St. Augustine Songwriter Festival

Friday, September 23 – Sunday, September 25

The St. Augustine Songwriters Festival provides a unique perspective on the music scene by bringing hit songwriters to historic downtown St. Augustine. In addition to performing their chart-topping hits, songwriters will share testimonies, and offer a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse into their writing processes.

This year’s songwriters include Mac McAnally, a longtime member of Jimmy Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band and a 10-time CMA Musician of the Year award winner (Once in a Lifetime), Grammy Award-winner Casey Beathard, who has written songs for Kenny Chesney, George Strait & Dolly Parton (“There Was Us”), Chris Tompkins (Carrie Underwood’s “Before He Cheats”, Luke Bryan’s “Drunk on You”), Chris DeStefano (Carrie Underwood’s “Good Girl”, Dan + Shay’s “From the Ground Up), Mark Irwin (Alan Jackson’s “Here in the Real World”, Blake Shelton’s “Neon Light”, and many more.

Participating venues include Colonial Oak Music Park, Prohibition Kitchen, St. Augustine Distillery, and Tradewinds Lounge. For an up to date schedule and to learn more about each songwriter and their work, download the Apple/Android App on your mobile device or visit St. Augustine Songwriters Festival.

Mac McAnally

Mac McAnally

Saturday, September 24th at the Colonial Oak Music Park

For his new album, Once in a Lifetime, Mac McAnally is indeed doing something he’s never done before. To reflect the intimacy of his concerts, he arranged most of the material around guitar and percussion – yet he acknowledges that several of its tracks outgrew that simple set-up. And while many of the songs are new, he chose to include a few originals dating back to the early 2000s that seemed like a good fit.

So, with 12 songs pulled from different decades and musical directions, what ultimately ties all these tracks together? Simply put, it is McAnally’s ability to see the silver lining, a perspective he’s carried on his journey from being a shy, small-town kid from Mississippi, to working as a teenage studio musician in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, to becoming one of Nashville’s most respected (and self-effacing) singer-songwriters. Once in a Lifetime captures every aspect of his musical vision.

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