Jimmy Buffett 2011 Year in Review

It seems like we just did this a short time ago… but nope, another year has come and gone and this one saw some big stories in Margaritaville.

Here’s our annual roundup of the biggest Buffett headlines of the year.

January

• Tour dates began to leak out and get confirmed, earlier than in years past
• Buffett plays Australia for the first time in several years
• After a nasty fall off the stage in Australia, Buffett is hospitalized for head and arm injuries
• Jimmy cancels show in New Zealand to focus on recovering

February

• Buffett’s featured on the 2011 New Orleans Jazz Fest poster
• Kenny Chesney joins Jimmy at the Everglades Benefit show in Palm Beach, FL
• Charlie Sheen melts down in front of the world, but manages to mention “A Pirate Looks at Forty” in an interview: “Rock bottom? That’s a fishing term. Doesn’t Jimmy Buffett sing ‘down to rock bottom again?’ Love me some Jimmy Buffett. Yeah man, pirate looks at forty.”

March

• Mac McAnally is honored with the 2011 Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts
• Most of the spring and summer tour is confirmed in March with tickets going on sale later in the month
• Buffett trademarks “Tiger Blood” for a vodka energy drink. To date, nothing has been done with the trademark
• At the annual SXSW technology festival, Jimmy helps demo StageIt, a service that lets artists broadcast live shows from anywhere and earn money from the viewers.
• Jimmy performs at the Key West wedding of Fred Troxel and Rita Brown
• Lance Armstrong tweets as Jimmy plays an impromptu show at Baz Bar on St. Barths.

April

• Final approval is received for a Margaritaville Casino in Biloxi
• The Welcome to Fin Land Tour kicked off April 16th in Tampa
• April 16th was officially designated Jimmy Buffett Day in Florida, per a resolution in the state house
• Jimmy plays a fundraiser at the Pensacola Naval Air Museum

May

• Buffett returns to the iconic New Orleans Jazz Fest
• Landshark Bar & Grill opens in Myrtle Beach
• The annual Frisco, TX show is capped off with “Livingston’s Gone To Texas,” played for the first time in over 30 years
• Jimmy reveals that he’s come across some unreleased tunes from the 60’s and 70’s and will put them out in a project dubbed “Buried Treasure”
• Kenny Chesney makes a surprise appearance at Jimmy’s Nashville show on May 28th. They played “Come Monday” and “Back Where I Come From” together

June

• In early June, Buffett attended the 40th annual NYPD Foundation Gala
• Jimmy and the Zac Brown Band win CMT Performance of the Year at the CMT Music Awards for their performance of Margaritaville on CMT Crossroads
• The duet “Knee Deep” with the Zac Brown Band is released to country radio and a music video is shot in Mexico

July

• Buffett attends the final space shuttle launch and plays a private show for shuttle workers
• Savannah Jane Buffett, Jimmy’s daughter, launches clothing line
• Jimmy plays Cuyahoga Falls outside of Cleveland for the first time since 2004

August

• “Knee Deep” becomes Jimmy’s second number one song when it reaches the top of the chart in early August
• Jimmy throws a 60th birthday party for his wife Jane. Guests included Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jane Fonda, Jack Nicholson, Harrison Ford, Calista Flockhart, Richard Gere, Jon Bon Jovi, Billy Joel, and James Taylor
• The Bristow, Virginia concert is postponed due to Hurricane Irene
• Jimmy opens for Ilo at his Stephen Talkhouse show on Long Island. Bill and Hillary Clinton were in attendance
• With Hurricane Irene still whipping up waves, Jimmy rescued a surfer off Montauk

September

• A line of Margaritaville Coffee is announced
• Jimmy releases a live version of the Volcano album, with all tracks recorded at shows from the Welcome to Fin Land Tour
• It’s become an annual tradition… Buffett plays a show in Paris in late September

October

• A 15,000 sq. ft. Margaritaville gaming area opens in the Flamingo Casino in Las Vegas
• The Las Vegas Margaritaville breaks the record for the world’s largest margarita
• Buffett performs in Phoenix for the first time since 2009 and Denver for the first time since 2004

November

• Jimmy performs at Meeting of the Minds in Key West for the first time in several years
• Margaritaville Online enters beta testing with several thousand parrothead testers invited to start playing the game before it’s released to the general public
• Mac McAnally wins CMA Musician of the Year for the fourth year in a row
• Another Margaritaville Casino wins approval, this one in Bossier City, Louisiana
• Jimmy Buffett guest stars on an episode of the CBS show Hawaii Five-0

December

• Along with his sisters, Jimmy donates a boat to the University of Southern Mississippi
• Jimmy and Jane are honored with the 2011 Child Advocacy Award at the annual Child Mind Gala
• Longtime Coral Reefer Ralph MacDonald dies after a battle with cancer
• On December 25th, Jimmy celebrated his 65th birthday

What do you think was the biggest Buffett story of 2011?

And now that you’ve read through this year, take a trip down memory lane and view our Year in Reviews from previous years:

• 2010
• 2009
• 2008