Flora-Bama hosts April 17 Joe Gilchrist birthday celebration

Flora-Bama hosts April 17 Joe Gilchrist birthday celebration

The Flora-Bama will host its annual birthday celebration honoring late owner Joe Gilchrist on Friday, April 17 from 3-6 p.m.
in the main bar.
“Help us honor Joe Gilchrist with a special birthday celebration
filled with music, memories and friends. Enjoy live music and food from the Oyster Bar throughout the day. Decorations and refreshments will be set up in the pool room at 10 a.m. and continue into the evening,’’ the Flora-Bama posted.
Gilchrist passed away on May 25, 2022 at age 80. He founded the annual Frank Brown International Songwriting Festival at the venue, and it has endured for more than 40 years.
Gilchrist bought the Flora-Bama from his childhood friends Bubba and Connie Tampary on his birthday in 1978. In the early
days, he borrowed money to pay employees through the winter.
The club’s Friday-afternoon Happy Hour crowd grew when Gilchrist made it a popular place for construction crews to cash
payroll checks. Always a huge supporter of our military personnel, he also ran shuttles for sailors to and from NAS Pensacola.
There was little separation between how Gilchrist ran his business and how he lived his life. He was always about community
service and being fair to everybody. And what separated him from
other music venue owners was his willingness to lose money by paying musicians on slow winter nights.
His best friends were the early musicians – J Hawkins, Kenny
Lambert, Darrel Roberts, the late Jimmy Louis, and he encouraged all of them to play their own songs.
Highly regarded songwriters Gilchrist brought into the Flora-Bama included Jimmy Buffett, John Prine, Dean Dillon, Jimmy Hall, Larry Jon Wilson, Alan Rhody, Red Lane, Hank Cochran, Gatemouth Brown, Wet Willie and Billy Joe Shaver.