Buffett began his musical career in Nashville, Tennessee during the late 1960s as a
country artist and recorded his first album, the folk rock Down to Earth, in 1970.
During this time Buffett could be frequently found busking for tourists in New Orleans.
Country music singer Jerry Jeff Walker took him to Key West
on a busking expedition. Buffett then moved to Key West and began establishing the easy-going beach bum persona
for which he is known. Following this move, Buffett combined country, folk, and pop music
with coastal as well as tropical lyrical themes for a sound sometimes called "gulf and
western." Today, he is a regular visitor to the Caribbean island of Saint Barts and other
islands where he gets inspiration for many of his songs and some of the characters in his books.
There is a tale
That the island people tell
Don't care if it is true
'Cause I love it so well
Jolly Mon sing for his supper every night
People fed him well
'Cause he treated them so right
Oh, wo wo oh Jolly Mon Sing
Oh, wo wo oh Make a rhyme ring
By Jimmy Buffett, W. Jennings & Mike Utley
(Jolly Mon Sing
from the Last Mango In Paris album ~ 1985)
Buffett's third album was the 1973 A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean. A1A followed in
1974, Havana Daydreamin' appeared in 1976, followed by 1977's Changes in Latitudes, Changes in
Attitudes, which featured the breakthrough hit song "Margaritaville".
Two of the more out-of-character albums were Christmas Island, a collection of holiday songs,
and Parakeets, a
collection of Buffett songs sung by children and containing "cleaned-up" lyrics
(like "a cold root beer" instead of "a cold draft beer").
In 2003, he partnered in a partial duet with Alan Jackson for the song It's Five O'Clock Somewhere, a
number one hit on the country charts. This song won the 2003 Country Music Association Award for Vocal
Event of the Year. This was Buffett’s first award of any kind for his music in his 30 year career.
Buffett's album, License to Chill,
released on July 13, 2004, sold 238,600 copies in its first week of release
according to Nielsen SoundScan. With this, Buffett topped the U.S. pop albums chart for the first time in his
three-decade career.
Buffett continues to tour throughout the year although he has shifted recently to a more relaxed schedule of
around 20–30 dates, and rarely on back-to-back nights, preferring to play only on Tuesdays, Thursdays and
Saturdays, thus the title of his 1999 live album Buffett Live — Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays.
Purchasing tickets is difficult with most of his concerts selling out in minutes.
In the summer of 2005 Buffett teamed up with Sirius radio and introduced channel 31: Radio Margaritaville,
and as of November 2008 is also on XM radio channel 55. Until this point Radio Margaritaville was solely an
online channel. The channel broadcasts from the Margaritaville restaurant at Universal CityWalk in Orlando,
Florida.
In August 2006, he released the album Take The Weather With You.
The song Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On
on this album refers to 2005's Hurricane Katrina. Also on the album he pays tribute to Merle Haggard with his
rendition of "Silver Wings" and covers, with Mark Knopfler playing on the track, "Whoop De Doo."
Of the over 30 albums Jimmy Buffett has released, as of October, 2007, he has 8 Gold Albums and 9 Platinum or
Multi Platinum Albums.
