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!

Jimmy Buffett attended a Houston dinner party on Friday night to honor artist John Alexander:

Few at the Hotel ZaZa dinner Friday night could have anticipated the entertaining barrage of praise, humor and gentle barbs continually lobbed at artist John Alexander.

It was, after all, a celebration of his remarkable career, a dinner for 135 that seemed absolutely intimate after the crush, estimates of more than 1,000, that poured into the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston earlier in the evening for the opening of John Alexander: A Retrospective.

Humor ruled at the dinner thanks to the continuous stream of remarks from Alexander collectors and pals such as Chevy Chase. Who needed time for table conversation, with Chase taking the microphone on three occasions (stumbling forward each time in his classic bumbling shtick) and with a host of other Alexander chums with something to say.

David Berg launched his playful tribute by introducing himself as Jimmy Buffett, the real star seated at a nearby table.

Among the many taking turns toying with Alexander’s image and/or praising him were Buffett, artist James Surls, collector Marilyn Oshman, 60 Minutes reporter Steve Kroft, MFAH director Peter Marzio, and Timothy Eaton, who represents Alexander through Eaton Fine Art in West Palm Beach, Fla. Of course, Alexander responded several times, his relaxed and jocular nature adding to the fun.

Read the entire article here.

Lucy Buffett, sister of Jimmy Buffett and owner of Lulu’s at Homeport in Gulf Shores, Alabama, has ordered another 10,000 copies of her new cookbook after the first 2,000 went quickly. WKRG TV has an interview with Lucy about “Crazy Sista Cookin”:

“I always wanted to write the book.” she told News 5’s Bill Riales. “I started with that little place on Week’s Bay and I genuinely thought that I’d sell a lot of beer, I’d cook a few cheeseburgers and a pot of gumbo and I would sit on the porch and write my cookbook.. I really thought that, and it was not to be.”

It turned out the restaurant proved so popular, especially after the move to Gulf Shores, that Lucy thought she might have to give up her dream of writing it. But seeing the heart of the eatery, the kitchen, and the rest of it could run without her there all the time–the book started to take shape once again.

She says, “Iniitially I just thought if I sell it at LuLu’s it would be fine–that’s what it started as. I’ve been wanting to write this book for a long time and it follows the dishes we serve here at LuLu’s and those dishes come from my personal experience or they’ve been borrowed or adapted from either friends of mine or family.”

Buffett says she’s gotten word the book has reached readers in Minnesota, and Michigan, New York and California–and lots of points in between. Only two months after its release, she’s already ordered another ten thousand copies–and expects to order more. And just in case you’ve already devoured the stories and recipes in this one–Lucy says she’s still got plenty of tales left to tell and is already planning a second book.

A portion of the proceeds from ‘Crazy Sista Cookin’ will benefit one of Lucy’s pet projects, art education in Baldwin County Schools.

Check out the entire interview with Lucy Buffett here.

Order “Crazy Sista Cooking” now, which includes a foreward by Jimmy Buffett.

Jimmy Buffett performed a USO concert this week for our troops aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) during a recent port visit in the Middle East. Navy.mil has some photos of the event: