Jimmy Buffett has endorsed Democrat Gwen Graham in the Florida governor race and will hold a rally for her.

Legendary Singer/Songwriter/Author and Florida icon Jimmy Buffett announced today that he is hosting a Get Out The Vote Concert for Gwen Graham.

Buffett, a long-standing advocate of Florida’s environment and quality of life is committed to helping Gwen win the Florida Governor’s race and follow in the footsteps of her father, Governor and U.S Senator Bob Graham.

“Like her Dad, Gwen will put the interests of everyday Floridians first. She has a heart for people and a passion for the Sunshine state. She’ll protect our precious natural environment, ensure we have strong public schools and affordable health care. It’s been too long since we have had a Governor for all the people. For that reason, I am supporting my friend, Democrat Gwen Graham, for governor and I encourage ya’ll to do the same” Buffett said.

Buffett will be playing a Get Out the Vote Concert for Gwen on August 23 in South Florida. More details will be forthcoming.

“Jimmy isn’t just a legendary musician, he is also a dedicated environmentalist who has worked with my family for years to preserve Florida’s natural treasures,” Graham said. “I am proud to have earned his vote on Election Day – come that Tuesday it’ll be alright.”

Jimmy Buffett performed at Fenway Park in Boston on Thursday for the first time since 2004. The Boston Globe has a review of the show: “Smooth sailing for Jimmy Buffett at Fenway”

At Fenway Park on Thursday, the headline performer noted that the tracking doesn’t stop at water’s edge. “This is a great place to study the land shark population,” Jimmy Buffett said as he surveyed the crowd.

That, of course, cued the floral-printed Buffett faithful to the next song, his band’s 19th or so of the night. It was “Fins,” the one where fans form a triangle with hands above their heads, then follow the instructions: “Fins to the left, fins to the right.”

Buffett, still grinning at 71, has built an empire out of his lifelong fixation on marine life — the boats, the islands, the pirates, the boat drinks. The Fenway Park show was his last of the year, he said: “Who knows what could happen?” In fact, the “Son of a Son of a Sailor” tour-closer featured all the usual menu items — margaritas, cheeseburgers, plenty of corn.

View the set list from the show here.

See more photos from the show here.

On Kenny Chesney’s latest album Songs for the Saints, he and Jimmy Buffett recorded a version of “Trying to Reason with Hurricane Season.”

“Jimmy, more than the lost shaker of salt, understands the poetry of the islands beyond what tourists see, the life in a way that made a song written decades ago so current,” Chesney says of the song.

Get the song now at Amazon or iTunes.

Listen to the song below:

Longtime Radio Margaritaville DJ Carson Cooper has died at the age of 58 after an illness, according to the Tampa Bay Times:

Longtime radio personality Carson Cooper, who was the honeyed voice of one of public radio’s signature shows, NPR’s Morning Edition on WUSF–FM 89.7, died Saturday after a long illness, the radio station reported Tuesday. He was 58.

Mr. Cooper, an award-winning radio fixture in the Tampa Bay area for three decades, had been WUSF’s Morning Edition host since 2000, but had been off the air since February dealing with a health issue. He also had hosted the WUSF show Florida Matters since its inception in 2006, but had stepped back from that since last summer.

When the station in June announced that Jessica Meszaros would be taking over as host of Morning Edition, JoAnn Urofsky, WUSF’s general manager, held out high hopes that Mr. Cooper would return.

“This was a surprise because we did hope he would return to the air,” Urofsky said. “He was still a staff member. He really wanted to come back to work.”

Urofsky said Mr. Cooper’s family had not yet figured out what kind of memorial services will be held, and the station will have a remembrance for him on air, “because everybody has stories they want to share. He was so terrific.”

He had a side gig that also started in 1999 as a host and programer of Jimmy Buffett’s Radio Margaritaville, now on Sirius satellite radio. The station, created by Buffett, plays a range of reggae, tropical country and a variety of world music and classic singer-songwriters from the ’70s and ’80s.

Read more about Cooper in the full article.

Due to a bottleneck at security lines getting into Saturday night’s concert at KeyBank Pavilion in Pittsburgh, many fans were very late getting into the Jimmy Buffett show. Live Nation will be offering refunds in the form of “concert cash”:

Fans who did not pass through the gates of the Buggettstown venue by 8:25 p.m. will receive “concert cash” equal to the value of their Ticketmaster tickets, according to a statement Tuesday from Live Nation, the concert promoter handling shows at KeyBank Pavilion.

The statement did not say how fans will be notified of their refund. Live Nation has encouraged fans to reach out to Ticketmaster Fan Support at 1-800-653-8000 in the past.

Long lines stretched from the venue’s gates as the show started Saturday evening. Many fans reported waiting outside for hours and not getting inside until the show was nearly over.

Buffett’s fans, known as Parrot Heads, have demanded refunds. The concert cash can be used for other shows at KeyBank Pavilion or at any other Live Nation venue in the country. Ticket prices ranged from $50 for a lawn seat to $150 for reserved seating.

Live Nation has been absolutely silent on what caused the long lines outside the venue or what the company is doing to ensure it does not happen again. The company issued an apology Sunday and pledged to work hard to prevet it from happening again.