If you don't like Jimmy Buffett music, shame on you.  Don't let his popular music that everyone knows be the only music of his that you know about.  A lot of his music that's obscure is sooooo much better...Margaritaville and Cheeseburger in Paradise are hardly his best work...not that I don't like those songs, but they are hardly the storytelling party songs diehard fans know and love so much.  Even some of his covers of other peoples songs turn out way better than the originals...steel drums add the island flair, and the Coral Reefers are some of the best musicians you'll ever see.

Cousin Mike

While in college, I learned of the entertainer of all entertainers...Jimmy Buffett.  His music is what he describes as "escapism."  What a life he's led.  The guy's been everywhere and done just about everything.  As years grew and I became a more diehard fan, I have ended up with a multi-album collection of his music, clothes, and baseball hates emblazoned with the "MARGARITAVILLE" Logo.  I have all his books, with my favorites being "A Pirate Looks At Fifty", which is a memoir of an island hopping plane trip he took with his family upon turning fifty.  My second favorite is "Where is Joe Merchant?", a story that starts off in my mecca of Key West and puts the fictional characters in all sorts of situations in the Carribean, while searching for a musician who is dead to the world, yet his sister believes he's alive.

Jimmy for me is the epitome of what it means to have a good time.  To hear his music and read his words in his books takes you to where he is talking about...There's a mysticism in the way he tells a story...He knows so much about Carribean customs, folklore, and all that good stuff...when he tells the story, that's where you want to be.  When he describes sunsets, or a beach with a lone palm on it, you can envision it, and almost smell the salt air yourself.  That's what makes Jimmy an entertainer...he's not a fantastic musician, which he readily admits, but is quite possibly one of the best storytellers the world has ever seen.

I began attending Buffett shows in 2000.  That's 7 consecutive years of tailgating with a bunch of maniacs who have the best time in the world.  One of my goals in life is to one day meet the man before either A:  I die or B: He dies.  For years, at shows, I looked for the cameras that film the parking lot that will fill up the "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes" video montage he plays at the shows.  6 years I searched for this elusive opportunity to no avail.  Although it's no big thing, it would give me the feeling of actually being part of the show, although miniscule...maybe someday Jimmy would go through all the footage, and he'd see me and go "Hey, now THERE'S a guy who likes to have a good time."

Finally, in the summer of 2006, it happened.  Parked in the far corner of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette Pavilion parking lot, a cameraman came around.  I was wearing a shirt with a skull and crossed cutlasses on it, drinking out of a glass with the same emblem on it.  As the cameraman shot his video, I raised my Cuba Libre (rum and coke) in toast to the day, Jimmy, and good times.

As the concert went on, several video montages were played, and I thought I had been edited.  Then, suddenly, during "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes", there I was...in front of over 37,000 people.  Yeah, baby.

Cousin Mike

one of my fave college memories was a Buffett show atr Merriweather Post Pavilion outside of Baltimore.  A carload of sorority gals, with 2 carloads of frat boys, July 1994.  It was awesome.  The tailgating is amazing, and the frat boys we brought we well prepared.  This is also where I learned and exemplified the term "boot & rally" as that is exactly what i did.  But i came back witha  vengeance, scalped me a ticket, and went in and grooved on a blanket. 

The music is so great.....we've got the greatest hits CD and we play it over the outdoor sound system we have all summer.  Eve, our 4 year old, thinks when someone orders a cheeseburger they are required to say "Cheeseburger in Paradise"  NOthing like indoctrinating them young.

I can think of nothing better than to go to a Buffett concert with you, Crazy Cousin Cory.....even now that I'm an old lady, I bet we'd thoroughly enjoy ourselves.