Song Contest Winner and Finishers in the 2027 Will McLean Best New Florida Song Contest

Winner Paul Garfinkel

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

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

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