Jimmy Buffett - "Feeding Frenzy" - Drink Hole Sturday Night Concert

Grab a bottle of Red Stripe Beer and a handful of jumbo shrimp, kick those shoes off and envision yourself on a sunny un-spoiled beach where the temperature is always 78-82 degrees! Tonight Ye Olde Drink Hole plays host to the King of the Parrotheads - Jimmy Buffett!


This concert album from 1990 will make you forget your troubles...all except the wondering of why you have a job. At least that's what I always wonder.

Enjoy!

"You'll Never Work in Dis Bidness Again" - Jimmy is another of Uncle Jeffy's heroes who has made a long career from doing it the way that seemed right instead of the way the suits dictate. Here's his "why am I still here when you all said I wouldn't be?" song.



"The City" - Coming up as a songwriter and troubadour himself, Jimmy's always there to support others. Here's one by his rhythm guitar player and harmonizing vocalist, Mac MacAnaly. Includes the intro to the next song (I wonder what the engineers on live albums are thinking sometimes...)



"Last Mango in Paris" - The second hand memoirs of the legendary Captain Tony.



"Come Monday" - One of his biggest. The ballad that even mentions Montana in it...we Parrot-Heads are from everywhere you know. :)



"Today's Message" - Reverend Jimmy's take on the state of the world (the present being 1990) and the hilarious intro to the next song...



"A Love Song (from a different point of view)" - You've heard Uncle Jeffy sing this one here before...the song Jimmy placed the pseudonym 'Marvin Gardens' on...'Why Don't We Get Drunk'...



"One Particular Harbor" - Here's the big one for me...this is the one that explains the Parrot-Head head. That place you go where everything makes sense. "Ia ora te natura, mea aroja teie ao nei" near as I can discover means "Nature lives, Have pity for the Earth" or "Life to nature, love the Earth". In any case, it makes you feel good to sing along. It makes everything make sense that's important.



"Honey Do" - Get out and DO IT! Advice I wish I'd take.



"Cheeseburger in Paradise" - Jimmy was stranded at sea and the biggest reward he could imagine for his getting to shore was the perfect cheeseburger. I understand that. Another sing-along great.



"A Pirate Looks at Forty" - Uncle Jeffy sang this one here too. The first song I ever learned on a guitar. And I think I made a good choice. Cousin Frank terando's standard order for the song I'm to sing at his funeral.



"Jolly Mon Sing" - A Carribean Seas legend. The Jolly Mon comes round and makes ya feel good then rides away on his dolphin.



"Gypsies in the Palace" - When Jimmy hits the road he has house-sitters, this is a tale. Makes you think of those relatives that come make themselves a little too much 'at home'. Unfortunately those dipshit engineers left the intro to this track at the end of the last one.



"Fins" - A real Parrot-Head anthem. Raise your fins!!!!!



"Margaritaville" - The ubiquitous Parrot-Head National Anthem. Come on, you know you want to salt your rim and sing along.



"Jamaica Farewell" - Jimmy's tribute to the Harry Belafonte classic. He does it right. I'll throw in my thank you to Harry here for making us all want to find what's exotic in this world.



"Volcano" - The sing-along closer to end alll sing-along closers. I don't know where I'm-a-gonna-go either.



Check out more Buffett madness at his own website. And if you haven't been to a Buffett concert, you haven't really been to a party!

Talk to you soon.

Jeffy Sing-A-Song Monday - Willie and Buffet Covers

Today I continue my battle with my cranky modem, I thought I'd flash back a bit.

Here's a couple of short songs I have been playing since I first banged on a guitar and tried to make noise on it. 1 and 2 verse songs that are always great party songs. I felt a bit more at home in these songs when I looked more like this...

I'm not quite the "party till you drop and then rally for some more" guy I once was. It's not that I don't have the desire...I just can't find the time! When the hell did we get all that boozin' and carrousin' done anyway???

Anyway, here's a couple that used to get me in gear. Since they're so short and in the same mode, I thought I'd lay them both down today.

First up, Willie Nelson's anthem for the non-apologetic drunk who tells you "why" anyway..."I Gotta Get Drunk":

And a Monday morning is not the traditional time for this song...at least not unless you can "think outside the box"! Jimmy Buffett's "Why Don't We Get Drunk and Screw?". The song he pledged not to write, he used the nom de plum Marvin Gardens to shoulder the blame...but YOU can blame ME if ya want!

Have a good Monday and remember those halcyon carefree days...or nights.

Talk to you soon!

Jeffy Music Monday - "A Pirate Looks at 40"

Happy Monday to all you hard working folks out there.

In my quest to practice singing and playing more, I reflect that next week is my birthday.

I was 32 before I ever picked up a guitar and tried to make a noise come out, and back in those days when I thought it as all about memorizing a chord progression, this was the first song I ever sat down and memorized.

I had to hold on to it for 8 years till I was old enough to sing it.

This year I'll be 47 and I'm still singing it.



It means different things than it did 15 years ago when I first played it. It still means lots of good stuff too. If you're old enough to sing it and learned enough to see the beauty in it...you're winning!

Happy one year older to everyone else out there too.

Talk to you later!

Jerry Jeff Walker - Happy Birthday to a "Scamp" of the First Order

Born this day in 1942, Jerry Jeff Walker turns a happy 66 years old today!

The original "Scamp", the "Gypsy Songman", leader of the "Lost Gonzo Band", no other singer/songwriter/troubadour besides Willie and Waylon deserve props as an original country music "Outlaw" than Jerry Jeff. Right at the heart of the Austin, Texas music scene when it all started, Jerry Jeff was the epitome (and still is) of the happy-go-lucky, free-spirit, musician, partier.

He began his career with a little song you all know called "Mr. Bojangles" back in the late 60's when he was a real Greenwich Village folkie and soon found the road calling him to Texas and even more rambling and free ways. Influenced by the likes of Woody Guthrie and Ramblin' Jack Elliott, contemporaries of Dylan and Willie and hero to Jimmy Buffett and Todd Snider, Jerry Jeff cuts a wide swath.

He's the man who made Luchenbach famous as his favorite hangout and recording place. While a great songwriter himself, he recorded the songs of up and coming songwriters and made them famous too, just ask Guy Clark.

The weather here is beautiful and sunny and I'm off work early and there's beer in the fridge. I can think of no better way than to enjoy this day than by listening to some Jerry Jeff and mixing some guacamole to go with that beer.

Join me? I thought you would!


"Gettin' By" a real Jerry Jeff theme:



Another Jerry Jeff signature tune, Ray Wylie Hubbard's "Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother":


JJ Walker remembers Luckenbach and his old buddy Hondo. "The Pick-Up Truck Song":



Wondering why we all do what feels right instead of what they say is "good for us". And why you should be happy you did. "Night Rider's Lament"...pure gold...one of the first songs I learned how to play:



A song for when you feel it's time to slow down. "Time to Stay Home" with Jimmy Buffet and Fingers Taylor:

Thanks for all the fun and all the pretty songs "Scamp"!

Think I'll close with the classic closer, "London Homesick Blues". I could sing this one alllllll night. And I have!

Jimmy Buffett and the Parrothead Madness!

Attention all Parrotheads: Jimmy Buffett will turn 63 tomorrow, born December 25, 1946!

That's right, gentle reader...I have a problem I'm here to confess...I am a Parrothead.

I, however am not anonymous, nor does any real Parrothead ever seek recovery!

Parrothead's come from everywhere in the world. In fact, the more landlocked your situation might be, the more devout a follower you are of our "Pirate-in-Chief".

The Flying Spaghetti Monster would be proud! I can feel the global warming lessening with every chorus sung of "Cheeseburger in Paradise"!

We come in all shapes and sizes and ages.

All we really crave, is the weekend, the beach or at least have it be 5 o'clock on a weekday so we can get rid of these damn shoes and socks and sing a song instead of punch that clock.

Jimmy cracked into the music business at just the right time. It was the early-mid 1970's and the big record companies were looking to find a "lifestyle artist" to fill the role left vacant by the recently departed Harry Chapin and Jim Croce and the like. It was before the devil's disco came to be and corporate urban cowboy country crap.

Jimmy was there, guitar in hand and took the gig.

Then he parlayed it into something bigger. Something bigger than himself, something bigger than all of us.

Armed with the tools he needed, a storytelling upbringing in Mississippi that took him across the country and with heroes like Jerry Jeff Walker, he honed those tools.

Jimmy has never won any major music awards for his music. But he answers to a higher calling.

He makes little 3 1/2 minute nuggets of magic with his music that make us all, not only forget where we are, but let us be somewhere else.

Some of my favorites:











Happy Birthday Jimmy! Thanks for all the beaches!

CHRISTMAS BONUS:

Any good boy born on Christmas Day with a guitar in hand would be remiss not to write a Christmas song. Jimmy's not remiss.

Christmas in the Caribbean: