BUFFETT, NASHVILLE TAKE BEACHCOMBER GETAWAY
By Barry Gilbert
Of the Post-Dispatch
July 29, 2004
|
|
Jimmy Buffett |
"Am
I country, pop or rock and roll/I know they are related/I'll just let you be
the judge," Jimmy Buffett sings on "Simply Complicated," one of
16 generous songs from his hit CD "License to Chill."
But
there's no need to answer. After about 30 years of making music for his loyal
army of Parrot Heads and being ignored by radio since "Margaritaville"
in 1977, Buffett has come full circle: back to Nashville, where he is -- gasp!
-- an influence. Just ask Kenny Chesney, aka Buffett in a cowboy hat.
Buffett
has not sounded this energized and engaged in years. After the success of his
duet last year with Alan Jackson on "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere," it
was a sure thing that he would try it again. But it is a major surprise that he
has produced such a substantial and unself-conscious CD, which debuted at the
top of the Billboard chart and represents Buffett's first No. 1 album.
Buffett's
five original compositions -- "License to Chill," "Coast of
Carolina," "Simply Complicated," "Coastal Confessions"
and the wonderfully titled "Conky Tonkin'" -- stand among his best
work of the past two decades. And he really hasn't changed much to make this
album contemporary-country friendly beyond mixing down -- but not eliminating
-- the steel drums and adding a steel guitar.
But
this CD really shines with Buffett's choices of covers and duet partners. To
balance the lightweight fun of Hank Williams' "Hey Good Lookin',"
with Chesney, Jackson, Clint Black, Toby Keith and George Strait, he offers
Bruce Cockburn's "Someone I Used to Love" with the decidedly
nonmainstream Nanci Griffith.
And the
rocking bombast of Will Kimbrough's "Piece of Work," with the
bombastic Keith, is set off by the gorgeous "Playin' the Loser
Again," written by and performed with R&B legend Bill ("Ain't No
Sunshine," "Lean on Me") Withers. Other standouts include
Buffett's solo on John Hiatt's "Window on the World" and with Strait
on Don Gibson's "Sea of Heartbreak."
But the
song that is likely to be part of Buffett's live shows from here on out is Leon
Russell's sublime "Back to the Island." It is so Buffett, it's
astounding that it took 29 years for him to record it.