Sam Glass is back, focused and hosting March 2 Pardi-Gras on Innerarity Point

By Fran Thompson
Coordinator Sam Glass and a talented line-up of musicians will highlight the fourth rendition of Glass’s Perdido Key Pardi-Gras Festival, a free event, scheduled on Saturday, March 2 from noon ‘til 9 p.m. at The Point Restaurant (14340 Innerarity Point Rd.).
The affable musician, a presence on the Gulf Coast music scene since first stepping on stage at the Flora-Bama back in 1991, has also hosted Pardi-Gras at Hub Stacy’s and the Villagio Shopping Center.
Festivities on March 2 also include a pirate themed costume contest, arts & crafts, door prizes and a raffle.
“Those nice oak trees hanging over that courtyard and stage will give us a really nice atmosphere. It is pirate themed, but we hope folks will come in all kinds of mardi gras attire,’’ Glass said.
“I try to do around four parties every year in different locations, and this one is set up nice,’’ he added. “We are lining up sponsors to help pay the musicians, but it’s something I do for the love of it.’’
A Texas native with multiple forays to Nashville behind him, Glass first stepped foot on Perdido Key sand back in 1991, arriving from Music City with a good friend with access to a family condo at Sea Spray.
“I think it was Mullet Toss or Memorial Weekend,’’ Glass said. “I immediately fell in love with the place. I was up in Nashville chasing it around. I was getting attention, but I kept hitting brick walls. Somebody ended up pissing me off when I got back, and I just jumped over the wall and came down here.’’
A few years later, armed with a box of new songs from his own experiences as well as tunes penned by legendary Flora-Bama possible/probables such as Larry T. Wilson, John Joiner and Rusty McHugh, Glass returned to Nashville for more dream chasing.
He secured multiple slots on TNN Music City Tonight and had little trouble finding gigs. But he never was able to scale that Nashville wall.
“Every time I had things rolling good, there would be a setback,’’ he said. “Not to lay blame on anybody but myself or dwell on it, but I was never able to put a team together that would include folks to handle finance, management, promotion. I don’t want to point fingers. I was probably the weakest link going into that machine.
“I just don’t have a lot of faith in Nashville,’’ he added. “I went through one lawsuit and had four good record deals fall apart up there.’’
After coming back on Perdido Key, Glass, like the rest of us, survived a real estate bust in 2008 and the Deep Water Horizon oil spill two years later.
But with his marriage ended and his parents health deteriorating, he headed home to Texas with plans to at least consider living a life void of guitar strings.
“I have family that was looking after my parents, but I had been delinquent for many years,’’ Glass said. “I didn’t play much music for about a year. It was like I took an etch-a-sketch to my life and turned everything upside down. I didn’t know if I was going to close the book on music or not.”
Soon enough, Glass found himself accepting a few gigs, ostensibly just to keep his chops up. He also realized that he had left home, not returned home.
“I always compare where I am to where I’ve been. If where you are doesn’t beat the place you’ve been, then you are homesick. I’ve been a lot of places and Perdido Key still feels like Paradise to me,’’ he said.
Glass will play most of the songs on an album he cut but never released at Parti-Gras. The album, Midnight Fire, includes only his own songs and is set to see daylight this spring. His current bandmates include James Daniel on lead guitar, Augie Savage on keyboards, David Cote on drums and Buck Goodrum on bass.
“They know the songs, and the only thing missing from the CD is the horn section,’’ Glass said. “The Pardi-Gras set will basically be a debut of the CD. I am looking forward to that.’’
Glass said he realizes that his lifestyle decisions and personal issues, unlike the country music cliche, were foil for his craft. But he is now looking in only one direction – forward.
“My midlife crisis is officially over,’’ he said. “I was not in a good place when I left for Texas. But I got away, recycled and I’m coming back with a new outlook on life.
“The way I see it, it’s like getting a chance to start over, but this time I have a better head on my shoulders.’’
Glass made that statement with a nod to the fact that the hair on that head is now silver.
“Yeah, people say I sound like Sam Glass, but I don’t look like him,’’ he said.
Glass has been slowly building back his local fan base and is back in the Flora-Bama rotation beginning next month.
“I still have ambition to be a star,’’ he said. “I always kind of wanted that. But it has never been more clear to me.
“I maybe have not had a lot of good luck, but I am also aware that my partying habits have played a huge factor in that. Until I started trying to pursue other interests, I didn’t realize how deep the love I still had for music was.”
Glass, motivated by a drive to make good music that he was only able to find by stepping away, hopes to find gigs that will support a full band.
“I have ambition and motivation running through my body right now that I never really had before,’’ he said. “The beach life is in me. I’ll be in flipflops onstage for a long time.’’
Parti-Gras sponsors include: Perdido Key Chamber of Commerce, The Original Point, Containers Inc., Perdido Pack & Ship, Splash Resort Wear, Flora-Bama Lounge, Butch’s Bistro, Lillian’s Pizza, Sandy Roots Productions, Gulf Coast Peoples Choice, Joe Gilchrist / Mickey Newbury Gathering.

Pictured: Parti-Gras coordinator Sam Glass with Kathleen Browning and Original Point Restaurant owner Crissi Waller.