Jed Gottlieb of the Boston Herald has an article on Jimmy Buffett’s business empire: “Frozen assets: Margaritaville magnate Jimmy Buffett turns boozy tunes into retail gold”

rom the Bradford Exchange shilling Elvis plates to Ben & Jerry’s dreaming up Cherry Garcia and Phish Food, hucksters have long cashed in on the devotion of rock fans. But Jimmy Buffett devotees possess a unique appetite for, well, anything Margaritaville.

No one knows this as well as Buffett. This guy has a talent for turning his tunes into tacky knickknacks, mass-marketed munchies and a financial empire. With his annual tour bringing him to the Comcast Center in Mansfield Thursday (scattered tickets remain) and Saturday (sold out), Buffett continues to generate megabucks.

But it wasn’t until we dug into “Margaritaville” that we realized how deep his genius runs. Buffett’s signature song has spun off more products than it has lyrics. Just 206 words long, there’s not an unexploited verse. And yet, there are so many untapped lines.

Read the entire article here.

Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band played the first of two shows from the Comcast Center in Mansfield, MA on Thursday night. The Boston Globe has a review of the show:

The gates of the Comcast Center opened at 7 last night, but the parking lot was open for tailgating at 11 in the morning. Who else could be in town but Jimmy Buffett? Faced with the choice of the Republican convention or the mayor of Margaritaville’s annual visit, the sold-out crowd picked the latter. Both were headlined by bald mavericks with the ocean in their veins; it didn’t even take much squinting for Buffett to look like the other guy, the T-shirt, shorts, and bare feet notwithstanding.

Read the entire article here.

Remember, Saturday’s show time has been moved up to 3 pm because of Hurricane Hanna.

From Margaritaville.com:

September 6th Start Time Changed to 3pm for Tweeter Center show in Mansfield, MA

Trying to reason with hurricane season…. Due to the weather expected from Hurricane Hanna that is approaching New England, Saturday’s show will start at 3:00pm instead of 8:00pm.

One of our Forum members, CapnSam, reports that they called the venue office and they said that parking lots will open at 8 am.

Kenny Chesney’s upcoming new album, “Lucky Old Sun”, will include a version of Coral Reefer Mac McAnally’s “Down The Road”. Mac also sings on the track, according to the listing at Amazon.com.

You can watch Mac’s music video for “Down The Road” from 1994 in our Video Gallery.

This isn’t the first time that Chesney has recorded a McAnally song. A perennial favorite on tour, “Back Where I Come From” was recorded for Chesney’s 1996 album “Me And You”, and also appeared as a live track on the 2000 “Greatest Hits” album.

You can pre-order “Lucky Old Sun” now at Amazon.com by clicking here.

Also, visit our sister site… ChesneyWorld.com.

Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band took their 2008 Year Of Still Here Tour to the Nissan Pavilion in Bristow, Virginia on Saturday for the first of two shows. The set list, which is available here, had some rare gems, including Manana, Gypsies in the Palace, Jolly Mon Sing, and Reggabilly Hill.

View the set list here. Did you attend the show? Post your comments on our Discussion Board.

The tour continues with the second show from Nissan Pavilion on Monday.