Florida has been known to have a lot of great bands come out of the state and one of those is country music band “Sawyer Brown”. Founded in Apopka, FL, Sawyer Brown is making their return to the sunshine state with a performance at the Florida Strawberry Festival on March 10th.

The band consists of Mark Miller (lead vocals), Gregg (Hobie) Hubbard (keyboards), Shayne Hill (lead guitarist), Jim Scholten (bass player) and Joe Smyth (drummer). I had the pleasure of interviewing Gregg (Hobie) Hubbard and talked about the longevity of the band and where they are heading to next. Founded in the early 1980’s, this band was discovered by the TV show Star Search in 1983 and ended up winning. Now 35 years later, the band is still together (only 2 member changes) and over twenty studio albums later. The band still enjoys touring and playing together for their fans.

I talked with Hobie about how difficult is it to get their music out there now days and he said, “It’s such a different world in the way that the entire business was first set up when we first started. In terms of getting it on the radio, that’s a whole other world. But that is not what our focus is on. When we find a group of songs we feel strong about, we get in there and play it, and then put it out there. More and more in the music business is independently made music, I think is really the wave of the future. Look at how much great stuff is out there now that comes to us that way. One of the great advantages and benefits of the internet is that you can find the music, you can find people that way, which is a wonderful thing. You can in one day through social media reach more people than you could have in forever, back in the early days. Because you had to rely on getting an interview with a newspaper or magazine, or whatever and hoping that people were gonna see that particular article. Where now you can self promote all day long and it is free!”

Sawyer Brown, as I mentioned earlier is playing the Florida Strawberry Festival, which is special for Hobie and Mark since Florida is their home state and where they grew up. He said, “We will have a lot of folks there that we know, but the show is always about having a good time. That you get out there and have a blast, we want there to be a reason why you come see us live versus just listening to a record. I think to know us, you really do need to come see us, and hopefully you don’t have to sit down the whole time either. We’ve performed there before, we know you can cut it loose at the Strawberry Fest. So, we’re looking forward to coming back.”

Hobie also tells me that the stage show has always been a really energetic thing from the first day they ever started playing. He said, “That’s just kind of what happens when we get together and play. So, it continues to make the shows fun and I think that’s one of those things that drawns the people to come see us live for that hour and a half, forget about whatever else maybe going on and just enjoy yourself.”

With having 23 studio albums, the songs that they chose to play are somewhat endless so I asked Hobie how are they able to choose what songs to perform. He tells me, “We we’re fortunate that there’s a bunch of songs that we literally couldn’t get out of there without playing. People definitely want to hear those songs. I go to live music all the time, and when I go see an act, that is what I want to hear, the songs that got them where they are today. I’ve never been one who buys into when somebody on stage goes, ‘Well, I don’t want to play this anymore because you know, I’ve played it for years, or whatever.’ It’s like, hey man, the reason we’re here is because we love those songs so, were definitely believers. We know why you’re there. So those are the songs that we’re grateful that you still want to hear, so we’ll play those all day long! The crowd is who that time belongs to. That’s who this is about. It’s making sure that they’ve had a good time at the end of all of this and it’s not something we take lightly. It’s whoever is been willing to buy a record or listen to something or care about the songs and come see us live. That’s a huge thing in my book. People have other things that they can do and I also know that for me as a music listener myself, I know when I’ve got songs that mean a whole lot to me. And I know what that’s like to get to go see people play those songs live. It’s hard for me to translate that on the other side of things people bring with them to us, but it’s humbling and keeps us working hard.”

And as far as picking songs for an album, Hobie tells me, “There is no science to it, but from the beginning we have had a knack for listening to songs and whether it’s the one that we’ve written, or one that friends have written that we’ve found and just being able to know this is gonna work for us. And once you get several songs, it’s like will these work well together as a unit once you put it out there on a record? Because I’m still something of a dinosaur when it comes to music, that I do tend to buy full albums. Because I can’t count the number of times the songs I ended up loving the most weren’t the reason that I bought the album. There is something about buying an entire record and listening through. Because I think for most people, there’s a lot of thought that’s been put into all of their songs. So you know, you may discover something you didn’t even know was there.”

Some of Hobie’s favorite songs to perform live are, “Some Girls Do” and “The Dirt Road.” He said, “Mark and I wrote that, we both could tell you we hear our family’s in it and it’s incredibly gratifying over the years for other people that go, ‘Oh man, I hear my dad or grandfather, or my family in that song,’ which is awesome. There’s all sorts of little moments when you can watch people respond to a song, that never stops being cool.”

Hobie tells me the band’s biggest accomplishment is, “That we are still here, and still being together, and still loving what we do. We all still get along and we laugh a lot. I dare you to find a band that laughs more. It’s truly like traveling with a bus full of your brothers.” Making music is their biggest goal and he says, “We’re working on some new stuff. It’s like you want this stuff to be as strong as anything we’ve ever done. And it gets out there and finds a home and that people can still connect with it.

Don’t miss Sawyer Brown at the Florida Strawberry Festival on Sat March 10th at 3:30pm, it should be a great and entertaining show!