Editor's note: Our new series, Islander of Interest, will take a look at some of the characters and icons who call the Alabama Gulf Coast home. The first one features Trop Rock legend Brent Burns.

Music has taken Gulf Coast music icon Brent Burns around the world and saw him win numerous “Trop Rock” awards since 2008.

“I’ve played in Australia and all over Europe in France, the Czech Republic and Italy, Scotland, Ireland,” Burns said. “I’ve played all over Europe usually taking my travel groups with me. I’m supposed to be in Greece right this very moment with about 40 or 50 people but it got canceled because of COVID.”

Another larger trip is planned for a river cruise into the heart of Europe coming up next summer.

“The next trip’s going to be down the Danube River next August and there’s about 90 people on that trip,” Burns said. “I take other songwriters and we play a little music every couple of nights and see the world. I love Europe.” Burns said four or five slots are still available for the Danube cruise trip.

But there’s no place he’d rather be since discovering the beauty and music of the Alabama Gulf Coast in the early 1970s and came to play summers at the Holiday Inn on beach road. Burns said it was the only building in town with an elevator at the time. Since then he's played in numerous venues in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach and is a weekly fixture on the stage at LuLu's.

“It’s just a great lifestyle here,” Burns said. “I love it. It’s my home. It’s been a great life and certainly my lifestyle fits my music really well.”

Burns wasn’t an unknown commodity when he moved to the Gulf. In the 70s he was widely recognized for his protest song on the oil industry “Cheaper Crude or No More Food” singing it on the Mike Douglas Show. He was scheduled to sing on the show but after meeting him Douglas decided to interview him as well.

When Paul Harvey played it on his radio show it sold 200,000 copies on one day. He’s had appearances on CNN, Headline News, Hee Haw and Real People with his protest and novelty songs one of which asks “If it’s snowbird season, why can’t we shoot ‘em?”

By the mid-90s Burns, working as a songwriter in Nashville, landed here full time and arrived with a case of writer’s block.

“I started getting that writer’s juice back again and started writing,” Burns said of his move to the Gulf. “Instead of writing for the jukebox and trying to get a hit I decided to start writing about my life down here, living at the beach and stuff like that. The first CD I did was in ’98, “Livin’ the Life.” That was before it was called Trop Rock and there was no name for what we were doing.”

A chance call from a man working on a compilation CD of beach music helped spur his interest in what would eventually become known as Trop Rock.

“There were a few guys doing it and I didn’t know this,” Burns said. “I was aware of Parrot Heads and I was aware of Jimmy Buffett fans vaguely. He hung around here a lot in the 70s and 80s and 90s and we had a lot of mutual friends. Someone called me out of the blue from Chicago and said we’re doing this compilation CD with guys doing beach music and stuff for a benefit.”

That served as an introduction to the developing cottage industry of the Trop Rock genre.

“I had written all these songs on “Livin’ the Life” like “Snowbird Season,” “Too Lazy to Work” and a series of things like Neon tan. He put it on there then he sent me a copy and he started talking to me about these functions these Parrot Heads would have and they’d pay you money to fly or drive somewhere to play.”

And the odyssey of his popularity in the world of beach-themed music began and has hardly slowed since. His 16^th CD is due out by Thanksgiving and a trip to the Meeting of the Minds, the biggest Parrot Head gathering of the year is in early November in Key West. On the drive down, Burns will play a few house concerts on the drive down and play music for five or six days for partying Parrot Heads.”

At the first Margarita Mafia awards show – later to be renamed Trop Rock – Burns won the Album of the Year, Entertainer of the Year and the WAVE award for his charitable work through his music.

Other notable awards from his career include:

• 2012 Trop Rock Music Song and CD of the Year (“Don’t Come Knockin’ If The Tiki Hut’s Rockin’”)

• 2011 Trop Rock Music Entertainer and Songwriter of the Year

• 2010 Trop Rock Music Songwriter of the Year, CD and Song of the Year (“I’ve Got A BEACH In My Backyard”)

• 2008 Trop Rock Music Entertainer of the Year, CD of the Year (“Ragtops and Flip Flops”)

• ​2007 Military Writers Society of America Award for CD of the Year (“Ragtops and Flip Flops”)

• 2006 Named the “Official Music Ambassador of the Alabama Gulf Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau”

• ​2004 DAV National Service Foundation Commendation

• ​2002-2008 Sunny 105.7FM People’s Choice Award as “Favorite Local Musician”