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Some new videos have been posted at Margaritaville.com:
1. Lulu introduces Freddie and the Fishsticks at Gulf Shores show – June 30
2. Jimmy plays Dreamsicle at Lulus in Gulf Shores – June 30
3. Bret Michaels sings Margaritaville at Pine Knob

A video of the recently opened Margaritaville Beach Hotel is available at FoxTV10.com:

In the midst of the devastating oil spill, there is some good news. A $50 million hotel is open on Pensacola Beach. Margaritaville Beach Hotel opens at time many places are considering closing down.

They have beach volleyball and a bar that will have live music every night. A new restaurant inside is open to the public. They hope that helps the numbers. It opened with only about 35 percent of the rooms full, but business is expected to pick up for the Fourth of July and Blue Angel weekend. They’re doing whatever they can to make sure summer profits won’t go like the lyrics: wastin’ away.

“We just want be part of whatever clean-up is going to be, we’ll be part of the recovery,” added Baldanza.

The hotel will likely be airing Buffett’s concert live, so for all of you who didn’t get tickets, that may be an option.

Some photos of the Margaritaville Beach Hotel area available at MargaritavilleHotel.com.

Another video of Jimmy Buffett’s appeared on Anderson Cooper 360 on CNN is now available – Interview Part 2

From the Pensacola News Journal: “Oil spill: Chesney bows out of benefit”

Jimmy Buffett is going to be short a friend when he appears at a beachside concert in Gulf Shores, Ala., on July 11.

Country music superstar Kenny Chesney, who was part of the bill announced for the “CMT Presents Jimmy Buffett & Friends: Live From the Gulf Coast” concert, announced that he will not appear.

In a Twitter feed, he wrote, “Hate that I can’t get to Gulf Shores to sing w Jimmy Buffett, Mac McAnally, and the Zac Brown Band. Gonna be great music!”

Chesney’s tweet was the first mention of country singer Mac McAnally coming to the concert, which is intended to bring tourists to the area affected by the BP oil spill.

Jimmy Buffett appeared on Anderson Cooper 360 on CNN on Thursday night and spoke about the effect of the oil spill on tourism and wildlife: “Margaritaville will survive“. More of the interview will be available on Friday and Monday.

Jimmy Buffett was out walking on the beach in Gulf Shores, Alabama when we arrived for the interview.

“This is the beach of my misspent youth,” he said, as we began to stroll along the water’s edge.

A few kids played in the water, but the rough surf created by Hurricane Alex kept them from swimming. A thin line of tar balls had been left on the beach by the morning tide.

“You’re not human if anger isn’t the first emotion,” says Buffett, who has long been involved in environmental causes.

“Can Margaritaville survive an oil slick?” I ask. “Sure, hell, we’ll survive,” he says quickly, “people on this coast can survive anything. I mean, it’s another storm, it happens to be one we’re not quite used to in terms of what it’s leaving behind, but you know, this is hurricane country and people bounce back, and I love the resilience of people.”

Buffett himself has just opened up a hotel in Pensacola Beach, not great timing he admits, but he is not surprised this spill has lasted so long. He says he didn’t believe the early estimates put out by BP about the oil flow.

From the Alabama Press-Register: “Jimmy Buffett performs surprise concert in Gulf Shores, drawing over 2,000 people”

Photo Gallery from AL.com

At about 6:30 p.m. Lucy Buffett delivered some bad news: Bluesman Sonny Landreth, who was supposed to play at her waterfront restaurant, Lulu’s at Homeport Marina, had had to cancel his scheduled show. But, working a family connection, she had procured a substitute performer: her brother and south Alabama favorite son Jimmy Buffett.

Buffet and his seven-piece Coral Reefer Band then launched into a two-hour set before a very stoked crowd that grew through word of mouth to well over 2,000.

Though he played unannounced in 2000 at his mother’s birthday party at the old Lulu’s on Weeks Bay, tonight was his first performance at his sister’s much larger location in Gulf Shores.

Buffett, who wore a T-shirt on which he had scrawled “We’ll be back Sunday,” was ferried to the show via the Intracoastal Waterway by a boat that moored near the outdoor stage.

“It was a hard secret to keep,” Fisher said. “Jimmy wanted to play as soon as the other show was canceled.”