The Boston Globe has an interview with Buffett where they discuss the oil spill, his Buffet Hotel and Encores albums, and a new project that will be coming out:
Q. You have the public image of a free-for-all party guy and surfer, but weren’t you just down in Haiti helping out earthquake victims? And you’re going down to the Gulf Coast to lend a hand; what are your thoughts on the oil spill?
A. You have to figure out what to do instead of just bitching about it. One thing is that we have partnered with a little boat company and we’re building these small skimmer boats that can go into shallow water and actually help with the cleanup. Having grown up on the Gulf Coast, I don’t do this for headlines, but just because I want to give back. . . . We’re about to open our [Margaritaville Hotel] in Pensacola Beach, which is right at ground zero. We had a job fair there for 40 jobs — and 1,000 people showed up.
Q. You also just put out the double-CD “Encores,’’ taken from the acoustic encores you’ve done the last two years. It gave you a way to revisit some of your more obscure tunes and to show your roots by covering songs by Jesse Winchester, John Prine, and Bob Dylan.
A. On tour we have a 17-piece band that works people into a frenzy, but as big as this thing has gotten, I never want to forget being a folk singer, because that’s what I grew out of. I want to keep the roots alive of just me and a guitar since I spent so many years doing that. By ending the shows that way feels like a nightcap. It feels good.
Q. Any other recording projects?
A. Twenty years ago I ran away to Tahiti and wrote the song “One Particular Harbour.’’ I went back to Tahiti not long ago and did an acoustic version of the whole “One Particular Harbour’’ album in a bar called Bloody Mary’s where I first played — it fits about 80 people. So we’ll put that out.
Buffett is playing two shows next weekend just outside of Boston at Mansfield’s Comcast Center.
August 9th, 2010
The Zac Brown Band is preparing to release their much-anticipated second album in September and Jimmy Buffett appears on the album, singing on a track entitled “Knee Deep.”