Songwriters Converge on Amelia Island, April 10-12
By • March 11, 2025 0 179
The northernmost community on Amelia Island — and the northernmost on all of Florida’s Atlantic Coast — is Fernandina Beach (pop. 13,000). Home to eagles, egrets, pelicans, foxes, armadillos, gopher tortoises and sea turtles, in a few weeks Fernandina Beach will attract a flock of migrating songwriters.
Like a weekend in Nashville, but with palm trees and an ocean breeze, the third annual Fernandina Beach Songwriters Festival kicks off on Thursday, April 10, with a sunset sail and goes out with a twang on Saturday, April 12.
“It all began with three friends …” per the festival website: Tammy Rogers King, Sean McCarthy and Zan Maddox.
King, an East Tennessee fiddler who co-founded the Grammy-winning SteelDrivers and has been on the road with Trisha Yearwood, Patty Loveless, Emmylou Harris and Buddy Miller, is married to guitarist Jeff King, who has toured with Brooks and Dunn and Reba McEntire.
McCarthy, a Fernandina Beach native, fronts the Sean McCarthy Band, a “Trop-i-cana” (Trop Rock plus Americana) group that released the album “Last House On The Beach,” recorded at Fernandina Beach’s Key of Sea Studios, in 2019.
Maddox, “the non-musician,” born and raised in Jacksonville, has been visiting Amelia Island since childhood. Co-owner of PJD’s, a craft beer bar with live music, she organizes the annual Historic Downtown Fernandina Beach Black Friday Pajama Party.
Plan to arrive on Thursday for the River Cruise Songwriter Meet and Greet, a sunset ride to Cumberland Island with entertainment by the Sean McCarthy Band.
The Friday schedule runs from noon to 5:30 p.m. in the Pavilion, with sets by Deacon Parks, Mike Geiger & Woody Mullis, Eric Erdman & Rachel Thibodeau and Gary Baker & Leslie Satcher. In the Heymann Williams Office, Michele Anders performs at noon and Troubadour Blue presents Gloria Anderson, Aniston Pate, Elliott Prather and Max Sadler at 2 p.m. At 5:30 p.m., Andria Shinn introduces an “In the Round” session featuring Brad Clawson, Thom Schuyler, Thomm Jutz, Austin Moody, Lize Hengber and Deanna Bryant. Troubadour Blue takes the stage at 9 p.m.
Saturday’s schedule in the Pavilion features Hupp Huppmann at noon, followed by Clawson & Moody, Bryant & Hengber and Schuler & Jutz. Performing in the Heymann Williams Office: Melissa Joiner, Kiera King & Ashlynn Foutz, Sarah Morey & Cassidy Best and, at 4 p.m., Daniel Ethridge, Brenna Wheeler and special guests. At Saturday’s 5:30 p.m. “In the Round,” Shinn introduces Geiger, Mullis, Erdman, Thibodeau, Baker and Satcher. The festival’s big closing event, at 9 p.m., is “Saturday Night Opry.”
Here’s how the website describes the Friday and Saturday night shows: “These intimate gatherings offer a closer glimpse into the lives of the artists, featuring autograph sessions, photo ops and firsthand accounts of their musical journeys.”
In addition to the Hampton Inn & Suites in downtown Fernandina Beach, a festival partner, seven lodging recommendations are listed: Florida House Inn, Barefoot Amelia Beach Rentals, the Amelia Schoolhouse Inn, Hoyt House Bed and Breakfast, the Addison On Amelia, Blue Heron Inn on Amelia Island and Courtyard by Marriott.
Complete information is available here.
