The Soul Circus Cowboys, a southern rock band led by Brandon native Billy McKnight, are scheduled to release a single in the coming months that they believe could work as a song promoting the Sunshine State to the rest of the country.

It’s in fact called “Sunshine State” and will be available in the coming months on iTunes, Spotify and CD.

“When you hear it, it’s a really quick hook,” McKnight told Spectrum Bay News 9 at Track Studios in Clearwater. “If you’re cruising south and you get into Florida and it comes on, you’re just going to feel good. You’re going to be like, ‘Ah, we’re in Florida.’ And the song represents it. And it’s going to give you that feel good feeling about what Florida brings to the table.”

The track will also be included on the band’s upcoming fourth CD, “Going Across America.” 

McKnight now lives on Harbor Island in Tampa but did live for a decade in Nashville, where he still regularly visits. But he says there’s nothing like home.

“We wanted to write about Florida (and) how much fun it is to live here. The lifestyle and the “Sunshine State” came to mind,” he says of the tune. 

The album was produced by Spencer Badham, who also serves as studio manager for Clear Track Studios in Clearwater. He’s worked with the band for over three years and says that every song on the upcoming album is “phenomenal.”

“Their songwriting and sound keep evolving, and I think it has just as much potential as any other major record out there on the country scene,” he says.

The band’s sound has been depicted as being part of the alt-country or country-rock genre, but McKnight declares Soul Circus Cowboys are southern rock.

“I love country stories, but I like jamming guitars and big vocals. And so it kind of sets us there more in the band realm, instead of a solo artist that would kind of define country,” he says. ”So southern rock it is.”

The band says that once the single is released they hope to catch the attention of the folks at Visit Florida, the state’s tourism marketing agency. 

Dana Young, Visit Florida’s CEO, was unavailable to comment, but did tell Spectrum Bay News 9 that she thought “Sunshine State” was “a catchy title.”

Visit Florida got into considerable hot water with state lawmakers back in 2016 when it was revealed that they had paid Miami recording artist Pitbull one million dollars in taxpayer funds to promote the state on social media, music videos and live concerts. The uproar resulted in the sacking of the CEO at the time and pressure from then House Speaker Richard Corcoran to kill the agency’s funding (which didn’t ultimately happen). 

Perhaps the most successful tourism song used by a state was the “I Love New York,” ad campaign from the late 1970s.

A state tourism song should not be confused with a state’s official song, which in the case of Florida remains the Stephen Foster penned 1851 song, “The Swanee River (Old Folks at Home).” After objections to its racially insensitive lyrics became a political issue in 2007 (it included the word “darkeys”), there was a push by some lawmakers to have it replaced.

That didn’t happen. Instead, the offensive term was deleted, and the Florida Legislature retained the song in 2008 but also approved what some had hoped to be its replacement, “Where the Skygrass Meets the Sky,” which is now listed as the state’s official “anthem.” (That song was the winner of a statewide contest sponsored by the Florida Music Educators Association to replace “The Swanee River”, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.)

Ahead of this year’s Super Bowl, the Soul Circus Cowboys released a single celebrating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers called “We’re Going to Buc You Up.”        

McKnight said it would be a “dream come true” if somehow “Sunshine State” was adopted as a promotion song for Florida next year at the same time the Bucs were playing “We’re Going to Buc You Up” heading into a run to repeat as Super Bowl champions. 

“It would be a magical year,” he says. “I’ll be over the moon about it.”