Magic is in the space between the songwriters & the back of the room

Magic is in the space between the songwriters & the back of the room

By Fran Thompson
I sat mesmerized the first time I heard “I’ll Be True To You.’’ It was back when the FBISF was held only in the Flora-Bama main room. I didn’t know it was a hit song by the Oak Ridge Boys. But I did get to know the guy who wrote it, Alan Rhody. Fast forward about 35 years and I still love hearing Alan play that song, as he is sure to do while here this year.
I also remember being amazed hearing 60,000 fans singing “Heeeey Baby, I Want To Know, If You’ll Be My Girl’’ while watching a rugby game on TV and wondering if the writer, FBISF regular Bruce Channel, knew it was the official song of South Africa’s national rugby team.
Larry Butler, a Pensacola native and the only person to ever win Grammys as a producer and a songwriter, sing “Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song’’ at FBISF many times – all of them memorable.
Hundreds of artists have covered Wayne Carson’s “The Letter” and “Always on My Mind.” But at FBISF in the early 1990’s, we were able to hear Wayne tell a a tale before launching into those songs. And those tales create bridges to the audience.
FBISF long ago spread its wings, but it still attracts top Nashville songwriters who play mostly in-the-round gigs from Gulf Shores to Pensacola during the first five days and on the Flora-Bama’s three stages for the final week.
Named for a very tough and highly respected Flora-Bama night watchman who worked there until he was 91, the FBISF was first held in 1984 at the Pensacola Saenger Theater as an excuse for founder and Flora-bama owner Joe Gilchrist to celebrate local songwriters, and spend time with his Nashcat songwriting pals. Gilchrist lost well north of $10,000 on the initial venture.
“After that, I figured if I was going to lose that kind of money, I might as well have it at my own place,’’ Joe said.
The festival thrived for 10 years at the Flora-Bama, with 11 nights of non-stop music, each ending with Gilchrist buying a round for the diehards at 2 a.m.
By 1994, most of Nashville’s writers were in on the secret about this event held in one of the world’s most beautiful places, where the audience appreciates the power of the song more than arrangements or star power.
More writers wanted to take part, and director Brucie Glassell was tasked with finding them venues to spread the musical love to surrounding towns.
Most performances include two or three writers trading songs. It is a unique experience to hear a hit song brought to life by the original author. It often imparts a different feeling altogether.
Old school writers such as Sonny Throckmorton, Mickey Newbury, Hank Cochran, Larry Jon Wilson, Freddy Powers, Larry Cordle and Carson gave the fest its Nashville cred, and that led to Jason Aldean, Thompson Square, Tanya Tucker and Jerrod Niemann all coming later.
You might hear a future hit for the first time in public at FBISF. That is what happened with CMA Song of the Year “Murder on Music Row” when Larry Cordle played it at the Barefoot Bar in 1999.
Another personal FBISF musical memory was hearing Kostas trade songs with three ASCAP staff writers at LuLu’s. After two rounds, one of the writers said they were all huge fans of Kostas and asked if the audience minded if they just let him play the rest of the set. What a lack of ego on their part, and what a night for Kostas/Mavericks fans.
FBISF is also a time for our local musicians and songwriters to flex their muscles in front of an actual listening audience.
FBISF now includes a songwriting showcase for teens, guitar and voice seminars and fundraisers for Pensacola Autism and the UWF School of Music.
But the soul of the FBISF will always reside somewhere in the vicinity of the inside stage at the rebuilt Flora-Bama (thank you John McInnis).
That stage, where the magic was first made, was buried in sand after Hurricane Ivan made a direct hit on the Alabama-Florida state line on September 16, 2004.
The Flora-Bama was leveled. But everything that could be saved, including pictures, bras from the rafters, bricks from the outside walls and planks from that stage were salvaged and used as part of the eventual re-build.
The Flora-Bama family, most notably its musicians, played an important role in helping keep our coastal community together during those tough times.
Amazingly, the writers returned and the FBISF was held less than eight weeks after that devastating storm. There were not enough condos open to accommodate the visitors and nobody was paid even travel expenses. But the writers came back. That helped us realize that our community would also come back.
I saw Dean Dillon smoking a cigarette outside of a space in a strip mall north of the Intracoastal Waterway in Gulf Shores that year. The room had been used for a magic show during the tourist season. I told Dean that we all appreciated him making the effort to be there with us. “I couldn’t not come,’’ he said.
Gilchrist, the guy who hashed the idea, died in May of 2022. But until the end, he remained steadfast in his reason for hosting the fest.
“Music makes the world a better place,’’ he often said.