CMA’s reigning Musician of the Year and Coral Reefer Band member Mac McAnally made a surprise appearance on Tuesday when he joined Kenny Chesney on stage for Chesney’s “Austin City Limits” taping.

They played “Down The Road”, their recent number one hit collaboration, and “Back Where I Come From”.

“Any time you can put the focus on the songs, it’s a good thing,” Chesney says. “And to be able to do that with Mac… well, it just takes these songs to a whole other level. I was honored that he’d do this with us, and I hope we’ll get to see him out on the road when he can get away from his own stuff.”

The show will air sometime in early Fall on PBS.

Read more at ChesneyWorld.

One of our readers, Melissa, passed this along:

I heard on the Today Show this morning that the Today Show gang is heading out to Key West on May 5th to Mile Marker 0 and Jimmy Buffett will be playing a concert there with the Today Show.

(hat tip to Melissa for passing this along)

Update – The Today Show’s website has more:

For one week this May, America’s first TV family will be spending more than just their mornings together. Matt Lauer, Meredith Vieira, Al Roker and Ann Curry will pack their bags and head to some of America’s most beautiful destinations. TODAY Takes a Vacation, a five-day series, begins Monday, May 4.

Lauer added details about the anchors’ itinerary for Tuesday, May 5. “We’ll travel to mile marker zero in Key West, Florida,” he said. “From the southernmost point in the U.S., we will look for sunken treasure. And you can’t go to Key West without a little music from Jimmy Buffett, who’ll greet us with a live concert.”

Another year has come and gone, and we look back at some of the highlights from 2008:

January

• Jimmy’s sister Lucy “Lulu” releases cookbook: “Crazy Sista Cooking”



• Jimmy plays a charity benefit show in Hong Kong
• In addition to Hong Kong show, Jimmy performs private show in Singapore and performs for troops aboard the USS Harry Truman (right)

February

• February 4th was the 7 year anniversary of Jimmy getting ejected from Miami Heat game
• The crew of the space shuttle Atlantis prepares for spacewalk by listening to Buffett’s “Oysters and Pearls”
• It’s reported that a Michigan company would begin making chips and salsa for Jimmy’s Margaritaville Foods
• In mid-February the annual trickle of tour dates begin to leak out, followed by the official tour announcements by the end of the month
• Harrison Ford reveals in an interview with Barbara Walters that he got his ear pierced after a lunchtime birthday celebration with Jimmy and the late Ed Bradley
• It’s announced that Buffett would build a new restaurant in Waikiki, Hawaii called “Jimmy Buffett’s At The Beachcomber”

March

• Panama City Margaritaville opens on March 5th
• On March 12th, Comedy Central’s “South Park” lampooned Jimmy Buffett (right)
• March 17th marked the 30 year anniversary of the release of “Son Of A Son Of A Sailor”

April

• Jimmy and Mac performed April 9th at the Glendale, AZ Margaritaville
• On April 13th, Jimmy and Jane Buffett pledged $50,000 at Comedy Central’s “Night Of Too Many Stars Autism Benefit”
• 2008 tour kicks off April 21st in Houston
• Buffett plays St. Louis for the first time in 8 years
• Other tour stops this month were Frisco, TX and Charlotte, NC

May

• Freddie & The Fishsticks play benefit show at New Orleans Margaritaville on May 1st



• Buffett plays New Orleans Jazz Fest on May 3rd
• Jimmy’s latest novel, “Swine Not?” is released May 13th
• Publicity rounds for new book include the Today Show, Regis & Kelly, and David Letterman
• It’s reported May 29th that the Trump Casino in Atlantic City will be turned into a Margaritaville Casino

June

• “Scenes You Know By Heart” DVD released exclusively through Walmart on June 3rd
• Second leg of tour resumes in Atlanta on June 5th
• Buffett also plays Raleigh, Detroit, New York City, and Philadelphia in the month of June

July

• Tour resumes in Cincinnati on July 17th
• Buffett also plays East Troy, Pittsburgh, Chicago twice, and Indianapolis in the month of July
• It’s reported that because of the credit crunch, work was slowing on the Margaritaville Casino in Biloxi

August

• Jimmy performs at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island on August 3rd
• Tour resumes August 24th in Atlantic City
• Buffett also plays Wantagh, NY and the first of two shows in Bristow, VA in August

September

• Second show in Bristow, VA on September 1st
• Other tour stops in September include two shows in Mansfield, MA
• September 6th Mansfield show time moved up to 3 pm because of the approaching Hurricane Hanna
• Buffett performs two shows in Paris, marking the second year in a row he’s played Paris
• Mohegan Sun Margaritaville opens on September 29th
• BuffettWorld debuts the Buffett Caption Contest

October

• New monthly column debuts on BuffettWorld: “From Under My Lone Palm”, written by Justin
• Coral Reefer Nadirah Shakoor releases album on October 14th: “Nod To The Storyteller”
• West coast tour includes stops in San Diego, San Francisco, and two shows in Las Vegas
• On October 23rd, Jimmy visited Google Headquarters where he spoke and performed

November

• Jimmy’s dear friend and legendary Key West figure Captain Tony Tarracino died on November 1st



• Jimmy performs November 2nd at a Barack Obama rally in Tampa, Florida (right)
• On the 8th, Jimmy performed a private show at the Mohegan Sun Margaritaville Cafe
• Radio Margaritaville becomes available to XM subscribers as the result of the Sirius XM merger
• Coral Reefer Mac McAnally won CMA Musician of the Year at CMA Awards on November 12th
• Jimmy attends University of Florida football game on the 15th where he was invited into the locker room by coach Urban Meyer

December

• Jimmy Buffett turns 62 years old on Christmas Day

And that’s a quick review of 2008!

It was another great year at BuffettWorld and we’d like to thank all of you who visit BuffettWorld, subscribe to the daily email updates, and who are members of our forum.

Thank you and we look forward to providing you the best and most Jimmy Buffett news and information on the web again in 2009!

Jimmy Buffett appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman on Wednesday night to discuss his new book “Swine Not?”.

It was Jimmy’s first appearance on Letterman since November 22nd, 1996 when he performed “Ho Ho Ho And A Bottle Of Rum” off his then-new album “Christmas Island.”

They discussed the novel, and how songwriting and writing books is similar. They then talked about the France/Ecstasy incident. Jimmy mentioned that the day before he was detained by French authorities, he had played a show for the Marines at the US Embassy in Paris.

After the commercial break, Jimmy performed “Volcano” with Mac McAnally, Ralph MacDonald, and Paul Schaeffer and the CBS Orchestra. Also, for a web-only exclusive, they performed “Bama Breeze.” You can view that performance here.

Jimmy Buffett continues his media blitz tonight with an appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman on CBS.

He will be on to discuss his new book “Swine Not?”

This will be the first time in several years that Buffett will be on Letterman.