Tickets for the Newport Folk Festival at Fort Adams State Park in Newport, Rhode Island go on sale this morning at 9 am. Buffett will be performing there on Sunday, August 3rd.

Get your tickets by calling 877-655-4TIX or go to ticketing.festivalnetwork.com.

Buffett has said that he is considering playing a stripped-down set with just two acoustic guitars at his Newport debut. “I threatened to do Newport before I was gone, and I seriously want to honor the heritage of the festival,” Buffett says. “I came up as a folk singer. I’ve always loved the idea of being a balladeer. You know, I might do Gordon Lightfoot’s ‘Canadian Railroad Trilogy.’ I am not going to do a Parrothead show.”

Tickets for the two Las Vegas shows in October will go on sale Monday, April 28th at 10 am PDT through TicketMaster.

Prices are $69.25 – $211.00.

Also, as previously reported here, the August 27th show at Jones Beach in Wantagh, New York goes on sale this Saturday at 9 am EDT through TicketMaster.

“Hello Houston, I think it’s time for some Homemade Music tonight!” and with that the Year Of Still Here Tour kicked off in fine fashion.

“Homemade Music” did indeed get us started, the first outing for it since June 30, 1989 in Auburn Hills, Michigan. How’s that for rare? Other first set gems included “The Tiki Bar is Open,” the great John Hiatt song, with Jimmy working in a nice reference to his lost friend, Larry Gray, who “sailed the seven seas,” and “Fruitcakes” with lots of new updated lyrics including references to Dr. Phil and thanking the astronauts for all the work they do.

Other treats in the first set: “Mexico,” last played in Portland, Oregon on October 27, 2005; a beautiful version of “Miss You So Badly,” last played with the band on June 3, 1996 in Indianapolis, Indiana; a brand new song inspired by Neil Young called, what else, “We’re Still Here,” which is a nice tribute to everyone who still comes every year; and “Tryin’ to Reason with Hurricane Season.” How’s that for change?

But all of the fun was not just in the first set. The second set started with the Nanci Griffith song “Gulf Coast Highway,” a song Jimmy first recorded with Evangeline in the early 90′s. This performance featured Tina Gullickson joining Jimmy on vocals and Sonny Landreth playing a mean slide guitar. A hard rocking version of “Makin’ Music for Money” followed, this time sung by Nadirah. And In the middle of the second set’s run of hits, “Far Side of the World” re-surfaced for the first time since August 21, 2004 when it was played at a John Kerry fundraiser.

The first encore featured “Fins” and the Bruce Springsteen classic “Glory Days,” while the second encore brought the first on-tour outing of “Somewhere Over China” since the Millenium show, and a beautiful version of “Come Monday” to wrap things up.

View the entire set list here.

Did you attend the show? Share your thoughts on our Discussion Board or post your photos in our Photo Gallery.

The 2008 “Year of Still Here” tour will continue Thursday night with a show from St. Louis, Missouri. Get your tickets now!

Tour season is finally here! Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band make the first stop of their 2008 Year Of Still Here Tour tonight at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in Woodlands, Texas.

You can listen to the show live on Radio Margaritaville on the web at www.radiomargaritaville.com or on Sirius satellite radio channel 31. The show will air at 8 pm central time. Be sure to catch the pre-show beforehand.

Also, you can follow along with the set list and chat with other parrot heads during the show on our Discussion Board.

Other shows coming up this week: Thursday – St. Louis, MO (find tickets); Saturday – Frisco, TX (find tickets). See the complete tour schedule here.

Radio Margaritaville announced today that Jimmy will appear on Regis and Kelly on Tuesday, May 13th.

Buffett will be on to promote his new book “Swine Not?”, which comes out the same day. Pre-Order now through Amazon.com!

(hat tip to Theresa for passing this along)

Jimmy Buffett has lent his vocal to Sonny Landreth’s ninth album, titled “From The Reach.” Modern Guitars Magazine has the details:

In one of two delightful changes of pace to the album’s six-string focus, Dr. John brings the requisite gris-gris to “Howlin’ Moon” with his trademark rollicking piano and harmonies, and he’s joined on the track by Jimmy Buffett. “Although the idea of the record was playing with my guitar heroes, I wanted to open to the unexpected as well,” Landreth explains. “I’d written ‘Howlin’ Moon’ a long time ago and I’d always had Dr. John in mind for it. Then we took it a step further with Jimmy’s vocal and the vibe was perfect.”

“From The Reach” will be released on May 20th. You can Pre-Order now through Amazon.com.

Freddy and the Fishsticks (aka Jimmy Buffett and a condensed version of the Coral Reefers) will perform at the New Orleans Margaritaville Cafe on Thursday, May 1st at 9:30 pm.

Tickets are priced at $200 and will be sold online with proceeds going to charity. On sale date is not yet known.

Jimmy and a smaller combo have performed under the moniker at various small venue shows in the past.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has an article on Coral Reefer Band members Roger Guth, Peter Mayer, and Jim Mayer: “Former St. Louisan backs up Jimmy Buffett, keeps own career going”

“We walked out on stage for the first time, and it looked like a Fellini casting call,” says former St. Louisan Peter Mayer, lead guitarist for Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band since 1989. “I mean, it was strange costumes. You had lawyers in parrot outfits and doctors with shark fins on their heads. And of course, we were dressed in kind of late ’80s, early ’90s garb from the Thompson Twins to Peter Gabriel.”

“We” refers to Mayer and the Coral Reefer rhythm section: fellow former St. Louisans Jim Mayer (bass) and Roger Guth (drums). Jim, Peter Mayer’s brother, reports on Buffett’s margaritaville.com website that he almost couldn’t play that first show in San Diego because he was laughing so hard at “a giant conga line wearing enough grass skirts to cover the set of South Pacific.”

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For the Mayer brothers and Guth, who were a Warner Bros. recording act called PM, the Parrothead phenomenon was a surprise even after they were first hired to play on Buffett’s 1989 album, “Off to See the Lizard.”

”We knew who Jimmy Buffett was, but we had no idea how popular he was or what kind of crowd came to the shows,” Peter Mayer said by phone a couple of weeks ago before appearing with his band at Blueberry Hill’s Duck Room. ”And he had actually instructed his crew not to tell us what was going on.”

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With Buffett, Mayer has been amazed at how much hard work goes into making it all look so easy and laid back.

”It’s a real gift,” Mayer says. ”I know it is, because I’ve been a performer for many years and never found it that easy.

”Jimmy is an entertainer. I asked him once when we were really new to the group, because we were kind of floored with the audience and all that, and said, ‘What’s the deal with this whole thing? How did you get into this?’

“And he said, ‘Well, you know, Pete, I’m not a very good guitar player, and other people can out-sing me, but I’m a damn good Jimmy Buffett.”’

Read the entire article here.

Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band perform at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in St. Louis this coming Thursday. Get your tickets now!

Radio Margaritaville has been airing reports from Jimmy and the Coral Reefer Band’s tour rehearsals and the songs being relayed include some real gems:

• Homemade Music
• Cowboy In The Jungle
• Migration
• Ragtop Day
• Mexico
• Stars On The Water
• Fruitcakes
• The Tiki Bar Is Open

They also reported that there will be an acoustic set with something from Nadirah’s album of Buffett covers.

The tour kicks off Monday night in Houston! Tickets are still available here.

Jimmy Buffett will appear at the Newport Folk Festival in Newport, Rhode Island in August. The Boston Globe has the details:

Buffett – whose “Margaritaville” is a staple at arenas and tailgate parties – is considering playing a stripped-down set with just two acoustic guitars at his Newport debut. “I threatened to do Newport before I was gone, and I seriously want to honor the heritage of the festival,” Buffett says. “I came up as a folk singer. I’ve always loved the idea of being a balladeer. You know, I might do Gordon Lightfoot’s ‘Canadian Railroad Trilogy.’ I am not going to do a Parrothead show.”

Tickets for the Newport Folk Festival go on sale April 23 via festivalnetwork.com. Ticket prices and package options are still being confirmed and will be announced in the coming days.

Billboard also has an article on the festival: “Buffett, Crowes Sign On For Newport Folk Fest”.

(hat tip to Beth for passing this along)