Category: Special Appearances

Jimmy Buffett performed last night at the Margaritaville Café in Key West. Mayor Craig Cates and Senator Elect Doug Jones made an appearance.

Update from TheHill.com: Singer Jimmy Buffett reportedly serenaded Sen.-elect Doug Jones (D-Ala.) and his wife, Louise Jones, in Key West, Fla., on Saturday as the couple celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary.

The event, which was first reported by Politico, took place at Buffett’s Margaritaville restaurant less than a week after Jones scored a surprise victory over Republican candidate Roy Moore, who was plagued by sexual misconduct allegations.

Buffett sang “Stars Fell on Alabama” to the couple and gave them a special shoutout, according to the news outlet.

From the Caribbean Journal: One of St Barth’s favorite sons is planning a major concert in Gustavia this month.

Jimmy Buffett, the music superstar and frequent St Barth visitor, is planning to play a free concert in Gustavia on Dec. 27.

The concert will be held on the quai in St Barth’s tiny capital; Buffett will be accompanied by local musician Soley and other musicians from the island.

“He hopes that by performing there he will persuade a few more people to come down for the holidays,” said Stiles Bennet, president and CMO of Wimco Villas. “It’s a fun way for folks to support the island’s recovery.”

Buffett has had a decades-long relationship with the island, and some of his most legendary songs were inspired by St Barth, including One Particular Harbor, Au Tour de Rocher and Cheeseburger in Paradise.

As Caribbean Journal reported, St Barth has been making a rapid recovery in the wake of Hurricane Irma; Buffett’s concert should only provide an even bigger boost.

From the New York Post (Page Six): “Jimmy Buffett plays surprise set at Surf Lodge”

Jimmy Buffett surprised a crowd at Surf Lodge in Montauk on Wednesday night by performing a half-dozen songs with local rocker Nancy Atlas — including a cover of “Brown Eyed Girl” and his own hit, “Margaritaville.”

“He didn’t want to leave the stage,” said an impressed attendee.

“He jokingly said he would ‘play until tomorrow.’ ”

Hamptons fixture Buffett, 70, is on a break from his world tour, which resumes later this month in Paris.

(Photo courtesy Ken Grille)

A post shared by Danielle Ciminelli (@danielle_ciminelli) on Aug 30, 2017 at 5:26pm PDT

From the Chicago Tribune: “Jimmy Buffett and his Parrot Heads take over the Playhouse”

The event was Jimmy Buffett talks with Chris Jones and Christopher Ashley, but it could have been a listed as a quadruple bill: Jimmy Buffett, the Tribune’s Chris Jones, Christopher Ashley and a house full of Parrot Heads, so much a part of the proceedings were the room full of Buffett fans Monday night at the Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place.

Buffett, fresh off a concert at Wrigley Field this weekend, was still in town come Monday to talk about “Escape to Margaritaville,” his current project, a theatrical musical based on his songs and directed by Ashley, set to stage in November at the Oriental Theatre. The conversation in the intimate Playhouse covered a grab bag of topics, from Buffett’s early days playing in Chicago at the now-defunct Quiet Knight Bar, where he crossed paths with a musical influence (Bob Marley), to what song he had better not leave out of his musical, as demanded by some cheerfully boisterous booing from the crowd (“A Pirate Looks at Forty”).

Other topics for the evening’s conversation: Buffett’s Margaritaville empire (there are plans for retirement homes, with yoga, paddle board “and yes there will be medical marijuana”). Why Buffett crowds still feel welcoming in our divided times (folks at his concerts are in a “state of exuberation,” he said, “ and then on Monday everyone has to go back to work.”) A funny anecdote of him falling off stage in Australia, only for him to wake up in a hospital watching a video of him falling off stage in Australia. The low point of his musical career when his record company tried to make him a country music star (“I got out of Nashville. I went to Key West. There was a reason.”). His own retirement (“Retire from what?”).

From the Chicago Tribune: “Tickets on sale for ‘Jimmy Buffett in Conversation with Chris Jones’”

Are you a pirate two hundred years too late? Got a Caribbean soul you can barely control? When you see a salt shaker, do you worry it will get lost?

If you answered yes to any or all of the above — or even if you just are intrigued by a singer-songwriter whose career spans some 45 years and has ranged from protest songs to the consummate party ditties — you should join me for a frank, intimate, no-holds-barred conversation with Jimmy Buffett. We’ll talk about his career, his relationship with his fans, his fast-growing Margaritaville empire (yes, there are plans for retirement homes) and his new Broadway musical, “Escape to Margaritaville.”

“Jimmy Buffett in Conversation with Chris Jones” is 6-8 p.m. Monday, July 17 at the Broadway Playhouse, 175 E. Chestnut St., Chicago. Tickets at tribtix.com. “Escape to Margaritaville” is coming Nov. 9 to the Oriental Theatre, 24 W. Randolph St.; more at broadwayinchicago.com.