It was Sunday. Nothing to do. Nobody needed me for anything. Sun was out. Pool was warm. All day poolside listening to music. Nice.
Kenny Chesney’s Born
It’s been a busy run in my personal life and although I had spun this a few times since it had come out, it was always with other people in the car so I hadn’t given it a good listen-listen.
Wow, I liked it a lt! It’s Kenny Chesney doing Kenny Chesney things and that’s all I want. Kenny has taken Jimmy Buffett’s playbook into a more modern country-rock style, and this album goes right down the middle of the gameplan: Sun, friends, memories, catchy hooks, a beverage or two. Perfect. I wound up adding 8 tracks to my Summer Drive Around playlist.
Jimmy Buffett’s Equal Strain on all Parts.
Then it was time to finally listen to Jimmy’s final album. I had been saving this one since once I played it that was it. One last Jimmy album. (I’m still sitting on Tom Petty’s Mudcrutch 2 for that very reason, although I think he’s put out more albums since he died than he did the previous 40 years.)
I’m a pretty decent Parrothead. However, much like my comedy expertise and my attempts at running marathons, the people that are into Jimmy are way more into Jimmy. So I’m like a top 2%er Parrothead. Better at it than most, but nowhere near the elites.
I was destroyed when Jimmy passed away. The Labor Day weekend timing was somehow perfect as that’s the weekend when summers come to an abrupt end.
Over the winter I had a precancerous skin thing removed. A tiny tiny spot that has left me with a shockingly big shark bite scar on my arm, and thus I’m trying rescind my JB Lifestyle of sitting in the sun 10 hours a day.
I’m now Mr. Bucket Hat and you might even see me sitting in the shade!
But here I was, on a sunny lazy Sunday in June and it was time to give this thing a proper listen.
Thankfully Jimmy has left us with an above-average late period Jimmy album. The soulful crooner is back. No cringy try-hard songs (Summerzcool, I’m looking at you - also Everybody’s On The Phone). This new one is probably his best since 2006’s nearly perfect Take the Weather With You.
So one more summer of new songs.
It’s a shame some of these will never have live versions
Then it hit me halfway through the chorus of the song Mozambique: This is the last Buffett song on the last Buffett album. That’s it. Summer is over. We don’t ever get to hear a new Jimmy song ever again
Even worse: a slide guitar solo started and I closed my eyes and was jamming to it, waiting for one more verse that never came. The song fades on the slide. Labor Day has come.
Damn.
I imagine someone will scour the archives and we’ll get one more album, or two, or a box set, or 95 live albums.
We did get one more “Jimmy Buffett Song” in the wonderful tribute by Zac Brown in Pirates and Parrots. If I’ve ever heard a JB song this is one!
Zac told American Songwriter
.. he first started writing the song when he learned that Buffett didn’t have much time left. “It hit me like a truck when I talked to his family,” Brown tells American Songwriter. “Heikki [Heikki Larsen, Buffett’s production manager], one of his main guys told me when I called the house, he said ‘He’s about to exit the stage.’ I had to get up. I left my bedroom, I went out, and I had to start writing.”
Following Buffett’s death, Brown says he couldn’t help but think about the Coral Reefer Band, the crew, and everyone who was part of his team. “I started writing because I feel the loss not just as a friend, but I felt the loss for his crew, for his team, for his band,” adds Brown. “There’s a whole world that revolves around him being there. With him being gone, there’s a void that was left with so many people, but he’s gonna live on through his songs. And what an incredible life.”
Zac and Kenny are touring rhis summer and I can’t wait
Shaboozey!
Sometimes I just sample the new releases on Apple and I stumbled across this Modern country with hip hop style vocals, throw in some bars and beers…
Noah Kahan, Stick Season.
My daughter turned me on to this one, because we both like the Lumineers and you’ll hear the similarity in the leadoff track. Then I mentioned it to my friend whose daughter has already told him about it. Then another friend tried to tell me about Noah because HIS son had told him about Noah, but I already knew.
Start with the title track Stick Season and if you’re not immediately hooked, I don’t know what to tell you. Also people get mad at me when I point out we used to call this Paul Simon, but it doesn’t take away from this being a great album and artist.
Also check out this fantastic conversation I had with Mark Malkoff of the podcasts Inside Late Night and the Carson Podcast. If you like Johnny and Dave, here’s an hour well spent.