Jimmy Buffett and Will Kimbrough worked closely on the upcoming posthumous album Equal Strain on All Parts and in an interview with AL.com, Kimbrough talks about two of the tracks: “Close Calls” and “University of Bourbon Street.”

“Jimmy wanted to write a song about his brushes with death,” Kimbrough said of “Close Calls.” “And so he told me a couple of stories and I sketched out a song. He changed some of the lyrics.” Buffett collaborator Mac McAnally also contributed, he said.

Kimbrough described the result as “a throwback to his early days, it’s a tongue-in-cheek fast country song, very country.” It features features Stuart Duncan, a Grammy-winning bluegrass fiddler. “It’s fun, it’s fast, it reminds me of something off of ‘White Sport Coat,’” Kimbrough said, referencing Buffett’s 1973 album “A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean.”

While Kimbrough didn’t reveal which incidents made the song, Buffett’s eventful life provided a few to choose from. A recent People.com story described three, including one that was the basis of the song “Jamaica Mistaica.” There was also that unfortunate time he fell from a stage in Australia.

“The University of Bourbon Street” also draws directly on Buffett mythology, Kimbrough said. He described it as “a story song about Jimmy’s early years in the late ‘60s in New Orleans, playing in a band on Bourbon Street.”

“And that song is great,” said Kimbrough. “It has the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, guesting on the song. What a thrill for me, a lover of New Orleans music if there ever was one, me, to have the Preservation Hall Jazz Band … trading licks with my guitar at certain moments in the song. [It] just gives me a thrill beyond belief.”

Kimbrough said the making of the song illustrates how energetic Buffett was during the recording sessions for “Equal Strain On All Parts,” held in January. He arrived on the second day of the sessions, after received a treatment for the skin cancer he’d been battling for several years.

Read the full interview here.

Billboard reports that Jimmy Buffett’s catalogue is surging in plays and sales since his September 1st death.

His 1985 greatest hits album Songs You Know by Heart has re-entered Billboard’s Top 200 albums chart at number 4, its highest ranking ever:

The late Jimmy Buffett returns to the top five of the Billboard 200 albums chart as his best-of collection Songs You Know by Heart: Jimmy Buffett’s Greatest Hit(s) re-enters the Sept. 16-dated list at No. 4. It marks the album’s highest rank ever — and first week in the top 10, or even top 40, dating to its release in 1985 — and Buffett’s 13th top 10-charting album.

In the tracking week ending Sept. 7, Songs You Know by Heart earned 52,000 equivalent album units (up 2,122%) following the singer-songwriter’s death on Sept. 1 at age 76. It marks the 13th top 10-charting album for Billboard’s most famous alumnus. Buffett was a Nashville-based reporter for Billboard in 1969-70, before the release of his first album.

Of Songs You Know by Heart’s 52,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Sept. 7, SEA units comprise 30,000 (up 1,377%, equaling 40.22 million on-demand official streams of the set’s 13 songs), album sales comprise 15,500 (up 6,826% — making it the top-selling album of the week) and TEA units comprise 6,500 (up 8,813%).

Songs You Know by Heart contains Buffett’s only Billboard Hot 100 top 10-charting hit song, “Margaritaville,” which reached No. 8 in 1977. It also houses the top 40-charting tunes “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes,” “Cheeseburger in Paradise,” “Come Monday” and “Fins.”

Songs You Know by Heart joins Buffett’s dozen previous top 10s on the Billboard 200: Life On the Flip Side (No. 2 in 2020), Songs From St. Somewhere (No. 4, 2013), Encores (No. 7, 2010), Take the Weather With You (No. 4, 2006), License to Chill (No. 1, 2004), Meet Me in Margaritaville: Jimmy Buffett The Ultimate Collection (No. 9, 2003), Far Side of the World (No. 5, 2002), Beach House On the Moon (No. 8, 1999), Banana Wind (No. 4, 1996), Barometer Soup (No. 6, 1995), Fruitcakes (No. 5, 1994) and Son of a Son of a Sailor (No. 10, 1978).

In addition to the charting of SYKBH, “Margaritaville” has re-entered the Billboard Hot 100 at no. 38. It last appeared on the chart in 1977!

Jimmy Buffett’s signature song “Margaritaville,” among his many classics, returns to the Billboard Hot 100 this week, re-entering at No. 38 on the Sept. 16-dated ranking. It reached No. 8 in July 1977 and had last appeared on the chart dated Aug. 27, 1977.

Meanwhile, Buffett posthumously boasts the week’s top-selling song with the single, as well as the top-selling album, Songs You Know By Heart: Jimmy Buffett’s Greatest Hit(s).

“Margaritaville” contributes to Buffett’s big week on multiple Billboard charts, as fans flocked to his trademark feel-good sound following his death. In the Sept. 1-7 tracking week, his song catalog surged by 1,476% to 78.6 million official on-demand streams and 7,022% to 103,000 paid downloads in the U.S., according to Luminate. His albums collectively soared by 2,378% to 109,000 equivalent album units in that span. Further, his all-format radio airplay audience bounded by 338% to 21.2 million.

“Margaritaville” gained by 720% to 8.1 million streams; 954% to 1.9 million in airplay audience among Hot 100-reporting stations; and 8,415% to 16,000 sold in the tracking week. It re-enters as Buffett’s first No. 1 on the Digital Song Sales chart and at No. 41 on Streaming Songs. It’s also No. 1 on Country Digital Song Sales and Rock Digital Song Sales and No. 10 on Rock Streaming Songs and No. 17 on Country Streaming Songs.

Before this week, Buffett last charted on the Hot 100 dated Oct. 8, 2011, as featured on Zac Brown Band’s No. 18-peaking “Knee Deep,” the most recent of 13 songs, including seven top 40 hits, that he sent onto the survey during his lifetime.

Along with its Hot 100 re-entry, “Margaritaville” places at No. 7 on Hot Rock Songs, No. 9 on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs and No. 14 on Hot Country Songs, all of which share the Hot 100’s multimetric methodology.

Alan Jackson and Buffett’s “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere” also re-enters Hot Country Songs, at No. 22, with 6.1 million streams (up 346%), 2.3 million in airplay audience (up 66%) and 7,000 sold (up 3,543%). The song dominated the chart for eight weeks in 2003.

Plus, Buffett’s “Cheeseburger in Paradise,” from 1978, hits Hot Rock Songs at No. 19 and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs at No. 22, with 4.5 million streams (up 1,454%), 554,000 in radio reach (up from a nominal sum) and 6,000 sold (up 5,402%).

Three new songs off Jimmy Buffett’s upcoming album Equal Strain on All Parts are now available to stream on your preferred music platform.

Listen to “Bubbles Up,” “My Gummie Just Kicked In,” and “Like My Dog” below on Youtube or search for them on Apple Music, Spotify, or Amazon Music:

Here is the full track listing for the new album, which will be released on November 3rd.

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)

You can pre-order the album at Amazon or get it on vinyl at Mailboat Records.

Three songs from Jimmy Buffett’s upcoming album Equal Strain on All Parts are available for streaming today, including “My Gummie Just Kicked In,” a song inspired by a moment at a dinner with Paul McCartney and his wife Nancy.

From Relix.com:

Today’s premiere was inspired by a dinner party encounter involving Buffett, McCartney and his wife, Nancy. Nancy stumbled on her way to the dinner table, and when the concerned Mayor of Margaritaville asked if she was OK, she responded, “Oh, no — I’m fine. My gummie just kicked in!” The two rock stars laughed and joked that they were going to write a song after her response, and the two followed through with McCartney adding bass to the track and hanging around the studio. The end result is a song with pristine production, skillful instrumentation, a catchy hook and loads of laughter.

McCartney recounted the experience in his heartfelt tribute to Buffett following his death: “I was very happy to have played on one of his latest songs called ‘My Gummie Just Kicked In’. We had a real fun session, and he played me some of his new songs.”

Watch the premiere of “My Gummie Just Kicked In” below with footage from the recording studio:

Jimmy Buffett dropped into the WLNG studios in Sag Harbor, New York on Sunday for an interview with Jessica Ambrose and Bill Evans.

More information available at danspapers.com: “Jimmy Buffett Debuts New Song ‘My Gummy Just Kicked In’ on WLNG Radio”

“He wanted to revel in the radio days gone by and selected WLNG as the place to do this — what an honor!” the radio station shared in an email on Sunday. “It was amazing having him waltz in on a Sunday a.m. — shaking everyone’s hands and complimenting the DJs,” they added on Monday, recalling the visit.

Buffett dropped by Broadcast House in Sag Harbor and joined on air DJs at 11 a.m. for a 45-minute interview on a very special edition of WLNG’s “Lunch on the Deck” with Bill Evans and Jessica Ambrose.

Jimmy said, “I wanted to drop the song like we used to, and knew that WLNG, my hometown station would be one of the few places with live DJs on a Sunday morning in July!”

Fans can find Jimmy Buffet’s new song, “My Gummy Just Kicked In” and give it a listen soon! It will be officially released as a single in a few weeks, and will later be included on his next album.

Read more here.

Buffett revealed in the interview that the inspiration for the song was from Paul McCartney’s wife Nancy and that Paul plays bass on the track.

Watch the interview at WLNG’s Facebook page.