For Steve Plummer, Galveston is more than the Island where he was born. It’s a rhythm he has carried across decades and state lines - the Gulf against the shore, the rumble of the ferry, and the steady presence of the Seawall. 

Those memories now find expression in “BOI - Seawall Strong,” a song honoring the city that shaped him and the generations that refused to let catastrophe define it. 

 “BOI” - Born on the Island - is both a declaration and an identity. Born at St. Mary’s Hospital in 1952, Plummer lived in Galveston until he entered the United States Air Force in 1971. 

 Although his military service and career eventually took him to West Texas, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Florida, the Island remained home. 

 “Residence and belonging are not always the same thing,” he said. “Galveston is still part of my identity, my family history and my memories.” 

 Plummer grew up in the East End on Barracuda near Lindale Park, where his parents owned one of the neighborhood’s first homes. It was the kind of childhood built around bicycles and freedom. 

 He rode to Sacred Heart School and, with his friends, pedaled to the ferry landing, parked their bicycles on the Galveston side, and rode the ferry back and forth for hours. 

 “Those were simple things,” he said, “but they are some of the memories that stay with me the most.” 

 The water was everywhere. He surfed at 25th Street on his first board, made by Surfboards by Johnny, and often rode to the shop to watch the process of shaping a surfboard from start to finish. 

 The beach, the Seawall, and the Gulf were not special destinations; they were part of everyday life. So was music. 

 Plummer’s mother, an accomplished pianist, was his earliest musical influence. She died of cancer while he was in the seventh grade, a loss that profoundly affected him. 

 He spent considerable time with his grandparents on 19th Street, carrying both his grief and the musical inheritance his mother had given him. 

 

 By his teenage years, Plummer was the drummer for The Illusions, one of the young Galveston bands performing around the Island in 1965 and 1966. Their circuit included Kirwin High dances, concerts at Menard Park, UTMB fraternity parties, the Blessing of the Shrimp Fleet, and other teen events. 

 One performance remains especially vivid: Splash Day, when The Illusions played on a float rolling along the Seawall. 

 “For a teenage musician from Galveston, that was a big deal,” Plummer said. “The crowd, the Gulf, the music and the energy of the Island all came together in one experience.” 

 The band also gave him his first songwriting credit. Plummer and Peter “Peewee” Sapio collaborated on the instrumental “Drums au Go Go,” which became the B-side of The Illusions’ release “Lovingly Yours.” 

 Seeing something he helped create become part of a record was unforgettable, he said, and planted a seed that remained with him for decades. 

 Plummer left Galveston in 1971 to enter the Air Force but continued playing music. While living in Myrtle Beach in 1978, he performed with several country bands. 

 He also recalls occasionally playing on Sunday nights with Jeff Cook when Cook was not performing at the Bowery. Cook, a guitarist and fiddler, was a founding member of the country band Alabama, which was still several years away from national stardom. 

 According to Plummer, when Cook’s group needed a drummer, Cook asked whether he could join them. Plummer had recently reenlisted in the Air Force and could not simply walk away from his military commitment, although he tried to find a way. 

 

 Later, while in San Angelo, he was invited to join Alabama’s stage crew during the group’s first tour. By then, however, he was beginning his career in private-club management at the San Angelo Country Club and declined. 

 They were extraordinary crossroads. Music might have taken him one way; club management took him another. Plummer spent roughly 40 years managing private clubs and country clubs and has never regretted the career he chose. 

 But music never left. Retirement gave him time to return more fully to songwriting and unite music with the Galveston memories that had followed him throughout his life. 

 He now has 14 songs on his YouTube playlist, including “BOI - Seawall Strong” and his newest composition, “A City on Stilts.” 

 “BOI - Seawall Strong” began not with a lyric or melody but with an idea. As Plummer grew older, he began thinking less about Galveston merely as the setting of his childhood and more about what the Island and its people had endured. 

 The Seawall became his central image - a physical structure built after tragedy, but also a symbol of the generations that rebuilt Galveston and carried it forward. 

 “I wanted it to sound like Galveston,” he said, “and, more importantly, to feel like Galveston.” 

 Plummer spent the most time refining the lyrics. Once the words said what he wanted them to say, he wrote the melody and chords and recorded the song in his home studio on acoustic guitar. 

 He then used the artificial-intelligence music platform Suno as the band for the finished recording. The technology was new, but his priorities were traditional: the story and songwriting came first. 

 When Plummer shared the song in BOI Facebook groups, the response surprised him. The encouraging comments showed that the song was connecting with people who understood the places, memories, and emotions behind it. 

 At its emotional center is the line, “We come from people who didn’t run.” Plummer said the words do not mean Galvestonians were never frightened or that no one ever left. 

 They mean that when disaster came, people remained connected to the Island, returned, rebuilt, and refused to let the storm have the final word. 

 That history is also personal. Through research conducted by his wife, the family historian, Plummer learned more about his great-great-uncle, Captain William Henry Plummer, who reportedly participated in rescue efforts during the 1900 Storm and received a gold medal for bravery. 

 “When you learn that someone in your own family was involved in rescue efforts, history stops being just dates and facts,” Plummer said. “You begin thinking about real people making decisions in terrifying circumstances.” 

 His wife’s research strengthened his desire to preserve Galveston history through music. His newest song, “A City on Stilts,” was inspired by the book of the same name, which he purchased several years ago at Murdoch’s. 

 It tells the story of the 1900 Storm and the enormous rebuilding effort that followed, including the raising of Galveston and construction of the Seawall. 

 Plummer hopes “Seawall Strong” can grow beyond one song into a broader community identity supporting historical education, civic events, tourism, local partnerships, nonprofit work, and heritage projects. 

 For Galvestonians, he hopes the music creates recognition. For those who have never visited, he hopes it reveals a city that is far more than beaches and tourism - a community shaped by loss, faith, work, and renewal. 

 The message, like the Seawall itself, is meant to endure: “Built from a Storm. Strengthened by Generations.” 

 Readers can hear Plummer’s music - including “BOI - Seawall Strong” and “A City on Stilts” - on his YouTube channel at youtube.com/@steveplummer3945.