Jimmy Buffett has lent his vocal to Sonny Landreth’s ninth album, titled “From The Reach.” Modern Guitars Magazine has the details:

In one of two delightful changes of pace to the album’s six-string focus, Dr. John brings the requisite gris-gris to “Howlin’ Moon” with his trademark rollicking piano and harmonies, and he’s joined on the track by Jimmy Buffett. “Although the idea of the record was playing with my guitar heroes, I wanted to open to the unexpected as well,” Landreth explains. “I’d written ‘Howlin’ Moon’ a long time ago and I’d always had Dr. John in mind for it. Then we took it a step further with Jimmy’s vocal and the vibe was perfect.”

“From The Reach” will be released on May 20th. You can Pre-Order now through Amazon.com.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has an article on Coral Reefer Band members Roger Guth, Peter Mayer, and Jim Mayer: “Former St. Louisan backs up Jimmy Buffett, keeps own career going”

“We walked out on stage for the first time, and it looked like a Fellini casting call,” says former St. Louisan Peter Mayer, lead guitarist for Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band since 1989. “I mean, it was strange costumes. You had lawyers in parrot outfits and doctors with shark fins on their heads. And of course, we were dressed in kind of late ’80s, early ’90s garb from the Thompson Twins to Peter Gabriel.”

“We” refers to Mayer and the Coral Reefer rhythm section: fellow former St. Louisans Jim Mayer (bass) and Roger Guth (drums). Jim, Peter Mayer’s brother, reports on Buffett’s margaritaville.com website that he almost couldn’t play that first show in San Diego because he was laughing so hard at “a giant conga line wearing enough grass skirts to cover the set of South Pacific.”

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For the Mayer brothers and Guth, who were a Warner Bros. recording act called PM, the Parrothead phenomenon was a surprise even after they were first hired to play on Buffett’s 1989 album, “Off to See the Lizard.”

”We knew who Jimmy Buffett was, but we had no idea how popular he was or what kind of crowd came to the shows,” Peter Mayer said by phone a couple of weeks ago before appearing with his band at Blueberry Hill’s Duck Room. ”And he had actually instructed his crew not to tell us what was going on.”

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With Buffett, Mayer has been amazed at how much hard work goes into making it all look so easy and laid back.

”It’s a real gift,” Mayer says. ”I know it is, because I’ve been a performer for many years and never found it that easy.

”Jimmy is an entertainer. I asked him once when we were really new to the group, because we were kind of floored with the audience and all that, and said, ‘What’s the deal with this whole thing? How did you get into this?’

“And he said, ‘Well, you know, Pete, I’m not a very good guitar player, and other people can out-sing me, but I’m a damn good Jimmy Buffett.”’

Read the entire article here.

Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band perform at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in St. Louis this coming Thursday. Get your tickets now!

Veteran Coral Reefer and Grammy-award winning
producer, songwriter and percussionist Ralph MacDonald
has released his latest album, “Mixty Motions.”

Featuring a danceable mix of Caribbean-infused smooth
jazz tunes, the 12-song collection includes noteable
guest musicians like Ashford & Simpson, Will Lee,
Etienne Charles, Dave Mann, Roger George, and fellow
Coral Reefer Robert Greenidge. The record also
includes an update of “Don’t Stop The Carnival,” a
song MacDonald wrote in 1966 for Harry Belafonte.

For more information on “Mixty Motions,” including
audio samples and an online store, please visit
here.

PanOnTheNet.com has recorded an interview with long-time Coral Reefer percussionist Ralph MacDonald.

Percussionist Ralph MacDonald is visual and sometimes quietly intense but always expressive, and is a compendium of unique island and conventional percussive rhythms. The When Steel Talks (WST) crew was privileged to sit down with the dynamic musician in his Stamford, Connecticut home and preview Mixty Motions, his newest CD before its release.

MacDonald has done a lot of interviews, but only here with WST, in addition to the detailed look at Mixty Motions, does the world get the inside scoop on his full relationship with the steelpan, and his intimate connection with what is the national instrument of Trinidad and Tobago, and hear him proudly proclaim that his favorite orchestra is the mighty Desperadoes Steel Orchestra nestled in the hills of Laventille.

Check out the interview here.

Bringing in the one hundredth episode of Time After Island Time is Mr. Michael Utley. Mr. Utley has been performing on keyboards for Jimmy Buffett in the Coral Reefer band for 30 years. As the musical director of the Coral Reefer Band, he has been the longest running member.

On this episode, Mr. Utley tell us about the recent trip to Anguilla with Jimmy Buffett and company. In this revealing interview, he talks about the new album, “Jimmy Buffett: Live in Anguilla,” which he produced with Mac McAnally. He talks about how the shows will be changing in a variety of ways, and what is in the future of the band.
We also touch on the recent journey to Paris, and we get a good view from Mr. Utley’s perspective.

Tune into the 100th episode and enjoy the music and conversation, from anywhere in the world on Radio JimmyDreamz.

Monday 1 PM – November 26, 2007
Wednesday 9 AM – November 28, 2007
Thursday 4 PM – November 29, 2007
Saturday 8 PM – December 1, 2007
**All broadcasts are Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)*

Thank you everyone for listening to Time After Island Time, we appreciate you.