The flood in the Texas Hill Country over July 4 weekend last summer had a profound effect on the Texas music community. Josh Abbott — a staple of the Lone Star State for 20 years as frontman of the Josh Abbott Band and a member of the supergroup the Panhandlers — was particularly struck by how helpless he felt in the moment. Over time, however, he found the resolve to pay tribute to the 27 campers and counselors who died at Camp Mystic, a girls’ summer camp along the Guadalupe River.
Abbott did it the best way he knows how: in song.
This week, Abbott released “27 Little Butterflies” and an accompanying video. The song finds him going solo and acoustic to deliver a heart-wrenching song about young lives cut short.
“I knew I was going to write something for those girls and their families at some point, but I didn’t want to force it,” Abbott tells Rolling Stone. “On February 13th, it just came to me, line by line effortlessly following each other. I didn’t want to write it from a commercial lens. This song didn’t need to be the cliche hooky 3-chorus style format.”
Abbott, who with the Josh Abbott Band has three gold-certified singles, including a duet with Kacey Musgraves, had a handful of personal connections to the tragedy. Most, like his fraternity brother from college whose daughter attended the camp and survived the flood, were common across the Texas music community, but one stood out for him.
The Abbotts are close with the family of Mary Barrett Stevens, who died in the flood. She was only 8. Abbott’s daughter, Emery, and Mary Barrett had been best friends, and the Abbotts inquired about sending Emery to Camp Mystic when they learned that Mary Barrett would be attending. However, Emery did not meet the camp’s school-year requirements.
When Abbott heard the news of the flood, he spent the morning of July 4 frantically trying to find information about his daughter’s friend.
“Every hour with no response felt darker,” he says. “When I finally got the news, I cried in a way I hadn’t in a long, long time. This sweet girl had such a joy and glow to her. A little girl we loved, held, swam with, and watched grow up with our own daughter. Her absence will never escape us.”
Abbott set the release date for “27 Little Butterflies” as a tribute to Mary Barrett. Her nickname had been “May” and the 27th was chosen in honor of all the girls lost at Camp Mystic.
Abbott will donate all proceeds from “27 Little Butterflies” to the San Antonio-based charity Heaven’s 27, which serves as a collective for people wishing to donate to the families of those lost in the tragedy. In the wake of the flood, a series of benefit concerts were organized around Texas. Abbott held one he called “Deep in the Heart” and directed proceeds to Heaven’s 27. The event raised more than $1.2 million for the charity.
“I consider that possibly my biggest accomplishment,” Abbott says.
Josh Crutchmer is a journalist and author whose book (Almost) Almost Famous is available now via Back Lounge Publishing.
