Last Friday, Jimmy Buffett and Mac McAnally played an intimate show in front of about 200 people in Montauk, New York. Mark Bialczak of Syracuse.com writes on his blog about his friend’s experience at the show:

We went to dinner at this local restaurant that has been around for ages. There was an unusual flurry of activity and my friends said, ‘Some local band must be playing here tonight.’
“After we ate, we decided to walk outside and sit on bales of hay about 8 feet from the stage. Maybe there were 200 people under the tent… My buddy goes and gets me a beer and it’s ‘Landshark Beer.’ Now, I started to get suspicious.

“I look off to the side of the stage and I see Mac McAnally (from the Coral Reefer Band) with Kunkel, and Jimmy Buffett is standing right behind them. Buffett walks out on stage and plays for 2+ hours with no set list, just taking requests from the crowd. After the show there was a flurry of activity and I found myself face-to-face with the king of the Parrotheads for about a 5-minute chat.

“I told him that I was the idiot yelling out ‘Jimmy Dreams’ during the show . … He goes, ‘Man, that’s one of my favorite songs, and I was ready to play it, but I couldn’t remember the words.’ I told him that I asked my son to make sure they play it at my funeral and he said, ‘Wow, I hope they play it at mine too.’

Johnson e-mailed again to add that his good friend, former NHL player Pat LaFontaine, was part of his group of friends who smuggled him to Montauk.

“Pat thanked Buffett for playing the ‘hockey song’ (‘Boat Drinks’). Jimmy told him the story about how it was written in Boston after a particularly squirrely night with former Bruins star – Derek Sanderson. Buffett called Sanderson ‘a great wingman.’

“Pat invited Jimmy to come and skate with us some time on Pat’s backyard rink and Jimmy said, ‘Hell no, but I’d love to show you how to surf.’ Very cool.”

Read the entire blog entry here.

Hampton Style magazine has a great article on veteran surfers in Montauk, New York. It also has several great pictures:

Not easy to miss in his subtle new ride, a forest service-green Scooby-Doo van [pictured in article], Buffett pulls in grinning as a handful of comrades gather to gawk at the ultimate in solar-paneled, vegetable oil-fueled eco-cruising. Buffett maintains an enigmatic smile, unpacking his boards while sightseeing friends tour the van’s carpeted, cream interior. “How much is Crisco a gallon?” and “Do you smell French fries when you’re driving?” are just a few of the inquiries thrown his way.

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But Buffett shakes his head. “You’re gonna get a few assholes wherever you go, but it’s pretty mellow out there. You’ll see people with boogie boards and kids, guys teaching and world-class surfers and everybody gets along; that’s the great thing about surfing here,” he assures.

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“I’m not interested in having to go and do exercise; you put people in the water who haven’t paddled, and they know real quick how in shape you have to be to do that. We’re really having fun out there. I’ve lived here for 25 years over the summers, and I was lucky enough to pal up with a bunch of these guys. It’s just a real cool place,” Buffett states firmly.

“I’ve come out here on a Tuesday and it’s head-high break and there’s four people in the water. It’s just a luxury. A couple of months ago here, the buzz was out so I called Tony, and he said there was a swell. I had to get on a plane to go to Cannes in the afternoon but I just thought ‘I’m gonna go out.’ I came down and it’s all the people who don’t have real jobs, so there was only about five of us in the water. It was one of those days when the waves were starting there,” he points to the far left of the break, “and just long and clean, so I surfed for a good hour then I got on a plane, and I thought ‘This is the way to go to Europe.'”

The article is a great read. Be sure to check out the entire article here.

(hat tip to Matt for passing this along!)

The New York Daily News caught up with Jimmy and talked to him about surfing on Long Island:

Has Jimmy Buffett found a new northern Margaritaville? The singing sailor has been spending an awful lot of time in Montauk’s new Surf Lodge, sipping – wait for it – margaritas and hanging with pals. Just don’t ask him to take his shirt off. When we asked him if he ever goes topless, he almost lost his salt shaker.

“That’s a f– stupid question,” he railed. “I’m 60 years old. No, no, no, no, no!”

Buffet did reveal to us that he has had his share of summer flings, but we will have to wait at least another 30 years to hear about them.

“Of course, I have had a few,” he told us. “But I’d never tell you about it. When I’m 90, I’ll tell all.”