solo artist, a duo with his wife, Kay, and in various other configurations, including the full Ashley Gang. In addition to his decades as a performer, Paul produced the “Sundays At Stetson’s” concert series in Jacksonville for ten years, and a new series at Northwest Square in DeLand, where Paul and Kay have lived for the past ten years, and where Paul has been the music coordinator for the DeLand Unitarian Universalist Church. He has been a regular at the Will McLean Festival for 30 years.
2nd Place Finisher Trevor Bystrom- 7 Mile Island
Second Place Finisher Trevor Bystrom from Bradenton, FL is a world music singer/songwriter and producer born and raised on Anna Maria Island, Florida. He wrote his song 7 Mile Island about his grandfather Hugh Holmes. Hugh was born and raised on Anna Maria Island and lived 96 years there. This is where Bystrom’s family comes from and is a big reason for his music taste and background. He says his song, “brings you into the perspective of his grandfather and the life on a small island as it changes over the years.”
Bystrom is known for delivering captivating and eclectic live performances with his soulful vocals and finger-style guitar skills. Drifting from Reggae, Calypso, Bossa Nova, Funk and off into Folk, Americana and Blues, he delivers diverse performances as an intimate solo artist, acoustic rhythmic trio as well as his high energy full band “Rooster Xing” to really bring the sound. He will be performing Sunday Nov 15th at the Florida winter music festival.
3rd Place Finisher Jamie Granger- O Wacissa
Jamie Granger from Miami is a singer-songwriter who has lived in North, South, and even some middle parts of Florida. His song O Wacissa placed third in the contest. Critics write that his songs charm listeners with warm vocals, rich melodies, and poetic vignettes that seem drawn from real life. Granger’s passion for music began when his kindergarten teacher showed up with a ukulele – he’s been hooked ever since. He says it wasn’t until Covid that her began to work seriously on his guitar technique and write and perform his own songs.
On True Hearted Kind, his debut album for Y&T Music (2025), Granger shares a set of winsome tunes that tell stories with both warmth and humor, his words and melodies intertwined with intricately finger-picked acoustic guitar. He says he was inspired by his music heroes John Prine, Leo Kottke, Nick Drake and early Bob Dylan, along with 1920s string bands like Charlie Poole’s North Carolina Ramblers. You can learn more about Granger’s music at: www.jamiegrangermusic.com
4th Place Finisher Bear and Robert- Don’t Feed The Monkeys
5th Place Finisher (Tie) Dale and Lisa Dollar- Florida Cowboy
5th Place Finisher (Tie) Scott Singer- Take a Picture
6th Place Finisher Doug Burns- When It’s Gone It’s Gone
7th Place Finisher Dale and Lisa Dollar- Ichetucknee
8th Place Finisher Bear and Robert- Mighty River
9th Place Finisher Sharon Osuna- The Night the Sunshine Froze
It was well known that Lee could be frequently found on Orange and Lochloosa lakes throwing a shiner net, dipping for grass shrimp, putting out a trot line for catfish, or sniffing out and fishing bream beds. Lee may have spent more time on the lakes than he did on dry land. He was a natural at imitating the calls of the Creek’s wildlife. He loved his birds, critters, and his cat, ‘Possum. When encountering Lee, he was bound to be barefoot, with a mischievous smile and a twinkle in his eye. He was known to some as the Honorary Mayor of Cross Creek.
The first video below features a song made by one of his daughters, Jessie Armstrong, showing photos and videos of her dad and the Creek and the lakes through the years, with the assistance of AI.
This second video shares photos and videos of his life and family through the years.
The winner of the 2026 Will McLean Best New Florida Song Contest is Gainesville songwriter, Daniel Stepp with his original song, All The Way Around. Stepp says he got the idea for the song after reading a book called, Ditch of Dreams written by two of his colleagues- Steven Noll and Stepp’s friend Dave Tegeder. The book told the story of the proposed Cross Florida Barge Canal. “We had some great conversations about it on drives to music shows and I owe this song to him.”
The original plan was to have a barge canal system that would connect the St. Johns River to the Withlacoochee River by way of a much altered Ocklawaha River. In the end the canal system would have saved boats from having to travel for three days around Florida to ship their goods. “Otherwise they had to go all the way around, hence the song title,” says Stepp.
“Like any story of “progress,” economic and industrial gains are sometimes at odds with ecological and human concerns. What would have been a catastrophic ecological disaster for Florida springs, rivers, and potentially the entire aquifer, was shut down in large part because of the activism of Marjorie Harris Carr,” says Stepp.
Now where the barge would have gone is a greenway named after Carr with 70,000 acres and 300 miles of trails for hiking, biking, and a wildlife corridor.
Stepp added, “It struck me that we could be living in a radically different state had the project succeeded and we owe the incredible nature we inhabit to folks who fought to keep it that way. They helped educate the public on the value of what we have and the fragility of our ecosystem.”
His song, All the Way Around also addresses some of the violence that happened in the 1930s during the initial efforts to dig the canal.
“A labor organizer named George Timmerman, who had come to Ocala to institute worker protections, was rounded up and later found crucified to a cypress tree. His lips were sewn shut as a warning to union organizers. I started the song with that event, and closed it with the recognition of Marjorie Harris Carr.”
Stepp points to other great songs about the price of progress such as Woody Guthrie’s Pastures of Plenty, John Prine’s Paradise and Joni Mitchell’s Big Yellow Taxi. “It’s the same tale of what we lose for what we gain. For now at least, it feels like we won this one.”
Stepp says his songwriting draws on influences of folk, traditional country, blues, bluegrass, jazz and the Great American Songbook. In addition to being the current winner, Stepp placed second last year with his song Goodbye Senator. His current projects include the chamber folk group The Wire Birds, an americana group, the Hard Luck Society, and the jazz and blues influenced group the Ramblin’ Mutts. All of Daniel Stepp’s music and most recent project, The Wire Birds Vol. 1, can be found on streaming platforms. The Wire Birds Vol. 2 will be released in early 2026.
2nd Place Finisher Eli Mosley
The second place finisher is Eli Mosley from Mulberry, Florida with his song, Anna Maria. He says the song is about an escape to a tropical island where the sights and sounds take you back to a lost love and a hope of reuniting.
Mosley’s love for performing began when he was six years old. His family took him to the Florida Strawberry Festival where he saw country artist Tracy Byrd perform live. He says that concert changed everything. He watched the connection between Tracy and the crowd and that’s when he knew he wanted to be a country artist.
His father Michael, who helps manage his son’s schedule, says Eli sang in school and church choirs. He learned performance with heart and harmony, connection with people through song, and how to carry himself with confidence on stage. After high school, Eli Mosley took that passion to the next level at Southeastern University where he majored in Music Business and received classical training in performance and an understanding of the music industry.
Michael Mosley says his son wanted to be more than a singer; he wanted to be a professional musician who knew how to sustain a career. During his final year, Eli was accepted into the Contemporary Music Center in Nashville, Tennessee, a hands-on program where students live and work like real artists. “That’s where Eli learned how to write songs, collaborate with other musicians, and perform for live audiences in one of the toughest music cities in the world,” says Michael.
After that experience, Eli joined the United States Marine Corps which he says gave him discipline, focus, and leadership; qualities that define his work ethic. He wrote songs drawn from real-life stories about family, faith, service, and the road that brought him here.
Mosely has produced four studio albums in Nashville. When he’s not on the road, Eli is a ranch foreman. He says he doesn’t sing country music, he lives it.
Third Place Finisher Grant Peeples
Singer Songwriter Grant Peeples is a 7th generation Floridian. He describes himself as a vehement anti-fascist and a militant environmentalist. His third place song is called, State of Things. Peeples says, “This song is a reflection upon the state of things in the state of Florida.”
A self-described “tree-hugger that watches NASCAR,” Grant Peeples has become known for his axe-sharp socio-political tunes, raucous humor and heart-gigging ballads. His 14th album, “A Code to Live By,” was released this past Christmas. He has published three poetry books and a book of short stories. He lives in Tallahassee in a pink house.
Peeple’swebsitesays he is the recipient of the Focus Foundation Award for Creative Excellence, which cited the “humor, compassion and wisdom of his songs,” and their “unflinching social insight and cultural acuity.” He spends most of his time touring and is a regular performer at Will McLean Music Festival, The Woody Guthrie Folk Festival, the 30A Songwriters Festival, and The Florida Folk Festival.
4th Place Finisher Daniel Stepp- Castle for Two
5th Place Finisher Bear and Robert- Don’t Feed the Monkeys on the River
6th Place Finisher Shadric Smith- Fiddles Down in Florida
7th Place Finisher Charles Brown- Zephyrhills
8th Place Finisher Frank Julian and Jordan Cherkinsky- Gypsies of the Sea
9th Place Finisher Kim LeCouteur- Florida Pines
10th Place Finisher James Hawkins- Black Hat Troubadour
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 to perform their winning song at the annual Will McLean Folk Festival . Click on a link below to hear the winning songs and 2nd and 3rd place finishers from the long-running festival.
Congratulations to Sarah McCulloch from Davie, FL on winning the 2025 Will McLean Best new Florida Song Contest for her song, Everglades City 1985.
“I am so honored to have won the contest,” said McCulloch. “It is one of my proudest accomplishments.” She says the song is a tender and gritty tale of love and loss amidst the drug scandals in a small Florida town that time forgot.
“I grew up in the same county as Everglades City, so we were neighbors, just thousands of acres of Everglades between us. I don’t know exactly what it was like to be a Fisherman’s wife but I know what it was like to be a Sawmiller’s daughter watching my father slowly lose his business because of the national park service moving in and limiting land use.
The song is really about the human toll on the family that occurs when the ability to make a living on the land is lost. My father died suddenly in 1996 of a pulmonary embolism and everyone felt that the stress he was under shortened his life. When I sing the line “I’ll find me a job that won’t disappear, then I won’t have to disappear,” I’m singing about my father’s death. I hope the song makes people think too about what they would have done in that situation, “ … .. if a boat and a line and a fish were your way of life.” It’s raw and edgy and might make a few people uncomfortable but it’s real. I know it cause’ I lived it.”
McCulloch will be performing her winning song at the Will McLean Festival scheduled for March 7 – 9th, 2025 at the Florida Sand Music Ranch near Brooksville.
In 2023 McCulloch placed 3rd with the Will McLean Best New Florida Song Contest with “Sugartown” from her widely acclaimed album Sawmiller’s Daughter produced by Jim Bickerstaff (Bickerstaff won the contest in 2024).
She released her newest album, “Driving Me Home” in May of 2024. It is a collection of 12 original songs steeped in folk/country storytelling and is available everywhere music is streamed. In February, 2024 McCulloch was selected as one of the winners of the 2024 South Florida Folk and Acoustic Music Festival’s Singer-Songwriter Competition.
2nd Place Finisher – Daniel Stepp- “Goodbye Senator”
The 2nd place finisher in the 2025 Will McLean Best New Florida Song Contest is Daniel Stepp from Gainesville, FL with a song called, “Goodbye Senator.”
Stepp shared this inspiration for the song. “In 2012 a 3,500 year old cypress tree called The Senator, in Big Tree Park in Longwood, Florida was burned down. The fire was caused by a woman, Sara Banes, lighting a small fire to assist her in smoking crystal meth beneath the tree and (it) quickly grew out of control and destroyed the tree, the 5th oldest tree in the world, and the oldest tree in the US east of the Mississippi River. This song is about the imposition we place on nature, wonder, and awe, through notions of progress and individualism.” Stepp says he’s honored to place in the Will McLean Best New Florida Song Contest and will be participating in the Will McLean Festival as a performer for the first time.
He has been writing songs for a new album with his band, The Wire Birds which will focus exclusively on stories and events in Florida. “As a Florida native I have always been interested in the narrative content in our state and how it’s filled with nature, awe and wonder, tragedy and mythologies of progress and utopianism. Some of the songs will include stories of the North Florida Barge Canal, tourist attractions, carnival shows, sugar cane, immaculate conceptions, insurance fraud, and religious movements.” Stepp’s Instagram link is thewirebirds_gnv.
3rd Place Finisher – Bob Patterson- “A Place In My Heart”
Bob Patterson from St. Augustine is the 3rd place finisher of the 2025 Will McLean Best New Florida Song Contest for, “A Place In My Heart.”
Patterson is no stranger to the contest. In 2019 he placed 1st with a song called “Silver Springs.” In 2005 he placed 3rd with a song called, “Lullabye of the Rivers.” It’s become somewhat of an anthem around the state. More importantly, it’s been used by educators to teach students about the natural history, geography, ecology and the state of health of Florida’s Rivers.
“The idea is if we don’t teach the kids about the environment, we can’t expect them to grow up wanting to protect it,” said Patterson. He hopes to obtain funding to create a DVD that could be used in schools to teach more educators how to utilize music in their science and history classes.
Patterson is the key organizer of a relatively new festival in the St. Augustine Area called “Lullabye of the Rivers.”He was one of the original founders of the Gamble Rogers Folk Festival, and functioned as the event’s Artistic Director for 24 years. In 2011 the Stetson Kennedy Foundation awarded him the ‘Fellow Man and Mother Earth Award’ for his work in actively keeping folk culture alive in Florida.
Patterson was a 2011 first place winner in the North Florida Folk Network song writing contest in the category of Best Florida Song. In 2014 he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Florida Storytelling Association.
He has been a featured performer at the annual Florida Folk Festival at White Springs for more than 45 years and was recently inducted into the St Augustine Music Hall of Fame. In addition to critically acclaimed CDs, Patterson has authored two books, Forgotten Tales of Florida, and, Dorothy. Both books are loaded with Florida folk lore and history and have become very popular in the folk community and beyond.
Jim Bickerstaff says winning the Will McLean song contest is more than an honor, “It is recognition by my peers in a community of fine writers, performers, and humans … a validation of my creative efforts.” He says the late Margaret Longhill, who was instrumental in starting not only the Will McLean Festival, but also the Will McLean Foundation, is the main reason he ever wrote any songs about Florida, “She wore her vision on her sleeve, and she is the person that made room for a Georgia boy in the Florida Folk community. ”
“I first met Margaret Longhill in the early days of WillFest, before we called it that I think,” says Bickerstaff. The first two he attended were at two different venues near Dunnellon, and the following year, Longhill moved it to what was then called the Sertoma Youth Ranch and now called Florida Sand Ranch. He says, “Jim Billie invited me to play with him at the festival, and like everyone who ever came within range of Margaret’s magnetic field, I assumed an orbit and became a thread in the tapestry she was continuously weaving. Margaret had a sizable influence on everyone she met as well as on people who have no idea who she was. She was a purposeful woman and a good soul. I will never forget Sister Mary,” says Bickerstaff.
He says the primary message of his winning song, “Sister Mary,” is that we still have work to do preserving Florida and the rest of the planet for that matter. With Margaret gone, we are left to carry on her vision with art, music, and fighting for balance between development and conservation.” Bridge – What used to be is gone forever, time don’t go back to where it’s been. But as we step into tomorrow, are we going to let this happen once again? The secondary message says Bickerstaff, “A testimony to the fact that Margaret was here and did this thing.” Second VerseSister Mary beckons all the flowers in the field to gather for the Native sonThen they blow like dandelions, scattered to the wind, singing songs of old Florida. He adds, “I think it is important to understand that the planet will shrug us off like a rash once we destroy our ability to survive here. A few hundred thousand years after we become extinct, there will be little sign that we ever existed. Yet, our longevity is largely in our hands if we learn to coexist within the delicate balance that makes this planet inhabitable by humans.” 3rd VerseFloods and raging hurricanes have come and they have goneBut nothing any man can do can keep away the dawn.
Bickerstaff credits the musicians for “Sister Mary” as: Terry Feller – Drums, Bob Wray – Bass, Clayton Ivey – Wurlitzer Piano, Pat Severs – Acoustic Guitar, Johnny B – Dobro, Donny Carpenter – Fiddle, Jim Bickerstaff – Vocals & Acoustic Guitar.
As a four-year house engineer for legendary producer, Johnny Sandlin, Bickerstaff has worked at the top of the music business as an audio engineer for groups such as Widespread Panic, Col. Bruce Hampton & the Aquarium Rescue Unit & The Dixie Dregs on releases by Capricorn Records and Warner Brothers Music. Additional projects and artists include Scott Boyer, Tommy Talton, Chuck Leavell, Butch Trucks, Eddie Hinton, Loretta Lynn, Roger Hawkins, Randall Bramblett, T Lavitz, David Hood, John Hiatt, Ry Cooder, Gladys Knight, Kelvin Holly, Spanky Alford, and others.
As an independent producer and engineer, Bickerstaff has worked with Jupiter Coyote, Chief Jim Billie, Sarah McCulloch, Jeannie Fitchen, Mindy Simmons, Raiford Starke, Joey Errigo, Clyde Walker, Sam Pacetti, Vassar Clements, John McEuen, Bela Fleck, Upsala, and other Indie artists.
As a writer and performer, Bickerstaff has released three albums of his music. He retired from Duke Energy in June, 2023 and has leaned into performing and production full-time again. In 2020 Bickerstaff placed third in the song contest with “Jim Billie, Chief of the Seminole.”
2nd Place Finisher, Amy Carol Webb- “Carry It On”
Amy Carol Webb says as a child she always knew that she wanted to be a musician and a minister when she grew up. Her father was a music teacher and a gospel preacher like his father before him. Her mother was a singer, Bible-school teacher and Mom to the kids of the neighborhood wherever they lived – and they lived a lot of places throughout Oklahoma, and Texas.
“Our house was like growing up in a practice hall as all us kids learned and experimented, what with the four of us singing and playing guitars, drums, trombone, tuba, piano, sax….it was a lovely kind of chaos. Music was breathing to me. Still is,” said Webb.
Upon graduating college with a BSE in Performing Arts, Webb says she set out for a career in marketing, music performance, production and education, in Los Angeles. As a performer and songwriter, she toured the US, Canada, Mexico and Japan, and played from the Kennedy Center to the stages of some of the most hallowed music festivals, universities and conferences.
As an educator Webb has taught music, creative writing, songwriting and life-skills development from the halls of the University of Miami to the cells of maximum security women’s prisons in Florida.
In the realm of Justice Music, Webb is a Charter Fellow of Noel Paul Stookey’s “Music2Life Foundation,” working for justice through music. In 2010 she graduated Summa Cum Laude from seminary at Andover Newton Theological School and was ordained the following year by the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Boca Raton, where she served for three years as a student and intern. Presently, she works as a Board Certified hospice Chaplain and bereavement group facilitator and is Consulting Minister to the River of Grass Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Davie, Florida.
She continues to provide concerts and workshops, and compose and record new music. In 2013 she released her 10th CD, Moments: Music – Mantra – Mystery, a celebration of devotional music from the world’s spiritual traditions as well as new Unitarian Universalist hymns and chants. Her justice anthem, STAND!, debuted at the 2010 Unitarian Universalist Association’s General Assembly with a 150 voice choir and has been taken up by UU congregations and justice champions around the world – along with the call to action Tell Somebody! released at the UUA General Assembly 2012, and the invitation to reverence, On Holy Ground.
Webb says, “I am privileged to travel widely within the acoustic music community and the Unitarian Universalist movement preaching, singing, speaking, facilitating a variety of workshops focused to deepen, strengthen, amplify and edify – including fifteen years of service to SUUSI (Southeast Unitarian Universalist Summer Institute) with four years on the Board. In service to the larger faith community, I regularly speak, sing and teach at interfaith events, welcoming denominations, and also have served on the Board of the Ecumenical Institute at St. Thomas University in Miami.”
Webb is no stranger to the Will McLean Best New Florida Song Contest. In 2002 she placed first with her song Turtle Tears. That same year she also placed third for her song Rivers Roll On. Webb has been a consistent headliner at the Will McLean Music Festival and other music festivals across the state including the Florida Folk Festival, the Gamble Rogers Music Festival and the South Florida Folk and Acoustic Music Festival.
Tie: 3rd Place Finisher, Lis Williamson- “Land of Flowers”
Elisabeth Williamson is a singer-songwriter residing in the Sandhills of her native Florida. She has been performing in Florida for many decades with her husband, Lon, in various groups over the years, The Driftwoods, The Gatorbone Band, Valla Turner Williamson and so many more. She and her husband Lon have recorded and produced more than 75 records of all original Florida folk music for the Florida folk singer-songwriter community which she describes as a deeply fulfilling endeavor. Her song, The Land of Flowers, was inspired by her lifetime of observance of the changing state of the state of Florida as well as a commentary that, “we must remain vigilant to preserve what’s left of her natural beauty.”
Williamson, who has been a player and lead singer in bluegrass bands, country bands, folk trios, madrigals and jazz ensembles has performed in thousands of venues, from festivals to honkytonks, wine bars, churches and barns as well as weddings, christenings, funerals, gourmet restaurants and rodeos around the country. She is active with the Gamble Rogers Music Festival Board. You can catch her performing most often at a variety of venues in the St. Augustine area.
Tie- 3rd Place finisher, Kurt Fortmeyer- “Pelicans“
Kurt Fortmeyer describes himself as a neo-traditional hobo, bluesman, honkytonking folksinger and songwriter. He says he was born in a barn, and raised in a stable environment, or so he might tell an unwitting listener in one of his sillier moments. He lived in North Carolina, California, Hawaii, and Maryland, before starting the first grade in Texas. A long-time lover of music, Fortmeyer joined his first band at the age of thirteen, and started writing songs almost right away. By the age of 19, he was turning into more of a solo singer/songwriter, with the occasional stints in blues, country, and rock bands.
In the 1970s, he hitchhiked coast-to-coast with a guitar and a burlap sack full of clothes. In the 1980s, he met his wife, and mostly came in off the road. With the help of friends, he built the house where his kids grew up in eastern North Carolina. In the 1990s, he and his wife opened a coffeehouse that became a haven for songwriters, and in the early part of this century, they moved to the Nashville area, where they now live in a holler in the hills northwest of town.
Fortmeyer has performed at the world-famous Bluebird Cafe in Nashville for almost 20 years. He has been a featured performer at the North Carolina Museum of History, and The Bluegrass Hall of Fame and Museum in Owensboro, Kentucky. His recordings have been played on radio stations around the world, and are available on most streaming platforms.
He describes his inspiration for writing his song Pelicans, “I was writing a “Coastal Country” kind of song with a producer friend of mine and his artist, when I came up with a line about a pelican. My friend went off on me. “Nobody’s going to sing a song with the word ‘pelican’ in it. It’s a clunky word, and an ugly bird. A seagull is the iconic ocean bird. It has to be a seagull.” I told him “You can find seagulls at the landfill, but if you see pelicans, you know you’re at the coast.” He insisted on a seagull, and since it was for his artist, and they bought my lunch, I relented. On the way home, I started thinking about about it, and his comment stuck in my craw. When I got home, I started working on Pelicans.
4th Through 10th Place Finishers:
4th place- Chad Spikes- “Days Long Gone“
5th place- Chad Spikes- “Ghost of the Suwannee”
Tie 6th place- Cindy Bear and Susan Grandy- “Suwannee River in White Springs”
Tie 6th place- Chad Spikes- “Apalachee Sky”
7th place- David Beede- “The Melrose Song”
8th place- Dale & Lisa Dollar- “Ochlockonee”
9th place- Scott Campbell- “Bloody Buckets Bridge”
To hear all the Top Ten Songs scroll down past the Top Three Winners
Song Contest winner Daniel Childs
Siesta Key
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 United States playing music. The state of Florida had always captured Daniel’s intrigue, and in 2014 he and his wife Norma made it their permanent home, settling in Pinellas County.
In early 2020 Daniel made the decision to quit his day job and pursue playing music full-time. Since that time, he has become a regular performer in Tampa Bay. In 2021, Daniel produced and independently released his first original album, “Escape.” The Florida beach life is heavily reflected in this collection of songs, which is unmistakable in anthems like “Siesta Key” which won first in this year’s song contest (out of 82 entries) and “Sanibel Day which placed eighth.”
“My goal in releasing ‘Escape’ is to provide people with an escape from the stresses of life, because that’s what writing these songs did for me,” Daniel wrote in reference to the project. Whether through his recordings or live performances, Childs’ says the message in his music is of freedom, hope, and a deep love for Florida.
“I wrote “Siesta Key” during a time of intense stress. The job I was working at the time was stressful, and its demanding nature would often leave me unable to feel at ease, even when I went home at night. My only real escape from stress was to explore the beauty of Florida with my wife. When possible, on weekends we would make overnight trips to various places we were interested in. That’s when we discovered the beach town of Siesta Key, and I fell in love with the vibe of the place.
“Siesta Key’ was the first song I completed in that time period, and it’s one of my very favorites to sing. My favorite line in the song is in the second chorus. It says ‘life is crazy, life is short, and life feels wrong… until you find where you belong.’ I think that’s a truth that Siesta Key, Florida helped me realize.”
You can follow Daniel online through Facebook, Instagram, Spotify and his official website at www.danielchildsmusic.com.
Second Place Finisher Chad Spikes
Rosewood
Chad Spikesis a native of Florida whose experience in music is diverse. He has played and performed in bands since the age of 12. He’s spent the last 25 years in American and Bluegrass bands such as Sawgrass Flats and Born Lonesome. He has shared the stage and line-up with national recording acts, performed in various opera roles at FSU, composed and produced the soundtrack for the Emmy Award winning documentary informational film, “Exploration Florida.” Chad says for him music has always been a family affair. Family sing-alongs were a regular feature in his life, exposing him to Doo-Wop, Rock and Roll, Blues, Country, Bluegrass and various other styles of music.
Chad was born and raised in Tallahassee, currently residing in Tampa. His main instruments are guitar and vocal but says he dabbles in mandolin and piano. His second place song in this year’s contest is, “Rosewood.”
“I was inspired to write “Rosewood” to bring this historic event back to light for its 100-year anniversary. I think it’s important we recognize and memorialize those who lost their lives as a result of this horrific tragedy. It’s also important to recognize how far we have come as a nation but not lose sight that we still have a lot of work to do.”
Sarah McCullochis a Country/Americana Singer-Songwriter from Davie, FL. Born in Miami, Sarah was raised in the Big Cypress Swamp in a house her family built with hand milled cypress from her Father’s sawmill. Sarah was homeschooled for most of her formative years and drew songwriting inspiration from her colorful childhood, surrounded by the Seminole Tribe and Florida pioneers.
“My father was a force of nature, he was a pioneer who thought outside the box and was always growing spiritually,” says McCulloch. “He taught me the meaning of hard work and perseverance.”
After living in upstate New York for over a decade McCulloch has returned to her homeland of South Florida.
“Songwriting has been a transformative power for me. It not only helped me heal but transition to a new life. I’m most proud of my Florida songs, “Sugartown,” “Sawmiller’s Daughter” and “29 South.” They were all born out of homesick blues for my home state and have drawn me the most attention . . . . so far. ”
Her album, Sawmiller’s Daughter, produced by Jim Bickerstaff, was entirely written by McCulloch except for, “I’m Just An Old Chunk of Coal” written by legendary outlaw songwriter Billy Joe Shaver. She says it was a labor of love and describes the album as an evocative collection of stories rooted in strength, spirit, and family.
McCulloch’s debut album, Strawberry Moon (2018), gained top recognition as a nominee for Country Album of the Year at the Independent Music Awards in NYC in the Country category, in which McCulloch was the only female artist to be nominated. Her third place song in the this year’s Will McLean Best New Florida Song Contest, Sugartown, was written at a time when she was living in a cold northeastern climate and was really missing home.
“Sugartown is about the small town of Clewiston, Florida on the south rim of Lake Okeechobee. I grew up just south of the area in the Everglades but was bussed in to attend school there. I graduated from Clewiston High School and made wonderful lifelong friends and memories there. Sugarcane is the main industry there and this song is also about the community of farmers and hard workers. It’s about the nostalgia I had for my childhood and the people and places I left behind when I moved away. The song is a taste of small town America.”
“My favorite line is “they’re still raisin’ cane there on Friday night, them Okeechobee boys still looking for a fight.” It’s a great line because it can either be about the big Friday night parties we went to, where it wasn’t unusual for a fight to break out. But more commonly that line is associated with Friday night lights high school football, the rival team of Okeechobee coming to play. I have many fond memories of both the football games and the parties after. It was a great time and that town is full of good, hard working people that I have tremendous respect for.”
You can follow Sarah on Facebook at “Sarah McCulloch Music” or on Instagram @sarahmacsongs or Channel, Facebook (Sarah McCulloch Music), Instagram (@sarahmacsongs) and visit www.sarahmacmusic.com.
4th PL “Thousand Mile Walk” by Tom Lubben, Royal Palm Beach, FLTie 5th PL “I Love The Everglades” by Grant Livingston, Miami, FLTie 5th PL “The Music Has A Home” by Mike Worrall, Tampa, FL and Jane Fallon, Dunedin, FLTie 6th PL “Gainesville” by Edan Archer, Orlando, FLTie 6th PL “Florida’s Brigadoon” by Al Scortino, Sebastian, FL and Paul Garfinkel, DeLand, FL7th PL “Hooked On The Easy Life” by Terry Cassidy, Brooksville, FL8th PL “Sanibel Day” by Daniel Childs, Largo, FL9th “Henry and His Railroad” by Terry Cassidy, Brooksville, FL10th “Freedom” by Paul Smithson, Eustis, FL
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 since she was an infant. She is joined on the Magnolia Stage by her Aunt Jessie Armstrong and a family friend Andy .
Two and a half year old Emeline Floyd joins her Aunt Jessie Armstrong and Uncle Lee Townsend to sing the late Will McLean’s Crying Bird
A favorite Will McLean song is “Cryin’ Bird” about the Florida Limpkin….a bird that has disappeared from many areas of the state because of the loss of the apple snails that they depend on. In this rendition of the song are Emeline Floyd, Jessie Armstrong and Lee Townsend who are helping to keep alive the music of the Father of Florida Folk, Will McLean.
The Florida Limpkin, also known as the “Cryin’ Bird” (Photo by Donna Green-Townsend)
Here are the lyrics to Will McLean’s Cryin’ Bird:
Cryin’ bird, your sad cry
in the night, is a cry of a lost child in fright
Cryin’ bird, are the apple snails gone
from the Wakulla River, from your home
You are sad, soon you’ll fly
far away, from the river you love
where you stay
Cryin’ Bird, as you go
fill the swamp,
with your sweet Limpkin song, Cryin’ Bird
Will McLean wrote hundreds of songs, poems and stories about Florida including, Hold Back the Waters, Seminole, Osceola, The Ballad of the Green Turtle (Conch Island), Tate’s Hell, and many others. Learn more about the Black Hat Troubadour at willmclean.com
To hear all the Top Ten Songs scroll down past the Top Three Winners
1st Place winner Jim Terry
Mercy In The Storm
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 songwriter, one thing that has become increasingly clear to me is that you never know when or how inspiration will arrive in your mental inbox. The inspiration for Mercy in the Storm came from an unusual source for me – from a piece of art in the form of a sculpture.”
Terry and a companion were strolling the grounds of the Storm King Art Center in Hudson Valley, New York. Stacked on a peninsula extending into a lake were two towers of tambourines, perhaps 30’ high and painted white. It was a sculpture by a young New York artist, Allison Janae Hamilton. The sculpture is entitled “The people cried mercy in the storm.” The title is a lyric from a song called “Florida Storm” by Judge Jackson which became popular in 1928 following the Okeechobee Hurricane. That storm killed thousands of people when the levies of Lake Okeechobee breached, and is reported to be the second deadliest hurricane in US history. Terry says, “So many people died that they couldn’t be buried. The few white people who died were properly buried.” Many black migrant workers were buried in mass graves. Terry added,
“As I was contemplating the stack of tambourines, I started thinking about Hurricane Katrina and the similarities between Okeechobee and what happened in New Orleans 77 years later when the levies of Lake Pontchartrain breached. There it was, the inescapable trifecta of systemic racism, climate change and those tambourines representing the role of folk music in building resilience in an oppressed culture. This was subject matter for a song. Allison reminded me in an email that it was a song that inspired the sculpture and now, full circle, the sculpture inspired a song.”
Terry is part of a family band. “It began with a tiny violin presented to my oldest son James, then 3 1⁄2 years old.” It wasn’t long before Jim, a guitarist himself, began playing along with his three sons, teaching them lyrics to popular songs. “Our favorite song was ‘Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road’ which we sang at our first official gig at the UC Alumni Camp Lair of the Bear,” says Terry.
Now, years later, the Terry Family Band is comprised of Jim and sons Clark and Graham (son James lives in Atlanta and sometimes joins the band). The music comes from the complex experiences of life, the country, and the world, while the roots of American folk music are prevalent in their playing style. Clark and Graham are multi-instrumentalists (violin, mandolin, bouzouki, guitar, vocals) while Jim writes the music and handles lead vocals while keeping the rhythm pulsing in the background with his acoustic guitar. Graham toured nationally as the bass player for Tornado Rider, a power rock group featuring Grammy nominated Rushad Eggleston on cello. Graham and Clark are also members of the Bay Area based Indie Folk group Middlesleep. Bass player Rob Wright is a versatile musician with jazz, classical, and deep bluegrass roots having shared the stage with the likes of David Grisman and Tony Rice.
The Terry Family has won 29 West Coast Songwriters (WCS) awards, including the 2018 Napa chapter Song of the Year “Fire in the Wind” and the overall winner of the WCS Song of the Year in the 2019 WCS Grand Finals competition at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley for “The Walls Stand On and On,” a stirring account of the story of Emmett Till. Terry Family’s debut album “Hometown Tragedies” is currently being released and promoted to North American folk radio by Art Menius.
2nd Place Finisher Joshua Reilly
The second place finisher in the 2022 Will McLean Best New Florida Song Contest is Joshua Reilly from Clearwater, Florida. Reilly says he is a songwriter whose music flows seamlessly through and around the edges of the folk, country, and blues genres. Originally from the Midwest, Reilly makes his home in the Tampa Bay Area and continues to write music and showcase his raw delivery and undeniable connection to the spirit of his songs. His song is called, “Gibsonton” written from the perspective of someone who is a part of the carnival community in Gibsonton.
Gibsonton
“Gibsonton is a song that was the product of several different points of inspiration,” says Reilly. “I chose the topic of “Florida” Songs as the theme of an ongoing songwriting group that I facilitate. My wife suggested that I write a song about Gibsonton, FL and its close connection to the circus. I loved the idea.” Before even writing the song, Reilly went on air with WMNF on The Florida Folk Show to promote the event where his group would perform their new “Florida” tunes. The other guest that day was John McEuen of The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Reilly says, “At breakfast, following the program, I spoke with John about my desire to write a song about the circus-folk from Gibsonton. I told him I was having a tough time finding a way to approach the song. He thought for just a moment and said, “Joshua… if you write the song as if you were one of them, I don’t see how you’ll have any trouble at all.”
Here’s how Reilly describes his music, “Every now and then, a song, a voice, a lyric, splits your soul right in two and then proceeds to feed both sides. Raw yet refined, mournful yet optimistic, heartbroken yet inspiring… such is the dichotomy, the paradox, and the musical delivery of Joshua Reilly.” Reilly says he was born, raised, and marinated on the cornfield-lined country roads of central Illinois, and then cultivated, ripened, and baked on the beaches and concrete swamps of Florida.” He says he understands hard times, he knows redemption, and this unfiltered honesty pours out through his music. It’s a slice of life served clever and real.
Reilly has performed around the country, including a national tour in support of his 2017 album Mercy on the Strange. He has opened for acts such as Billy Joe Shaver, Robbie Fulks, and Slaid Cleaves. And while deepening his roots as a family man in Florida, Reilly has become one of the most respected and beloved musical acts in the Tampa Bay area. Reilly’s style and message are all his own. His lyrics and music convey the poignant truth that life can be brutal or grand as we navigate the road ahead and face up to the road behind. As New York Times best selling author Tom Robbins wrote, “Vocally and instrumentally, Joshua Reilly has a delivery like the last train out of Real Town before the android invasion. Clear the tracks!”
3rd Place Finisher Joe Virga
Key West Time (Manny’s Song)
Florida musician, philanthropist, singer/songwriter, and Florida Folk Community Member Joe Virga placed third for his song “Key West Time.” Virga moved to Florida from New York where he had been part of the Greenwich Village Music Scene. He was an accomplished guitarist and singer-songwriter who was known for his passion for helping fellow singer-songwriters attain performance opportunities in the Cup Of Joe Songwriter Stages at the regional Folk Alliance Festivals. His Facebook page is full of tributes attesting to his kindness through the years. Sadly Joe passed away in early December before learning of his placement in the song contest. The photo montage below and video featuring Joe’s song are thanks to Gail Carson. RIP Joe.
