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Christmas Island Releasing on Vinyl

November 15th, 2023


Jimmy Buffett’s first Christmas album, Christmas Island, originally released in 1996, is being re-released as a vinyl for the first time. You can pick it up in standard black or special edition red.

The vinyl album will release on December 15th.

Buffett’s second Christmas album, Tis the SeaSon, was released in 2016 and is also available on vinyl.

From The Music Universe:

Originally released in 1996 on CD, the platinum-selling Christmas Island hit No. 27 on the Billboard 200 chart, where it spent 14 weeks and ended up becoming one of 1997’s Top 200 albums. Meanwhile, Christmas Island also spent a staggering 81 weeks on Billboard’s Top Holiday Albums chart, peaking at No. 4.

Christmas Island was Buffett’s first Christmas album, his 21st studio album of 32 studio albums total, and boasts a pair of original tunes, “A Sailor’s Christmas” and “Merry Christmas, Alabama (Never Far from Home),” both co-penned by Buffett himself. The album likewise features covers of seasonal classics such as “Christmas Island,” “Jingle Bells,” and “Up on the House Top,” as well as his takes on the Hawaiian-vibed “Mele Kalikimaka” (made famous by Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters) and John Lennon’s protest tune-tuned-holiday-hit produced by Phil Spector, “Happy Xmas (War Is Over),” and more. “A Visit From St. Nicholas” (aka “Twas The Night Before Christmas”), which was a hidden track on the original CD, also appears in these two vinyl versions.

Reflecting on the album and the significance of the holiday in his life, Buffett wrote in the original liner notes: “For those of you who didn’t know, I was born on Christmas Day 1946, the day W.C. Fields died. I think this only goes to prove that God does have a sense of humor, but being born on Christmas was rough going at first. The most obvious scam was to try and double up on presents… It did not sit well with my mother, who made it known, in no uncertain terms to the aunts, uncles and cousins of the Buffett clan strung out along the Gulf coast, that she expected two presents for her bouncing baby boy-one for his birthday and one for Christmas. On the whole it worked quite well, though there were a few Scrooge like occurrences where I would get socks for my birthday and a tie for Christmas. This probably is the reason I never have liked to wear either since.”

Buffett continued, “Christmas Island is a collection of songs, not ladled over with sugary sentimentality and not too far out there in the strange corridors down which my mind sometimes wanders, and I hope it is what you would expect from the Christmas War baby turned island boy born on the day W.C. Fields died.”


Tagged in Albums

Billboard Details the Making of ‘Equal Strain on All Parts’ with Mac McAnally

November 3rd, 2023


Billboard has a great read on the making of Jimmy Buffett’s final album Equal Strain on All Parts: “Inside the Making of Jimmy Buffett’s Final Album: ‘He Was So Proud of This One,’ Says Longtime Bandmate Mac McAnally”

“I wasn’t necessarily thinking in terms of this being the last thing he had to say, but I think, in retrospect, he probably was,” says guitarist/songwriter Mac McAnally, who has produced Buffett’s albums with his fellow Coral Reefer Band mate Michael Utley since 1997. “But he never let on. He never surrendered to what was actually happening.”

Buffett, 76, died on Sept. 1 after a four-year battle with skin cancer and lymphoma. “There were people in our organization that didn’t know he was ill,” McAnally says. “He didn’t want anybody feeling sorry for him. He just wanted to be this big ray of positivity that he always was. When I went and said goodbye to him the night before he died, he was still smiling just wider than his face.”

After they finished recording in the summer, Buffett kept tinkering with the sequencing, as McAnally realized the beloved singer-songwriter was rearranging the songs to tell his life’s journey. “When he heard the whole album in sequence, he was so proud of this one in a way that I’ve never seen him be,” McAnally says. “And that may be because he knew it was the last one and he got it right.”

Read the full story here.


Tagged in Albums

Buffett’s Last Album ‘Equal Strain on All Parts’ Available Today

November 3rd, 2023


The final studio album from Jimmy Buffett is out today. Listen to Equal Strain on All Parts wherever you stream music or get it at Amazon or on vinyl at Mailboat Records.

Track listing:

  1. University of Bourbon Street (with Preservation Hall Jazz Band)
  2. Bubbles Up
  3. Audience of One
  4. My Gummie Just Kicked In
  5. Close Calls
  6. Equal Strain on All Parts
  7. Like My Dog
  8. Ti Punch Cafe (with Angelique Kidjo)
  9. Portugal or PEI (with Will Kimbrough and Lennie Gallant)
  10. Nobody Works on Friday
  11. Fish Porn
  12. Johnny’s Rhum
  13. Columbus
  14. Mozambique (with Emmylou Harris)

Read USA Today’s review of the album: Jimmy Buffett swings from fun to reflective on last album ‘Equal Strain on All Parts’

At the start of the year, Jimmy Buffett began work on what would become his final album.

From January into the spring, the high-spirited raconteur recorded tracks in Nashville, Tennessee, Key West, New Orleans and Los Angeles, a collection of 11 original songs and three covers, including Bob Dylan’s “Mozambique.”

Now, almost exactly two months after the death of the “Margaritaville” maestro from a rare form of skin cancer, Buffett’s 31st studio album, “Equal Strain on All Parts,” arrives with a bittersweet taste.

It’s comforting to know that even as his health declined, Buffett still turned to music and enlisted friends including Paul McCartney, Emmylou Harris and Angélique Kidjo to romp and croon with him.

But it’s also a somber realization that the raucous concert culture and escapism that Buffett enjoyed with his legions of Parrotheads is but a memory. Hazy for some, joyful for all.

The songs on “Equal Strain” follow Buffett’s careerlong blueprint of swinging from frivolous (Billy Currington’s “Like My Dog” and “Fish Porn,” which he co-wrote with acclaimed satirical novelist Carl Hiaasen) to reflective (“Bubbles Up,” Mary Black’s “Columbus”).

Read the full review here.


Tagged in Albums

Watch the Music Video for “Bubbles Up”

October 30th, 2023


CMT premiered today the music video for “Bubbles Up” from Jimmy Buffett’s upcoming posthumous album Equal Strain on All Parts.

Buffett wrote the song with Will Kimbrough, and “Bubbles Up” was produced by Michael Utley and Mac McAnally.

The music video for the encouraging, emotional “Bubbles Up” debuts today and was produced by Stan Kellam, who co-directed it with Jeremy Clevenger.

Buffett’s team explained the video features, “Jimmy and what he loved doing. From performance footage in the 70s to more recent days, being on and in the water, playing for fans, flying, each frame holds wonderful memories of a well-lived life. The opening shot is Jimmy filming himself jumping into the water.”

“Bubbles Up” is from Buffett’s posthumous album, “Equal Strain On All Parts,” which will be available Friday.

The video includes footage of Buffett enjoying life, in the water, performing, with friends and doing what he loved to do.

“It brings a smile,” his team commented. “Jimmy was joy.”

Buffett’s team hopes fans are comforted to see the singer and hear his loving, supportive message.

“Just know you are loved, there’s light up above, and the joy is always enough on the road ahead,” they said.” If you loved Jimmy, it’s impossible not to completely lose it. He is missed beyond measure.”


Tagged in Albums, Music Videos, Singles

Listen to Two More Songs from Buffett’s Upcoming Album

October 15th, 2023


Two more songs have been released from Jimmy Buffett’s upcoming Equal Strain on All Parts: “Mozambique” with Emmylou Harris and “University of Bourbon Street” with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

From Rolling Stone:

BEFORE HIS DEATH, Jimmy Buffett put his distinct spin on one of the most Buffett-esque songs Bob Dylan ever wrote, “Mozambique,” even enlisting Emmylou Harris — who sang backup on the original — to reprise her role. The cover will appear on the upcoming posthumous Buffett album, Equal Strain on All Parts, out Nov. 3.

Dylan’s original, off 1976’s Desire, is plenty jaunty and sun-soaked on its own, though not without some ramshackle touches. Buffett and Harris keep that original energy while smoothing out some of the edges, most notably substituting the tender creak of the original song’s violin (played by Scarlet Rivera) for the dulcet plunk of the steelpan drum.

The track also arrives with a behind-the-scenes music video that shows Buffett, Harris, and the band cutting the song in the studio. Some idyllic footage ostensibly from Mozambique itself is thrown in for good measure, though there’s a funny contrast between those shots and the ones of Buffett, draped in a scarf, and Harris, donning a coat and gloves, working in the studio.

Accompanying “Mozambique” is a new Buffett original, “University of Bourbon Street,” which features Preservation Hall Jazz Band. As its title suggests, the song finds Buffett recounting and celebrating the influence of his musical education in New Orleans.


Tagged in Albums, Singles