Tickets for the Newport Folk Festival at Fort Adams State Park in Newport, Rhode Island go on sale this morning at 9 am. Buffett will be performing there on Sunday, August 3rd.

Get your tickets by calling 877-655-4TIX or go to ticketing.festivalnetwork.com.

Buffett has said that he is considering playing a stripped-down set with just two acoustic guitars at his Newport debut. “I threatened to do Newport before I was gone, and I seriously want to honor the heritage of the festival,” Buffett says. “I came up as a folk singer. I’ve always loved the idea of being a balladeer. You know, I might do Gordon Lightfoot’s ‘Canadian Railroad Trilogy.’ I am not going to do a Parrothead show.”

Tickets for the two Las Vegas shows in October will go on sale Monday, April 28th at 10 am PDT through TicketMaster.

Prices are $69.25 – $211.00.

Also, as previously reported here, the August 27th show at Jones Beach in Wantagh, New York goes on sale this Saturday at 9 am EDT through TicketMaster.

“Hello Houston, I think it’s time for some Homemade Music tonight!” and with that the Year Of Still Here Tour kicked off in fine fashion.

“Homemade Music” did indeed get us started, the first outing for it since June 30, 1989 in Auburn Hills, Michigan. How’s that for rare? Other first set gems included “The Tiki Bar is Open,” the great John Hiatt song, with Jimmy working in a nice reference to his lost friend, Larry Gray, who “sailed the seven seas,” and “Fruitcakes” with lots of new updated lyrics including references to Dr. Phil and thanking the astronauts for all the work they do.

Other treats in the first set: “Mexico,” last played in Portland, Oregon on October 27, 2005; a beautiful version of “Miss You So Badly,” last played with the band on June 3, 1996 in Indianapolis, Indiana; a brand new song inspired by Neil Young called, what else, “We’re Still Here,” which is a nice tribute to everyone who still comes every year; and “Tryin’ to Reason with Hurricane Season.” How’s that for change?

But all of the fun was not just in the first set. The second set started with the Nanci Griffith song “Gulf Coast Highway,” a song Jimmy first recorded with Evangeline in the early 90’s. This performance featured Tina Gullickson joining Jimmy on vocals and Sonny Landreth playing a mean slide guitar. A hard rocking version of “Makin’ Music for Money” followed, this time sung by Nadirah. And In the middle of the second set’s run of hits, “Far Side of the World” re-surfaced for the first time since August 21, 2004 when it was played at a John Kerry fundraiser.

The first encore featured “Fins” and the Bruce Springsteen classic “Glory Days,” while the second encore brought the first on-tour outing of “Somewhere Over China” since the Millenium show, and a beautiful version of “Come Monday” to wrap things up.

View the entire set list here.

Did you attend the show? Share your thoughts on our Discussion Board or post your photos in our Photo Gallery.

The 2008 “Year of Still Here” tour will continue Thursday night with a show from St. Louis, Missouri. Get your tickets now!

Tour season is finally here! Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band make the first stop of their 2008 Year Of Still Here Tour tonight at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in Woodlands, Texas.

You can listen to the show live on Radio Margaritaville on the web at www.radiomargaritaville.com or on Sirius satellite radio channel 31. The show will air at 8 pm central time. Be sure to catch the pre-show beforehand.

Also, you can follow along with the set list and chat with other parrot heads during the show on our Discussion Board.

Other shows coming up this week: Thursday – St. Louis, MO (find tickets); Saturday – Frisco, TX (find tickets). See the complete tour schedule here.

Radio Margaritaville announced today that Jimmy will appear on Regis and Kelly on Tuesday, May 13th.

Buffett will be on to promote his new book “Swine Not?”, which comes out the same day. Pre-Order now through Amazon.com!

(hat tip to Theresa for passing this along)