The Zac Brown Band performed in New York City Friday morning as part of the Today Show Summer Concert Series. Before performing “Knee Deep,” Zac Brown offered up high praise for Jimmy Buffett:
“I think he’s one of the best American songwriters that have ever lived. We’ve been covering his song forever, and getting to actually collaborate with my heroes has been some of the biggest milestones in my career.”
Jimmy Buffett performed Saturday night at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, and Kenny Chesney made a surprise appearance to join Jimmy in singing “Come Monday” and “Back Where I Come From.”
Will Jimmy Buffett land another number one song? He’ll have his chance this summer as the Zac Brown Band will release “Knee Deep,” a duet with Jimmy, as their next single.
In 2003, Jimmy scored his only number song with “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere,” a collaboration with Alan Jackson. After the success of that song, Buffett released License to Chill, an album containing duets with several country stars including Toby Keith, Martina McBride, George Strait, and Clint Black, among others.
Buffett’s had three singles on the charts since “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere.” “Hey Good Lookin’” reached #8 in 2004, “Trip Around the Sun” hit #20 that same year, and “Bama Breeze” reached #58 in 2006.
This isn’t the first time that Jimmy and the Zac Brown Band have partnered up. In December of 2009 they taped an episode of “CMT Crossroads” that aired in March of last year.
The Zac Brown Band is riding high right now. Music legend James Taylor joined them at the ACM Awards last Sunday to perform their latest single “Colder Weather” (Watch Now), and then this past week the single went to number one on the Billboard Top Country Songs chart.
On Friday night, Jimmy Buffett and Kenny Chesney performed together at the Everglades Foundation benefit in Palm Beach, Florida. Here’s a few more details from the evening:
Chesney’s friend and Foundation Board member Jimmy Buffet joined Chesney on stage for Chesney’s “Back Where I Come From” and one of Buffett’s signature songs, “Come Monday.” Mac McAnally joined Chesney on “Down The Road.”
On performing at the benefit Chesney said, “I was honored that Jimmy (Buffett) asked me to be a part of the Everglades Foundation Benefit. Restoring and protecting future damage to the Everglades is very important to me. Hopefully this helped bring some attention to a very important cause.” The Everglades Foundation is dedicated to protecting and restoring one of the world’s unique natural ecosystems, providing economic, recreational and life- sustaining benefits to the millions of people who depend on its future health. Chesney joins a diverse line up of artists who have performed at previous benefits including Sting, Gloria Estefan, Diana Ross and John Mellencamp.
The sixth annual ForEverglades Foundation Benefit was held Friday night at The Breakers in Palm Beach, Florida. Kenny Chesney was the featured guest, but Jimmy Buffett made an appearance too:
Sam Gazdziak at The 9513 has a good writeup on how “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere” came to be a song, and how it fell into the hands of Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett:
The timing on the song was so perfect, that the time from when it was written to when it was released to radio was about three months, a rarity in the industry. Brown recorded the demo, which was initially pitched to Kenny Chesney, but his team passed.
“I think they wanted to not do so much beachy stuff anymore,” he says. “If we had gotten it to him three years earlier, he probably would have jumped on it, but the timing wasn’t right.”
Fortunately, Alan Jackson was looking for a song that he could cut with his friend Jimmy Buffett, and Gary Overton, then the head of EMI Publishing Nashville, turned him on to “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere.”
The song was released in June, 2003, and was an immediate hit, debuting at #31 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. It eventually spent a total of eight weeks at #1 and made it to #17 on the pop charts. It also won the Country Music Association Vocal Event of the Year award in 2003. Not bad for Brown’s first ever single.
Jimmy Buffett appears on the upcoming Zac Brown Band album You Get What You Give and you can listen to the entire album now, including “Knee Deep” with Buffett:
ZBB bassist John Driskell Hopkins details how Buffett and the band first got together: “We met him on a camping trip last year and just sat around the fire with him for awhile. That was a quick friendship. He’s a real cat, really down to earth and doesn’t have a whole lot of ego and just a super nice guy…We did a lot of vocals down at his place in Key West and he happened to come through, so we got him to sit in and it sounded great. It sounds like a Buffett song when he sings it. Whatever he sings sounds like a Buffett song, y’know?”
The Zac Brown Band is preparing to release their much-anticipated second album in September and Jimmy Buffett appears on the album, singing on a track entitled “Knee Deep.”
You Get What You Give, set for a September 21st release, also features Alan Jackson on “As She’s Walking Away,” which will be the first single released.
The Zac Brown Band performed in New York City Friday morning as part of the Today Show Summer Concert Series. Before performing “Knee Deep,” Zac Brown offered up high praise for Jimmy Buffett:
Will Jimmy Buffett land another number one song? He’ll have his chance this summer as the 
On Friday night, Jimmy Buffett and Kenny Chesney 
Sam Gazdziak at 
The new album from the Zac Brown Band, 
Jimmy Buffett appears on the upcoming Zac Brown Band album 
