“I’m 66 now. Between the hurricane season, the weather, and now with the cost of living and the politics in our state and around the country … there’s a growing list of reasons for me to find some new scenery, some new weather.”
Orlando Americana legend Terri Binion is leaving Orlando, headed northwards to Charleston, West Virginia, to try living in a new town, seeing some new sights and being closer to family. And she’s taking a large chunk of Orlando music history with her.
“Charleston is a city in the mountains, so it’s sort of country-city living,” she says in a calm and considered cadence every bit as direct as her lyrics. “I just needed to relocate, get a break from Florida, get somewhere north where I could be in multiple places in short drives, and hopefully continue my career up that way.”
The singer-songwriter has been a comforting and vital presence in Central Florida music since the late 1990s, when she moved here after a buzzworthy tour with the Indigo Girls and critical (and musicianly) hosannas for album Leaving This Town. Since then, she has been a pillar of Orlando music, releasing gorgeous records like Fool in 2002 (complete with Lucinda Williams cameo) and, over a decade later, the triumphant The Day After the Night Before. That latter album, from 2016, was a document of a turbulent time in Binion’s life, where she lost her wife, mother and father all in rapid succession — but from those tragedies she pulled out a masterpiece of musical redemption and hope that still stands today as a watershed moment in Orlando music.
But Binion spent just as much time encouraging and collaborating with younger artists, working with folks like Jordan Foley, one-on-one and as part of her “Duets” songwriters series in 2019 and thereabouts
Her willingness to mentor and boost new artists extends far beyond the folk and Americana circles that she moves in. Binion has been an instructor at Orlando Girls Rock Camp for three years, imparting years of hard-won insight and warmhearted encouragement to the next-next generation of Orlando rockers and folkies.
“I experienced a real pride and a real joy for these kids, knowing that they pushed through any fear of not fitting in or not being able to pick up and start to learn an instrument from scratch,” she remembers. “And in six days, they’re on stage in a venue with a sold-out audience.”
Though there is a small degree of irony in trading living in a red state for living in a slightly redder state, the move makes sense to us. We can see Binion finding fresh inspiration and a new musical family, as she embraces her own familial roots — her family there goes back generations. And West Virginia, after all, is a state that gave the world rockabilly iconoclast Hasil Adkins and legendary bluegrass activist Hazel Dickens. She’s eager to find her new community and talks excitedly of maybe learning a lick or two from bluegrass musicians.
“I do have some connections, and I’m really, really grateful for that,” Binion shares. “I met the folks down at the Folklore Music Exchange in downtown Charleston when I was there in October, and I met some other songwriters and musicians that night. So I’m just going to quickly dive in … and start playing in at least limited situations where people can hear the kind of music that I play.”
If you want to see Binion on an Orlando stage for perhaps the last time for awhile, “Terri Binion’s Not Goodbye Party” at Will’s Pub on Monday is the move. A free show organized by Binion confidant and esteemed singer Kaleigh Baker (“I’m really grateful for a friend like Kaleigh,” Binion gushes), the evening features Binion and Baker joined on stage by a cadre of Orlando singer-songwriters playing Binion’s songs and reveling in the joy of playing music with friends. Serious Last Waltz action, in lieu of a traditional goodbye party.
“Kaleigh was talking to me, and she said, ‘Why don’t we do a night where local songwriters play your songs?’ I just thought that idea was at the deepest level of love and appreciation. It just got to the root of things for me,” says Binion. “We’ve invited about 13 local songwriters to come to Will’s and I’ve handpicked songs for each of these songwriters.”
Binion and Baker will co-host. Each invited musician will perform one song, with Binion following with a mini-set. After that, Binion hints that perhaps everyone will hop on stage for a group send-off.
As the show and moving dates loom ever larger, Binion is feeling every emotion. She’s packing up a lifetime of memories and possessions from her Orlando life. And she’s selling her home. It’s a home where she produced three records, it’s a home she shared with her wife, Tracy Irwin, before Irwin’s untimely passing in 2011, where she prepared for innumerable gigs and passed time with comrades both musical and not. She’s making a clean break and starting a new act.
“It’s overwhelming. I don’t even believe that I’ve felt all of it yet. I think that I’m about to hit some really big walls where I just come face-to-face with my emotions about all of this: my fear, my anxiety, my overwhelming realization about what all I’m leaving behind and who all I’m leaving behind,” says Binion.
“I keep saying to myself, ‘You know what you’re getting into, and so just come as prepared as you can,'” she adds, before revealing her missions: “Just be as fluid and as open as you can possibly be, just be the best person that you can be. Go find what you need to find. Be friendly, open your heart, open your mind. Meet people. Have a place where you have coffee every day. Find the place where you’re just going to sit quietly and have a beer with some locals and begin the conversation and start to look out for where you can be useful in your new community.”
Will’s Pub
1042 N. Mills Ave., Orlando, FL
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This article appears in May 7-13, 2025.