Music has always been a part of Ken Lambert’s life, something he always felt drawn to and something he has never been without.

The Magnolia Springs resident has spent his life penning songs and playing clubs and bars, and

was even the first entertainer booked at the now infamous Flora-Bama Lounge back in 1978 — an impressive claim considering that venue’s musical history.

To Lambert, though, it’s just another step along the journey that brought him “home.”

Lambert grew up in a strict household in rural Georgia, with a father who’d often thump young Ken for humming at the table during dinner, often to no avail, as Ken would begin humming again soon after his father’s scolding.

Lambert’s uncle left his guitar at the house and so around age 12, Lambert began his love affair with the guitar.

“At first, I just started plinking on it, then I learned a few chords,” Lambert said. “It’s always just been part of my everything. Music has always been my outlet.”

Lambert moved to California, getting a job at a bar called the Aloha Star in Hermosa Beach playing popular folk music standards from the time.

“I think I knew 10 songs. I played them over and over again,” Lambert said. “John Henry; Songs by the Brothers Four; Peter, Paul and Mary and of course Bob Dylan. Folk was what the people wanted to hear then.”

Lambert grew tired of California and after not being paid by his boss for some time, stole a work truck and headed out of town. He parked the truck outside the sheriff’s office and walked to the bus station, unsure of his destination, but knowing he wanted something different and exciting.

He made his way to Europe, finding passage on a coal barge to make his way to the continent.

“I was broke, with just enough money to take a train to Paris, and when I got off the train I had just enough money to buy two shots of Cognac,” Lambert said. “I took a few odd jobs, trying to find what money I could.”

After making his way around Europe, he ended up hooking up with a young woman named Anna in Denmark, and they decided to move to Nashville to further Ken’s ambition of making it in the music scene.

The couple found a two bedroom walkup apartment for $50 a month, but eventually got a roommate to help cut down on the expenses — a young, up-and coming musician named Kris Kristofferson.

“Kris and I became good friends,” Lambert said. “We were always out playing at the clubs and hanging  around the same folks, but Kris was always better at promoting himself than I was. He was great at getting folks to show up for his gigs.”

The two eventually had a falling out and Lambert made his way to Atlanta and then eventually to the Gulf Coast he now calls home.

Lambert said in his early days here playing at the Flora-Bama and other clubs, it wasn’t uncommon for him to drink almost a quart of tequila while playing, as many of the customers took joy in buying him shots.

“The bartenders would have to walk back and get the empty shot glasses from behind Ken while he was playing because there weren’t any clean ones left,” Mitch Lattof, a friend of Ken’s for nearly 40 years, said. “Everyone wanted to buy Ken a shot — he was an amazing musician and a personable guy.”

Lambert loved playing the Gulf Coast bars but would get angry if he felt people weren’t really listening to the songs.

“There would be times where I knew folks weren’t really listening, so I’d just say screw this and walk off the stage,” Lambert said. “Good music is meant to be truly listened to, not just something in the background for folks to talk over.”

Lambert continued writing his own songs and even had a few of his songs picked up and played by the likes of Mel Tillis and the band Alabama.

However, the years of drinking and living the “outlaw musician” lifestyle were catching up to Lambert, putting a strain on his marriage and hurting his children.

“I was just a plain, sorry drunk,” Lambert said. “And because I was always drunk, I couldn’t tell that I was making a fool of myself. I was cocky and prideful, but had no reason to be.”

Lambert said his struggles with alcohol and other substances almost pushed him to the point of suicide – he once found himself with the barrel of a gun in his mouth, but couldn’t bring himself to pull the trigger.

One night after he came home from playing the clubs back in 1998, drunk as usual, his wife Cindy told him she’d had enough and was ready to leave him.

It was that moment that Lambert said changed his life forever.

“I knew I was going to lose my wife, lose my family and probably lose my life,” Lambert said. “Face down on that carpet, it was at that moment I knew the only thing that could save me and my marriage — God.”

Lambert said he committed then and there to change his ways, and since that night, he has not had a drop of alcohol.

“All those years in my life, I had a hole in my heart that couldn’t be filled, so I tried everything I could think of to fill it – women, alcohol, drugs,” Lambert said. “But only the Lord could fill that hole, and when I asked him in, I knew I was complete.”

Lambert now travels around the country ministering and singing in prisons, community events and churches. He serves with a nonprofit charity that he and his wife formed in 2005, Son Shine Ministries in Foley.

Both Ken and Cindy devote their days to helping hurting people, mainly those recovering from drug and alcohol abuse, something Ken said he can speak to from a place of knowledge.

“I don’t regret anything I’ve done because if it allows me to share the love of God with these folks, it was meant to build toward something,” Lambert said. “If I can reach out to them and show them I was in the same place they were and now I’m out, I can give them hope and hopefully help bring them to the same loving God who helped save me.”

Lambert said he’s always looking for new ways to help others and share the love of God, and said those wishing to help his ministry or who need him can contact him through the Son Shine website at sonshineministries.blogspot.com.

Lambert said he still plays the clubs every now and then, but doesn’t touch a drop of drink — he just enjoys getting to see the smiles and twinkling eyes of those same cast of characters he’s played for down here for nearly 40 years.