Jimmy Buffett - Buffet Hotel

Jimmy Buffett
Buffet Hotel
Mailboat Records
www.margaritaville.com


With apologies to Forrest Gump, Jimmy Buffett is like the anti-box of chocolates – you know exactly what you’re going to get. With every CD bought and every live show attended, the paying customer is guaranteed a sun-drenched, salt-rimmed good time. There are other places you can go if you want to be challenged or astounded, but sometimes you just want that familiar, comfortable cheeseburger. This year’s cheeseburger turns out to be pretty tasty. Bufett Hotel, Jimmy’s 42nd release, is inspired by a trip to Mali and the title comes from a hotel in Timbuktu where many Mali musicians got their start. The twelve tracks here are co-produced by longtime bandmates Michael Utley and Mac McAnally and guests include slide guitarist extraordinaire Sonny Landreth, Cedric Burnside and Will Kimbrough, who co-wrote four of the tracks and plays guitar, harmonica, banjo and mandolin.

In fact, full disclosure compels me to divulge that Will Kimbrough and Tommy Womack’s band DADDY is one of my personal favorites and they grab the opening track here. “Nobody from Nowhere” is a song that doesn’t romanticize rural, small town life so much as it simply accepts it for what it is, where “waiting for a car to drive by, just so you can wave hello” is the highlight of your day, and that’s okay.

Drummer Roger Guth contributes “Big Top,” a tune that gently acknowledges that the circus that is the travelling Parrothead roadshow is a bit out of their control (“I’m an accessory in front of the pack.”) and Kimbrough chimes in again on “Surfing in a Hurricane,” which takes the opportunity to slap in a few surf-guitar licks for good measure. Otherwise, the rest of the record is a pretty standard selection of familiar ballads, a couple of uptempo tunes that are obviously slated for live shows, a decent cover of Jesse Winchester’s “Rhumba Man,” Bruce Cockburn’s wistful “Life Short Call Now” and “A Lot to Drink About,” a pretty clever, topical “high-speed drinking song.”
As Buffett says in the extensive liner notes (printed on recycled paper), “when you are lucky enough to get to a point in your life where you can basically do what you want, the trick is to be able to enjoy it.” This is not the Buffett of 1973, who indulged in penny-ante shoplifting (“Peanut Butter Conspiracy” from A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean), it’s been twenty years since this pirate looked at forty, and Buffet Hotel won’t garner him any new fans (not that he needs any), but it’s a pleasant enough listen. Buffett’s gift is making his enjoyment of life infectious, and on Buffet Hotel, he does just that.

Curtis Lynch
Playgrounds Magazine January 2010
www.playgroundsmag.com

TybeeDawg’s Pick of the Litter 2009’s Top Ten CDs

Does the year you’ve had influence what you listen to, or is it the other way around? Do you listen to the blues because you have them or because you’re glad you don’t? And what about love songs? Or death metal? This year’s selections are even more heavily weighted toward the Americana genre than my normal listening habits, mainly because the songwriters here are unusually adept at surveying and communicating the human condition, and in my opinion, our condition in 2009 surely needs someone to explain it to the rest of us and put it in context. As Will Kimbrough says, “For balance, how about we take in a little Buddha…and Johnny Cash.” So with that in mind, here are the CDs that spoke to me in 2009, in no particular order.

Daddy –For A Second Time – finely crafted roots music from Will Kimbrough and Tommy Womack, two guys who know their way around a song. Best track: “Nobody From Nowhere,” also the opening track on Jimmy Buffett’s new release.

Grant Peeples -Pawnshop – Grant sounds like a rusty-hinged wooden gate swinging wildly, beating out a rhythm in the chaos of a hurricane, but whether he’s railing against capital punishment or singing about trailer-park breakups (“Leaving her was easy once she’d done throw’d all my shit out in the yard”), Peeples is consistently entertaining, provocative and not afraid to shoot straight. Best track: “Searching for a Sign” (“It’s hard to swallow the truth, but I sure could use a taste right now.”)

Peter Cooper – Mission Door – Cooper’s songs are eloquent without being stilted and manage to tug a heartstring just as easily as they coax a smile. Best Track: “715 (for Hank Aaron)” is the best song about sports ever. Ever.

Patterson Hood – Murdering Oscar (and other love songs) – Hood, the frontman for The Drive-By Truckers, has a second solo release is much more cohesive than his previous one, thanks to Scott Danborn and Will Johnson from Centro-Matic. Best track: “I Understand Now”

Todd Snider – The Excitement Plan –Todd successfully channels Randy Newman, wrings the most out of every line, and joins the ranks of Americana’s finest songwriters, maturity optional. Best track: “America’s Favorite Pastime,” the true story of Dock Ellis, the Pittsburgh Pirate who pitched a no-hitter on LSD.

Scott Miller & The Commonwealth – For Crying Out Loud – Rock n roll with a big heart and a sly grin. Best track: “Cheap Ain’t Cheap” – “the dollar’s weak but it’s stronger than me.”

Ryan Bingham – Roadhouse Sun – Rock n roll with a big heart and an upraised middle finger. Best track: “Dylan’s Hard Rain” - a scathing diatribe that would invite name-dropping if it wasn’t so sharply honed.

The Gourds – Haymaker! - Gleefully defying description, the Gourds play music for “well-read-necks.” This is a record for people who are okay with throwing the GPS out the window and taking a sudden left turn down a dirt road. Best track: “Shreveport” - a semi-tribute to a town filled with meth-addled, spandex-clad heavy metal rednecks.

Eric Brace and Peter Cooper - You Don't Have To Like Them Both - this duo release by Eric Brace (Last Train Home) and Peter Cooper is full of friendship, warmth and good times. And good tunes. Best track: Cooper’s bouncy travelogue “Denali, Not McKinley.” (co-written with Todd Snider)

The Drive-By Truckers – The Fine Print (A Collection of Oddities And Rarities 2003-2008) – Just what it says. The stuff the Drive-By Truckers leave behind in the studio is better than the most of the dreck that passes for rock-n-roll on the radio today. Best track: The cover of Tom T. Hall’s “Mama Bake A Pie (Daddy Kill A Chicken).”

I’m sure I left off several things, but such is the nature of these lists. What are your top ten CDs?

Curtis Lynch

Election Day 2008

A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.
Theodore Roosevelt

Okay, I like that quote...it implies that we need to have some reason for casting a vote one way or the other. Where do we point that gun? And why? Do our sights include race? Or gender? Today people of many colors walked into voting booths all over the country and cast their vote based solely on the color of a man's skin. And some people pushed some buttons or blackened a circle based on a candidate's gender.

I've never been a fan of those who think everyone should go vote. It's like singing, cooking or hitting a fastball: some are better at it than others. And why? Because they care. They take the time.

A crooked and corrupt man can not only drag a horse to water, but if the horse is thirsty enough, he can piss in his mouth and tell him it's champagne.

It is our job as citizens to be ever vigilant, to question those who want us to trust them with the power and authority that an elected position gives them, and not to blindly accept their slogans for truth. Mark Twain said that the government's function is "to obey orders, not originate them."

So no matter who you vote for, hold them accountable. Our opinion of our elected officials are at an all-time low, so don't let up.
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I am not a fan of putting political signs in my yard.

My wife put an Obama sign out this week. It was given to her by a friend we camped with at Magnolia Fest the other day, and my wife had promised to put it out. Why don't I like it? Because our current political culture has things broken down into soundbites. Hey, I have an Obama sign in my yard, so I've just allowed people to project their opinions about the presidential race onto me. Never mind that I may have some slightly nuanced beliefs that aren't captured in that blue piece of plastic stuck in the grass.

Oddly enough, I have no problem with the Bulldog banner outside.
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I voted early, at the rec center a few blocks from w&rk. It's across the street from the rocky moonscape that was a crime-ridden housing project and a stone's throw from a shuttered high school. While I was in line, I saw an elderly woman helped to the front of the line and I saw a blind man with his wife gently holding his arm as his cane tapped along the sidewalk. I saw a man with one leg use his crutches to navigate himself out of the building after casting his ballot.

I don't know who they voted for, but I do know this. If the person who leads our country for the next four years has half the character of his supporters, then we have a very useful rifle.

Rattlesnake Confusion - September 2008

Rattlesnake Confusion
September 2008

There's something happening here

What it is ain't exactly clear

There's a man with a gun over there

Telling me I got to beware
Stephen Stills - “For What It’s Worth”

August 21, 1968 – The dramatic blossoming of democratic, cultural and social reforms in Czechoslovakia are squashed when 200,000 troops from the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Poland and Hungary invade and occupy the country. What became known as the Prague Spring was a testament to what happens when people are given the freedom to think as they wish, associate with like-minded individuals and criticize the government.

And it scared the hell out of those in power.


“The policeman isn’t there to create disorder; the policeman is there to preserve disorder.”
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley

In a land that's known as Freedom

How can such a thing be fair?
Graham Nash - “Chicago”

August 26-29, 1968 – Police clash with protestors at Chicago’s Democratic National Convention. A 17 year old shot dead by the police, nearly 700 arrested and almost 200 officers injured. Earlier that year, the country had suffered the assassinations of the Rev. Martin Luther King and then-presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy. Negative sentiment for the Vietnam War was growing.

And it would have scared the hell out of those in power, but three weeks earlier, Richard Nixon was declared the Republican nominee for President.

Because something is happening here but you don’t know what it is?
Do you, Mister Jones?
Bob Dylan - “Ballad of a Thin Man”

Well, I damn sure didn’t know what was happening. I was 8 and I had spent the summer reading comic books in my father’s upholstery shop. Hell, my first experience with what was “happening” came years later in my sixth grade class when the Savannah Police came in and passed around a small, smoldering mound of dry leaves on a small screen and told us that was the smell of marijuana. That and Three Dog Night’s “Joy to the World” are my main memories of sixth grade.

If I were the king of the world

Tell you what I'd do

I'd throw away the cars and the bars and the war
Hoyt Axton – “Joy To The World”

August 25-28 and September 1-4, 2008 – At both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, protesters are once again corralled into “free-speech zones,” a grammatical constriction that even Orwell never imagined. They are set aside out of the view of the television cameras, the press and the world.

If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, is it still a constitutionally guaranteed right?

Ain’t that freedom for you, freedom American Style?
Todd Snider – “TV Guide”

And now, nothing scares those in power.

August 2008 CD reviews

Here's the reviews you'll find in the August 2008 issue of Playgrounds Magazine:

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TybeeDawg’s Pick of the Litter
August 2008

Swampadelica
S’ac Passé?
Sidewards Records
http://www.swampadelica.com/

Their name is Swampadelica, and on their new release S’ac Passé? the New Jersey-based roots band unexpectedly whips up a cultural stew that includes the jamband influences of Deep Banana Blackout and Donna The Buffalo, but also ventures farther afield, dropping into ports of call like New Orleans, the Caribbean, San Francisco and Africa.

Lead vocalist Nadine LaFond, guitarist Brian Herkert, founding member Damian Calcagne on keyboards, bassist Paul Kuzik, and Bill Rust on drums unfailingly lock into the groove, whether it’s the sinewy rhythm of “Blueberry Street,” the languid sway of “Cloth of Time” or the bouncy title track. Recorded at Phish’s Trey Anastasio’s Vermont studio, the Barn, S’ac Passé? features twelve tracks that weave through soul, rock, funk and Cajun while maintaining an internal cohesiveness that is more difficult to achieve than you’d think, and it’s a compliment to the band’s talent that they do it so seamlessly.

The CD’s title is a Haitian Kreyol phrase that means “What’s going on?” and the response is “N’ap Boule!,” which means “Our fire is burning,” and in the case of Swampadelica, it couldn’t be more true.

This is a new feature, one designed to highlight the music that touched the Dawg in a special way…finding the spot that makes his hind leg start kicking and scratching behind his ear uncontrollably.

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Dan Adams Band
The Hard Way
http://www.danadamsband.com/index.html


In 1999, Dan Adams fronted a band called 1401 and in a review of their second release, Bittersweet Voyage, I described their music as “alternative…acoustic pop/rock.” Who knew that nine years later much the same style would be considered modern country music? That’s not to say that Adams has been recycling the same material. With the release of The Hard Way, Adams has only sharpened his skill, painting his character-driven songs with a finely bristled brush, and the tunes bear a more finely-honed edge because of it.

Most of the ten tracks here were written or co-written by Adams, who also produced the last six tunes. Whether it’s the rear-view philosophy of “One Too Many Times” or the outlaw imagery of “That’s How I’m Going Out” or the even the faded Naugahyde of the rockin’ “Green Couch”, Adams rolls through the songs effortlessly, recalling at times Edwin McCain, Shawn Mullins or Reckless Kelly. The single, “Drinkin Out Loud,” is a standout track and deserves a listen (Radio station programmers, are you paying attention?).

The Hard Way is available on iTunes, Rhapsody, Napster, and eMusic.

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Lauderdale
Lauderdale
http://www.myspace.com/lauderdalemusic


Lauderdale hails from the musically fertile Muscle Shoals, Alabama area, a name that brings its own set of memories and influences, a melting pot that holds rock, R&B and country comfortably. And true to their roots, so do Lauderdale.

The band serves up fourteen muscular but tasty tracks on their self-titled debut, large helpings of well-marbled rock and roll mixed with country, blues and pop influences. The young band, vocalist/guitarist Niles Lee, drummer Patrick McDonald, Corey Hannah on bass and lead guitarist Daniel Stoddard, is flush with heart and talent, and could easily mature into an outstanding rock-n-roll outfit. Favorite tracks are “Take Me Home,” “Falling,” and “Wasted Life.” Fans of the Drive-By Truckers, the Drams and Jason Isbell already know who these guys are and with friends like that, what else do you need to know?

Grab some Lauderdale and dig in.

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Jason Beckham
Union Park and Magnolia Street
www.myspace.com/jasonbeckham

Sometimes you can’t define what makes a good rock n roll record, but I think we can all agree on some of the ingredients: It needs heart and soul in large quantities, as well as brains and balls, and Athens, Georgia-based singer/songwriter Jason Beckham has them all in just the right proportion on his first release Union Park and Magnolia Street.

Musically, Beckham works off from a blues/roots-rock base, combining insightful, Southern-tinged songwriting and humid vocals along with fine, expressive guitar work to pull it all together on ten tracks recorded at Pigpen Studios in Athens with Five-Eight’s Patrick Ferguson on drums. Think Shawn Mullins with a chip on his shoulder.

Union Park and Magnolia Street may be a fictitious intersection, but to me, it looks like a pretty good neighborhood. This is one of those records that you want to recommend to friends, and after a listen, I’ll bet you’ll feel the same way.

Rattlesnake Confusion - Alternative Energy Version

Kind of like Phoenix radio

We used to listen. Where did it go?

It went off the air so

More Sheryl Crow could be on.

“East Nashville Skyline” – Todd Snider

There’s this one particular sort of people in our world and they have jobs that allow them to sit around and think of ways to screw other people. They gravitate to these jobs like scum finds a pond. These people cut across all socio-economic, racial and cultural lines, they could be thieves, or politicians…and in the case of the latter, very often both. But the people whose jobs are to sit around and think of new ways to screw struggling musicians deserve a special place in hell. I’m thinking front-row VIP seating at an eternal Kenny G show, however, I’m open to suggestions.

The musicians in question aren’t heard on the radio, because of restrictive, inbred formatting and least-common-denominator programming, but they are likely highly respected and wildly creative and influential songwriters.

The musicians in question aren’t on the lucrative corporate-branded shed circuit where they pimp out front row VIP tables at VIP prices where the big business tickets pay for the Eagles to re-re-re-unite or tell Jimmy Buffett to sway his fins to the left.

So if you can’t be heard and you can’t be seen, what can a poor boy to do ‘cept to sing for a rock and roll band? Lots of them loaded up the car or the van and rolled from town to town, playing gigs here and there in a bar or coffeehouse, an occasional house party or benefit and they were doing all right.

Until gas went to four dollars a gallon on every corner.

Now they’ve found a whole new way to screw with the musicians and, by extension, with us and our listening pleasures. Now they can’t afford to get to us and we can’t afford to get to them. Is this possibly the most sinister conspiracy since Chad and Jeremy left us hanging? Can this be a way to corral creativity? To saddle up individuality and reign it in? Or is it all horseshit?

Consider this: What if someone manipulated the global financial structure so that we couldn’t afford to go out to the clubs and hear live music, so that we couldn’t afford to do anything but listen to rotting and festering classic rock in the car on the way home and then settle onto the couch with our significant others to stare at the endless commercials that use those same damn songs to sell us insurance, tires, beer and sleep aids?

Viva Viagra, indeed.

Updating the ol' blog

From October of '06 until late '07, I wrote a series of columns for Playgrounds Magazine gathered under the umbrella "Rattlesnake Confusion." It was intended to be more personal explorations than simply writing CD or performance reviews. I think for the most part, it succeeded, although I had a couple of hiccups along the way.

I just uploaded to this site all the Rattlesnakes that hadn't been posted already.

With any luck, in '08 I'll try to continue confusing those rattlesnakes.

(and I'm thinking about uploading my Y2KT10 columns from waybackwhen...my premise was that at the stroke of midnight 2001, all the world's music would cease to exist. Then I asked for input as to what ten CDs you would save. I had a blast doing it, and hope to post that soon. Yeah, it's derivitive of Desert Island Discs, but what the hell. It was fun.