It was only 5:30 p.m. in Nashville and fans were setting up lawn chairs and spreading out blankets to catch the first glimpse of the concert season for whom many call “The Mayor of Margaritaville,” yet the concert didn’t start until 8:00 p.m.
He’s 55 years old and only works about 40 days a year.
He seldom wears shoes to work, relies heavily on life experiences for his occupation and sells out most of his concerts within a two hour period.
You may only know him from his hit “Margaritaville” that’s still going strong after its release in 1977.
However, Jimmy Buffett’s world has grown way beyond his small beginnings in rural Mississippi.
For Buffett there seems to be no limitations.
He’s a best selling author having written numerous books.
He owns a number of planes and does numerous charity benefits.
Since 1970, Buffett has released more than 30 albums and is now recording on his own label, Mailboat Records.
Buffett fans are better know as “Parrotheads” and have established more than 150 fan clubs across the United States, Canada and Australia.
There’s a convention held each year down in Florida (tropical storm or not) in his honor.
He even has his own Website, along with thousands of fan Website variations, where you can catch every concert broadcast on-line for free.
Did I mention that he’s got his own restaurant in three different states, and has created his own brand of Tequila?
So it’s not really a surprise that his new album, “Far Side of the World” is a hit with fans and on the charts, debuting at No. 5 on the Billboard 200.
Buffett has run the spectrum in his career drawing on themes including politics, world war, infidelity and wild partying, to today’s mellow mood of looking back at life’s events, trying to avoid a mid-life crisis.
This album leans towards a more relaxed musician, who ponders life’s events and enjoys the solitude of being middle aged.
Buffett’s expertise of the guitar reigns throughout “Far Side” in many songs, and takes the title of two songs with the melodic “Blue Guitar” and “Tonight I just Need My Guitar” stressing the basics in life and music.
A widely known traveler, Buffett makes the world his home, bouncing between New York, Florida and Bimini to parts of Africa during the year. He pulls on his French experiences in the songs “Autour Du Rocher” and “Mademoiselle (Voulez-Vous Danser).”
Other cuts on the album include Buffett’s cover of Bruce Cockburn’s “All The Ways I Want You,” “Savannah, Fare You Well,” “U.S.S. Zydecoldsmobile” and the dreamer’s anthem, “Someday I Will.”
Buffett gives us an idea of what life is like elsewhere on the globe with the title track “Far Side of the World” and informs of what some might consider their life’s goal with “Last Man Standing.”
But leave it to the man from Maragaritaville to keep listeners entertained with his quick wit and humor in “Altered Boy” and the ever comical “What If The Hokey-Pokey Is All It Really Is About?” which he wrote after seeing the line on a bumper sticker.
“I love my summer job,” Buffett told the sold-out crowd of his opening show for this concert season last weekend in Nashville. “It really doesn’t get any better than this.”
What is unique about Buffett’s album, and his live shows is that he draws his setlist from many of the crowd favorites over the years and combines them with songs from his new albums. This sustains a balance of musical entertainment for both the young and young at heart.
From ages 5 to 55, fans come from far and wide to hear Buffett’s music.
Trust me, you’ll know you’re at a Buffett concert when there’s more people dancing in a conga line than sitting in chairs and the lady in the coconut bra beside you is standing with her husband, (who just happens to be wearing a coconut bra as well).
For now, Buffett, his music career, album and concert wise, continue to like his song, to “Defy Gravity.”
