Both the Boston Herald and the Boston Globe have reviews of Thursday night’s Jimmy Buffett show at the Comcast Center in Mansfield, Massachusetts. According to the articles it was Buffett’s 50th time playing at the venue.

Boston Herald: “For Jimmy Buffett fans, show is Paradise”

“What’s up with this recession?” Jimmy Buffett asked in his third song, “Summerzcool,” last night at the Comcast Center. “I refuse to participate!”

Well, OK, who can’t get behind that?!

But wait: He’s a pseudo beach-bum-cum-multimillionaire. Of course, he’s not too affected by the recession.

The barefoot and ber-muda-shorts-clad Buffett brought a two-set, 2-hour show (also called Summerzcool) to the Mansfield venue for the 50th time. He was joined by his 10-piece Coral Reefer Band, as well as, briefly, James Taylor’s daughter Sally.

Boston Globe – “Buffett’s breezy, feel-good vibe still resonates”

Last night was Jimmy Buffett’s 50th concert at the venue he still calls Great Woods, and odds are good a chunk of the 17,000 or so fans at the Comcast Center attended all of them. And who can blame them? Buffett is more than a tunesmith. He’s a walking lifestyle, a tuneful outlook, the barefoot figurehead in a laid-back philosopher’s club whose grass-skirted, Hawaiian-shirted members make annual pilgrimages to a virtual reality with its own breezy theme song. About a frozen drink.

Odds are also good that the 50 shows haven’t varied much from one to the next, and that’s precisely as it should be. Some artists trade in innovation and evolution; Buffett’s product relies on feel-good reliability. Even a pair of topical new songs, “Summerzcool’’ and “We’ve Got a Lot to Drink About,’’ address the recession with a signature bit of advice: Have a cocktail.

Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band will play a second show at the Comcast Center on Saturday.

Update – A third review, this one from the Sun Chronicle: “Once again, Buffett brings paradise to Mansfield”

The show was back on the road tonight as Jimmy and the band played the next stop on the Summerzcool Tour with a show in Mansfield, Massachusetts.

The set list was primarily the same as recent shows with the exception of one song. “Tin Cup Chalice” returned in the encore for the first time on this leg of the tour. Sweet Sally Taylor also joined Jimmy and the band for “Brown Eyed Girl.” Jake Shimabukuro added his Ukulele sounds to select songs all night as well.

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 2009 Summerzcool Tour continues Saturday with the second of two shows at the Comcast Center in Mansfield, MA. There’s still plenty of time to get your tickets now!

Jimmy Buffett is performing in Boston today and Saturday and the Boston Globe caught up to him recently for a short interview:

Q. You haven’t been afraid to let loose lately about the state of the country. What’s up with that?

A. There’s a lot of stupidity going around on all sides. The country bought it all, and I thought people needed to be reminded about how stupid they were. And it’s an ongoing saga. I can certainly put more verses in “A Lot to Drink About’’ as we go along. For instance, I noticed that the schools are closing in Los Angeles, but the Lakers were just given a parade. There’s no end to the crazy things going on.

Q. Did you get swept up in the Madoff scandal yourself?

A. No, it all smelled like a rat in the beginning. I guess I’ve worked with so many crooked promoters that I can smell ’em. Money made on moving money around never interested me.

Q. How has the recession affected your tour? Is this the year the bubble bursts and some people will not come to see you?

A. No, we’re doing great. Thank God there are people out there who like what we’re doing. They haven’t put us on a list of things they’re not going to do because of the economy. This is their vacation and they’re not going to give it up. They may not go to Florida or buy a new car, but they won’t miss our show. I wanted to find out right away, so we went on sale early with a Detroit show – they’ve been as hard hit as anywhere – and it sold out in 20 minutes. I’m very grateful.

Read the entire interview here.

The Boston Herald also has an article out today comparing Jimmy Buffett and Warren Buffett: “Mango and cash: Jimmy Buffett and Warren Buffett live in two different worlds … or do they?”

Tim Krekel, Nashville songwriter and former lead guitarist for Jimmy Buffett, has died after a short battle with cancer. He was 58 years old.

Tim Krekel, a musician whose career started in Louisville before he was a teenager and soared to two stints as lead guitar for Jimmy Buffett’s band and a reputation in Nashville as a hit songwriter, died Wednesday afternoon at his Louisville home. He was 58.

Krekel died of cancer, which he had been fighting since a diagnosis and surgery in March, according to his family.

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[His] talent twice landed Krekel a touring gig as lead guitarist with Jimmy Buffett, first in the mid-1970s. Krekel told The Courier-Journal in 1978 that he was proud of his work on the singles “Cheeseburger in Paradise” and “Livingston Saturday Night” on Buffett’s “Son of a Son of a Sailor” album.

Soon after that album’s release, Krekel focused more on establishing a solo career. He recorded on two major labels: His first album, “Crazy Me,” was released in 1979 by Capricorn as it went bankrupt.

He started another band, the Sluggers, which released two albums, including “Over the Fence” on Arista in 1986. When that band broke up, he hooked back up with Buffett, including for a 1987 appearance on “Saturday Night Live.”

It’s one of the most venerable stops on the annual tour: Great Woods in Mansfield, Massachusetts (formerly Tweeter Center and now called the Comcast Center). Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band will play the first of two shows at the Comcast Center tonight and the second on Saturday night.

The show will start shortly after 8 pm ET and you can listen live on Radio Margaritaville on Sirius 31 / XM 55 or on the web for free at radiomargaritaville.com. Be sure to tune in at 7:30 pm for the pre-show.

You can follow along with the set list and chat with other parrotheads during the show on our discussion board.

We’ll also tweet during the show, so follow BuffettWorld on Twitter.

Grab tickets for this show or for another upcoming show here!