In October, Hurricane Michael became the worst storm to ever hit the gulf coast of Florida. The storm brought heart-breaking devastation to the small beach towns of Port St. Joe and Mexico Beach. The destruction in Port St. Joe and Mexico Beach was especially vicious and left the “forgotten coast” looking like a war zone. Houses were leveled, ancient oaks were uprooted, palm trees snapped like twigs.
The ties between country music and this special part of Florida run deep. Many country artists, writers and producers have houses on the Port St. Joe harbor, and Brothers Osborne recorded their most recent CD there and called the record “Port St. Joe”.
Port St. Joe and Mexico Beach have also been the gracious hosts for the last ten years of the popular songwriter festival, Blast On the Bay, which features some of Nashville biggest hitmakers. Hurricane Michael struck just 2 days before the 10th Annual 2018 Blast On The Bay was to start, stopping this year’s festival in it’s tracks.
Now Nashville wants to help. On Tuesday, Nov. 27 at 7 p.m. the writers from Blast On The Bay, along with Go Long Entertainment and BMI, are holding the Hurricane Michael Relief Benefit Show at 3rd & Lindsley, one of Nashville’s premiere nightclubs. There will be performances by roughly 20 of Nashville’s most successful tunesmiths, including Earl Bud Lee, Jesse Rice, Steve Bogard, Danny Myrick, Kent Blazy, Will Rambeaux, Tyler Reeve, Brett Jones, Jerry Salley, Tim Buppert, Wil Nance, Steve Williams, Sherrié Austin, just to name a few. The show will also feature a short set by the Currys, an all-brother group from Port St. Joe, along with Vinyl Radio, Nashville’s favorite retro rockers closing out the night. There will be a small door charge and donations can be made throughout the evening. All proceeds will go directly to those hardest hit in Port St. Joe and Mexico Beach.
Let’s not forget the “forgotten coast”.
