Seafood festival returns

Ottice Amison to reign as King Retsyo

 

This past Sunday, country singer Drew Parker
and his wife Mallory took their 19-month-old daughter out trick-or-treating
back in Nashville.

“My wife got very creative, she got her little
wagon and made it look like a bathtub,” said Parker. “She added bubbles and
made it into a “bubble bath and spa day.”

Parker had dressed up onstage as a sheriff’s
deputy at his concert Saturday night in Sunrise, the last weekend on tour with
Luke Combs. But it was back home with his family on Halloween where Parker’s
costumed heart lay.

“You want something to change your life, go
have a kid,” said the 30-year-old singer-songwriter in a telephone interview
Monday. “Being everything I want to be as a husband, being able to provide for
my family, that’s what I’m changing into now.”

Parker will be the headliner Saturday evening
at the Florida Seafood Festival in Apalachicola, as helps the state’s oldest
maritime festival bounce back after being shut down for the coronavirus last
year, a first for the 58th annual affair.

He’ll be bringing his four-piece band, together
with a drummer, guitar and bass, to the Battery Park stage at 8:30 p.m., part
of a short headlining tour he’s doing in Alabama and Mississippi while he
prepares to go on the road opening for Jaeson Rodgers’ “Cold Beer Calling My
Name” tour.

“We’ve been putting in a lot of hard work,”
Parker said.

Opening for him at 6:30 p.m. will be EMI
Records Nashville’s Kylie Morgan, performing a 90-minute set. And those two top
performers will follow an appearance by Franklin County’s own homegrown Ashley
Carroll, who now performs as the leader of the Ashley Morgan Band. She’ll take
the stage for a one-hour set beginning at about 5 p.m., and deliver a
performance that may remind locals of the tiny Brown Elementary School singer
who once belted out the National Anthem at Veterans Day shows, and who now,
together with her bandmate and fiancé, bass player Adam Carswell, is rocking
the music scene in and around where they live in Montgomery, Alabama.

The only charge for this robust entertainment
will be the $5 admission fee that’s charged everyone over age 12 on Saturday.

On Friday, the festival admission is free,
with the traditional Blessing of the Fleet at 4 p.m. at Riverfront Park setting
the stage for a wholesome homecoming weekend. Miss Florida Seafood Jadyn
Luberto will be joined at opening ceremonies by King Retsyo. Reprising in the
role as king from the last time he served in 2011, Apalachicola seafood dealer
Ottice Amison will be
alongside the queen.

Friday afternoon is traditionally the
festival’s time slot for Christian musical entertainment. This will culminate
at 8:30 p.m. with Dante Bowe taking the stage as headliner.

Saturday, Nov. 6 will begin bright and early
with 7 a.m. registration for the 5K Redfish Run at the front steps of the
Gibson Inn. The runners take off at 8 a.m.

Gates open at 10 a.m., the same time the
parade starts down US 98. The afternoon will feature Blue Crab Races, and the
Oyster Shucking contest, featuring a return by the 2019 winner, Honor Allen,
from Hunt’s Oyster Bar in Panama City, and Oyster Eating contest. (See adjacent
schedule).

Saturday night is sure to offer a night of
top-notch entertainment, as Parker shares the sort of sound that is reminiscent
of the 90s country music that he grew up with. His entertainment roots run deep
in gospel music, which he used to travel around as a kid singing.

“Gospel and country music have a lot in
common, they’re both telling a message,” he said. “They go hand in hand.”

Educated as an X-ray technician, Parker moved
from pizza and beer joints near his hometown, to a publishing deal he signed
four years ago, with RiverHouse/ WarnerChappell.

He is a co-writer on Luke Combs’ debut
platinum record “This Ones For You,” and Jake Owen’s single “Homemade” which
became a #1 last year. Songs like “1,2 Many,” (featuring Brooks & Dunn),
“Forever After All,” “Nothing Like You” and “Lonely One” helped define the
historic start to Combs’ career.

Parker released a stand-alone single in 2016
(“Slow Down Small Town”), and a four-song collection followed in 2018, and then
in 2020, he released “While You’re Gone,” an extended play recording

“You’ll hear songs that I‘ve written, that
I’ve recorded,” he said. “And we’ll throw in cover singles of ‘90s country
music.

“It’s a very high energy show and you’ll
definitely have  a good time,” Parker said. “You’ll forget about all the
craziness in the world. It’s at least 75 minutes that’s worth coming to.”