Sam Gazdziak at The 9513 has a good writeup on how “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere” came to be a song, and how it fell into the hands of Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett:

The timing on the song was so perfect, that the time from when it was written to when it was released to radio was about three months, a rarity in the industry. Brown recorded the demo, which was initially pitched to Kenny Chesney, but his team passed.

“I think they wanted to not do so much beachy stuff anymore,” he says. “If we had gotten it to him three years earlier, he probably would have jumped on it, but the timing wasn’t right.”

Fortunately, Alan Jackson was looking for a song that he could cut with his friend Jimmy Buffett, and Gary Overton, then the head of EMI Publishing Nashville, turned him on to “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere.”

The song was released in June, 2003, and was an immediate hit, debuting at #31 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. It eventually spent a total of eight weeks at #1 and made it to #17 on the pop charts. It also won the Country Music Association Vocal Event of the Year award in 2003. Not bad for Brown’s first ever single.

Read the full article here.

Watch Alan and Jimmy perform the song at the 2003 CMA Awards, and also watch their acceptance speech for Vocal Event of the Year.

The new album from the Zac Brown Band, You Get What You Give, hits stores today. Jimmy Buffett is featured on the track “Knee Deep.”

Grab the album now at Amazon for $9.99, or download it from iTunes or AmazonMP3.

If you’re only interested in the track “Knee Deep”, download it at iTunes or AmazonMP3.

Jimmy Buffett appears on the upcoming Zac Brown Band album You Get What You Give and you can listen to the entire album now, including “Knee Deep” with Buffett:

Click here to listen

You Get What You Give hits stores next Tuesday. Pre-order now at Amazon.com for only $9.99.

ZBB bassist John Driskell Hopkins details how Buffett and the band first got together: “We met him on a camping trip last year and just sat around the fire with him for awhile. That was a quick friendship. He’s a real cat, really down to earth and doesn’t have a whole lot of ego and just a super nice guy…We did a lot of vocals down at his place in Key West and he happened to come through, so we got him to sit in and it sounded great. It sounds like a Buffett song when he sings it. Whatever he sings sounds like a Buffett song, y’know?”

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.”

You Get What You Give, set for a September 21st release, also features Alan Jackson on “As She’s Walking Away,” which will be the first single released.

Here’s the full track list:

1. Let It Go
2. Knee Deep (feat. Jimmy Buffett)
3. No Hurry
4. I Play The Road
5. Cold Hearted
6. Whiskey’s Gone
7. Quiet Your Mind
8. Colder Weather
9. Settle Me Down
10. As She’s Walking Away (feat. Alan Jackson)
11. Keep Me In Mind
12. Who Knows
13. Martin
14. Make This Day

Pre-order the album now at Amazon.com for $12.99.

The Zac Brown Band is also offering special pre-order bundles at their official site.

Buffett World member Billy Ray is in Gulf Shores for the Jimmy Buffett & Friends show and tells us that Brooks & Dunn is in town and will perform on Sunday. He also says other major acts are coming. Another member tells us that he’s heard a rumor that Brad Paisley will be there.

Photo that Billy Ray shot of Brooks & Dunn’s trailer:

He also said that he met Brooks & Dunn, and they said that they are indeed playing on Sunday.

Keep it tuned to Buffett World for the latest news!

(H/T to Billy Ray and thegoatgod)