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Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band performed last night at the Verizon Wireless Music Center in Noblesville, IN. The set list and comments from the show are now available. Jimmy finished the show with an acoustic version of “Nautical Wheelers”.

The Indianapolis Star has a review of the show: “Parrothead party meets expectations”

Tropical weather, familiar tunes and an attentive star added up to a classic appearance by Jimmy Buffett Tuesday at Verizon Wireless Music Center. … Buffett displayed detailed awareness of his surroundings. Echoing comments that Dave Matthews made last week, Buffett mentioned the construction and development near the venue. Using an Andy Griffith analogy, Buffett said Noblesville had evolved from Mayberry status to Mount Pilot.

The lineup and starting time for each artist is now listed on the Newport Folk Festival website.

Jimmy Buffett plays the Fort Stage on Sunday August 3rd from 5:40 to 7:15 pm. Jake Shimabukuro (ukulele player) will be performing on the Waterside stage from 2:30 to 3:30 pm.

The festival takes place at Fort Adams State Park in Newport, Rhode Island. Since it is a state park there will be no tailgating or alcoholic beverages allowed in the parking lot.

(thanks to Jimsig for passing that along to us)

Enter our contest for a chance to win a free copy of Little Feat’s new CD “JOIN THE BAND” before it is officially released on August 26th. Jimmy Buffett is featured on two songs, “Champion of the World” and “Time Loves a Hero”. Some other songs on the album include performances by Coral Reefers Jim Mayer, Mac McAnally, Robert Greenidge, Ralph McDonald, and Michael Utley.

To enter our random drawing for a chance to win: Send an email to contest@buffettnews.com with your first name, last name, and email address. We have several copies that we will be giving away in the next three weeks.

Only one entry per person or email address please. All personal information will be kept private and will only be used to contact the winner.

Pre-Order Little Feat’s “JOIN THE BAND” at Amazon.com or download the album at iTunes.

The Online Casino Blog has an update on the sale of Donald Trump’s Marina Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City to the Costal Marina, LLC

Keep in mind that the new owners of this casino will have to wait for another year to begin operations since the sale still needs to be approved by the New Jersey authorities.

All of this legal haggling means that the Margaritaville Casino in the Atlantic City Marina will not be in existence for another year – so no “Margaritaville” for the time being. When it opens, it will actually be the first “Margaritaville” casino, since the Margaritaville Casino & Resort in Biloxi, Mississippi will open in 2010.

A recent article mentioned that construction on the Margaritaville Casino in Biloxi has been slowed down: “Don’t worry, Margaritaville will be built, work just slowing down“.

It is interesting to point out the Margaritaville in Biloxi is being built by Harrah Entertainment and the one in Atlantic City is not. When the new Margaritaville opens with will be competing directly with Harrah’s in Atlantic City.

Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band performed the second of two shows at the Toyota Park in Bridgeview, IL last night.

The Set List along with Comments from the show are now available.

Fingers Taylor and the Juke Joint Duo were again special guests for the show and peformed right after intermission on the song “Piece of Work”, and then they were featured on the songs “Skinny Woman” and “Sweet Home Chicago”. Fingers also joined in on a few other songs as well.

Some changes to the set list included “Last Mango In Paris”, “Another Saturday Night”, and an acoustic version of “Trying To Reason With Hurricane Season” to finish the show.

Jimmy’s sister Lulu will be appearing on the Today Show according to her website Crazy Sista Cooking: On Monday, July 28, Lucy Buffett will be cooking up one of her favorite summer party menus, live on the Today Show on NBC! Her appearance will be in the third hour of the show, from 9 am to 10 am.

The Today Show has one of her recipes: “Plate of paradise: Lucy Buffett’s wee burgers“

Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band performed the first of two shows at the Toyota Park in Bridgeview, IL last night.

The Set List along with Comments from the show are now available.

Fingers Taylor and the Juke Joint Duo performed a couple of songs right after intermission: “Skinny Woman” and “Sweet Home Chicago”. Fingers also joined in with his harp on “Son Of A Son Of A Sailor”, and “A Pirate Looks At Forty”.

Some changes to the set list included “Hey Good Lookin’” to open the show, the return of “Scarlet Begonias”, “We Are The People Our Parents Warned Us About” during the first encore, and a cover of John Prine’s “It’s a Big Old Goofy World” to end the show.

The Southtown Star has a tailgate review: “Buffett fans sip margaritas and chill out at Toyota Park”

Update: The Chicago Tribune has a review of the show: “Buffett moves smoothly into Toyota Park“

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has a review of Tuesday’s show: “Buffett takes his Parrotheads to the beach”

At around 8:10, Buffett entered the impressive stage to booming elation wearing just a loose T-shirt and Hawaiian-print shorts — the ultimate in ready-to-chill attire — and quickly dove into his first set, including consistently rousing versions of his hits “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes,” “Fruitcakes” and “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere.”

His band, the Coral Reefers, were predictably tight — they’ve been doing this rotation of tunes summer after summer — and retained sublime, subdued countenances that, behind any other front man, might’ve seemed out of place. But with Buffett leading the way, and playing to an audience doing quite the same, the sly grins and slowly rocking Coral Reefers were the perfect house band.

From the SunHerald: “Don’t worry. Margaritaville will be built. Work just slowing down”

The credit crunch has squeezed even the world’s largest casino company and Harrah’s put an end to rumors about the Margaritaville building site in East Biloxi by releasing details.

“Over the next few weeks, residents of Biloxi will notice less activity and fewer workers at the Margaritaville work site,” vice president of communications Marybel Batjer said in an e-mailed statement. “Rest assured that Harrah’s is not canceling the project. We still believe in the Margaritaville concept, and we remain committed to our vision for the property. This is a project that we studied extensively, and we believe that it still has a great potential to benefit the Biloxi market and our company.

Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band performed last night at the Post-Gazette Pavilion in Pittsburgh, PA. Jimmy has performed at the venue 25 times going back to 1990.

The Set List along with Comments are now available.

For the final encore Jimmy did an acoustic version of “Death Of An Unpopular Poet”. The last time he performed the song live was back on March 23rd, 2002 at the Paramount Theatre in Austin, TX.

The Juke Joint Duo are scheduled to perform at the two Chicago area shows on Thursday July 24th and Saturday July 26 at Toyota Park. The duo consists of drummer Cedric Burnside and guitarist Lightin’ Malcom. They performed a couple of songs on Satuday night right after intermission at the Alpine Valley show.

You can read more about the Juke Joint Duo at myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/jukejointduo

A blog by David Hoekstra of the Chicago Sun Times has some clips from the Alpine Valley show on Saturday: Jimmy Buffett Alpine Video

Some highlights from David’s article:

My favorite sight? The group of middle-aged housewives from Sugar Grove, Ill. called “Steel Crazy.” [www.steelcrazyband.com] They actually set up about 10 steel drums under a tent in the parking lot and played beautiful Buffett songs like “One Particular Harbor” and “A Pirate Looks at 40.”

The concert itself was remarkable. Buffett’s fine band was as tight as usual and on stage shennaigans were kept to a minimum. The nice surprise for hard core Buffett fans was the return of blues harmonica player Greg “Fingers” Taylor to the fold. Taylor’s searching riffs are to Buffett what Mickey Raphael’s harp is to Willie Nelson.

Buffett told me that during this years New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival he was out with Quint Davis of the Jazz Fest and some folks from the edgy Cajun/Southern restaurant Cochon when they stumbled across a hard driving Mississippi-based act “The Juke Joint Duo.” Turned out they were drummer Cedric Burnside, the grandson of electric Mississippi blues great R.L. Burnside and his guitar slinging partner in crime Lightin’ Malcom.
Cedric Burnside, who appeared in the film “Black Snake Moan” with Samuel L. Jackson is a fierce spot-on drummer who guided the band through “Hey, Bo Diddley,” a tribute to another one of Mississppi’s favorite sons. The center stage summit between Malcom, Buffett’s guitarist Mac McAnally, Taylor and Buffett was sparked by improvisational energy. They tore the roof off the place—well, if Alpine had a roof.