LYRICS: HONEY AND THE OPEN SHORE

Down a long dirt road in North Walton County
Where the barns lean low and the nights get lonely
There’s a screen-door girl with a sunburn smile
Name’s Honey, raised on faith and trial
She’d work all week just to feel that breeze
Salt in the air, sand on her knees
But a hand-painted sign and a cold front gate
Said “Private Beach” like it was fate
She said, “That beach don’t belong to you
It was here long before those gulfview blues”

So Honey headed south where the white sand shines
Ran into money with beachfront lines
They said, “Turn around, girl, you don’t belong”
But she stood her ground, said, “Y’all got it wrong”
That sun don’t care who’s rich or poor
And the tide rolls in for us all, for sure
Yeah, Honey learned that day on the shore
Freedom’s worth fighting for

News trucks rolled in with the evening heat
Talking rights and laws and salty streets
Who owns the sand, who owns the Gulf
And where does a farm girl get to be
They laughed her off in pressed white suits
Called her trouble in worn-out boots
But word got round from DeFuniak to the bay
How they talked to her like she was in the way
She said, “I might be young, I might be new
But I know what’s right, and so do you”

So Honey headed south where the white sand shines
Ran into money with beachfront lines
They said, “Turn around, girl, you don’t belong”
But she stood her ground, said, “Y’all got it wrong”
That sun don’t care who’s rich or poor
And the tide rolls in for us all, for sure
Yeah, Honey learned that day on the shore
Freedom’s worth fighting for

When she threw her name in the courthouse ring
Youngest woman runnin’ for anything
They said, “Honey, child, you’re in too deep
That seat’s been bought, and it ain’t cheap”
But the farmers, fishers, teachers too
Remembered what she’d been put through
Election night, the numbers flew
Like a storm tide breaking through
Yeah, Honey headed straight through the old back lines
Beat a crooked man with developer ties

County stood tall, every voice was heard
She spoke plain truth, every honest word
That land and water, sand and sky
Ain’t for sale to the highest buy
From courthouse steps to the open door
Honey was fighting for
From commissioner’s desk to Tallahassee halls
She never forgot those locked-up walls
When she raised her hand and took that oath
She carried every one of us close
Now the signs came down, the gates swung wide
Kids chasing waves with nowhere to hide
Governor Honey, sun overhead
Changed those laws like she always said
Barefoot freedom, salt-stung air
The beach is ours ‘cause it’s always been there

Yeah, Honey showed us what one heart can do
When the powerful say “no,” and you say “truth”
From North Walton farms to the emerald shore
She turned a closed gate into an open door
That sun still shines on rich and poor

And the tide still rolls like it did before
If you ask who the beach is for
They’ll say, “All of us”—
Thanks to Honey, and the open shore