2018 30A Songwriters Festival Recap

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The 30A Songwriters Festival weekend is one of the most magical weekends of the year for us. This is the 8th year we have attended the festival and my husband also plays every year. If you’ve never been, it’s the most fabulous way to spend a weekend in January in one of the most beautiful areas in the country (duh!). If you follow Destin 30A Moms Blog on Instagram, I posted a ton of photos and videos on our Instastories. I hope you enjoyed them! Here’s a quick rundown of our weekend.


On Friday, we spent our evening at The Bay where my husband Chris played with Daphne Willis.

Chris Alvarado

Songwriters Fest

We’ve known Daphne for several years and it was great to watch them play together again. One of my favorite parts of the festival is hearing the stories behind the songs. For example, my husband has written a song called “This I Need You To Know” for our son, Hayden. It’s Chris’s letter to Hayden in case something were to ever happen to him. It’s a song about being a father, a son, and how life comes full circle. I also love to see the relationships between the artists. A lot of the artists play this festival every year and have formed friendships or they know each other from their hometowns. Some of them have even written songs together so it’s always interesting to hear those stories. After Chris and Daphne, we listened to Caroline Spence and Jesse Terry. I think Jesse was my husband’s favorite. He sang a song called “Empty Seat on a Plane” after a conversation with his wife and the picture he painted was simply beautiful. I think one my favorite songs of the weekend was “Softball” by Caroline Spence. It’s all about how much harder we have to work as women and how that battle starts when we’re little girls. The line that stood out to me most was

“You can’t win them all
And they’ll go to strike you out
And say “cheer up it’s only softball”

I’ve been thinking about it since Friday and even as I’m reading the lyrics to write this post, I’m hearing new things I missed the first time around. GO CHECK THIS SONG OUT. All the artists that night were great and I’ll link their websites below so you can check out their music for yourself!

Artists Websites:
Chris Alvarado- www.chrisalvaradolive.com
Daphne Willis- https://www.daphnewillis.com/home
Caroline Spence- www.carolinespencemusic.com
Jesse Terry- www.jesseterrymusic.com/

Saturday and Sunday at the Main Stage were awesome! The weather was totally FREEZING, but there was plenty of coffee and champagne around to warm me up pretty quickly. The headliners were Lee Ann Womack, Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris, North Mississippi All Stars, The Zombies, and Ann Wilson (Heart). I wasn’t super familiar with a lot of the headliners this year, but I was excited to find some new favorites! I love music from the 70s & 80s so I was most excited to see Ann Wilson. That woman put on one heck of a performance! She had a crazy level of energy and she didn’t skip a beat! I hope I’m half as much of a sassy butt kicker as she is one day. The whole crowd was on their feet from the beginning of her performance to the end!Ann Wilson

Artists Websites:
Lee Ann Womack- www.leeannwomack.com/
Steve Earle- outlaw.steveearle.com/
Emmylou Harris- www.emmylouharris.com/
North Mississippi All Stars- www.nmallstars.com/home/
The Zombies- www.thezombiesmusic.com/home
Ann Wilson- www.annwilsonofheart.com/

We finished up the weekend at the Seaside Repertory Theatre. Chris was playing with three women named Sarah Peacock, Tamara Stewart and Jaimee Harris. The Rep is always a great venue to hang out for the night so I was glad he was scheduled to do a show there. Everyone did a great job, but the standout song for me (besides the song Chris wrote for Hayden of course), was a song called “Cool Kids” by Sarah Peacock. It’s a song about how even the cool kids have struggles in their lives. I think it’s a great song not only for kids who are maybe struggling with self-image and not being “popular,” but also adults who need reminding that none of us have it all together. We all know that sometimes social media serves as a highlight reel rather than a true glimpse into people’s real lives, but it’s a nice reminder nonetheless. I mean, I can’t have the only kid who throws down over being given the wrong cookie, right???

Artist Websites:
Sarah Peacock- www.sarahpeacockmusic.com/home/
Chris Alvarado- www.chrisalvaradolive.com
Jaimee Harris- www.jaimeeharris.com/
Tamara Stewart- www.tamarastewartmusic.com/

Songwriters Fest Recap

All in all, it was another fabulous Songwriter’s Festival weekend! If you want to check out the other artists and find out more about the festival, check out their website. I can’t recommend this festival enough so be sure and add it to your Must-Do list for 2019. To follow along on more of my adventures, check out my info in the bio below.

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