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.
Buffett World member Billy Ray is in Gulf Shores for the Jimmy Buffett & Friends show and tells us that Brooks & Dunn is in town and will perform on Sunday. He also says other major acts are coming. Another member tells us that he’s heard a rumor that Brad Paisley will be there.
Photo that Billy Ray shot of Brooks & Dunn’s trailer:
He also said that he met Brooks & Dunn, and they said that they are indeed playing on Sunday.
Keep it tuned to Buffett World for the latest news!
On Saturday Jimmy Buffett announced a free show in Gulf Shores, Alabama:
To demonstrate support for the people, businesses and culture of the Gulf Coast, CMT will telecast a free musical celebration live from the beach at Gulf Shores, Ala. CMT Presents Jimmy Buffett & Friends Live from the Gulf Coast will air on CMT on Thursday, July 1, from 8-9:30 p.m. ET/PT. Buffett and his Coral Reefer Band will be joined in the concert by his friends Sonny Landreth, Zac Brown Band, Kenny Chesney, Jesse Winchester and Allen Toussaint. A special souvenir tee shirt will also be designed for the concert and sold onlne and at the show. More info coming soon!
According to Poker News Daily, Jimmy Buffett will be in attendance at Sunday’s NFC Championship game in New Orleans when the Saints host Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings:
Among those in attendance will be 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event runner-up Darvin Moon.
Moon will be seated in a luxury box in the Louisiana Superdome, home of the Saints, alongside several top-tier names. Headlining the list is singer Jimmy Buffet. Kenny Chesney will also be seated in the same suite as Moon, according to Saints officials.
Jimmy has a close relationship with the Saints and their coach Sean Payton. In 2006 Jimmy sang the national anthem at one of their games. He is partners with Payton and several others in Last Mango Stables, a horse-racing owners group (Saints quarterback Drew Brees is also a partner). Buffett is also an honorary chair of Payton’s Play It Forward Foundation. And when Payton coached the NFC in the 2007 Pro Bowl, he ran a play designed by Jimmy that resulted in an interception.
In November, Jimmy Buffett played a show at Le Select to celebrate their 60th anniversary. While there, Jimmy was thrilled to see himself on the wall next to one of his musical idols:
No award will beat the honour a St Barts bar gave Jimmy Buffett – the owners placed his album poster next to one advertising Bob Marley’s masterpiece Catch A Fire on their wall.
The Margaritaville hitmaker visited Le Select bar during a trip to the Caribbean years ago and was staggered to find his Son of a Son of a Sailor album on the place’s hitlist.
Buffett says, “On the wall there were two posters next to each other – one for Marley’s Catch a Fire, and the other was of my album. They’re still up there.
“I don’t win many awards, and I don’t care, but I take a lot of pride in that spot on the wall.”
New York Magazine has an article that goes into detail on how Jimmy Buffett discovered Ilo Ferreira.
On November 23, Freston and his friend Jimmy Buffett, 62, were there to support Ilo at his sold-out show at Joe’s Pub and his appearance later that night on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, which they’d helped engineer.
“Hopefully, lightning strikes and he gets a musical career,” says Freston. “We’re just trying to give him some exposure.”
How’d they get to know, and fund, him? “It was an amazing set of circumstances,” Buffett says backstage at Joe’s. “Freston gets fired and he doesn’t have his plane and he’s got me all fired up to go to the Festival in the Desert,” in Africa. So they have to take Buffett’s jet. The route to Mali “is from San Juan to Cape Verde,” where they stopped to refuel. Buffett thought, why not check out the local music scene while they were stopping through. “I went, ‘Let’s see if Cesaria Evora is playing; I’ve always been a fan.’”
Also with them was MTV Networks editorial director Bill Flanagan, 54. That night, the Cape Verde culture ministry hosted for Buffett and his traveling companions to showcase performances by the best local musicians, including Ilo. After seeing him play, they all “just looked at each other and said, ‘Man.’ I mean, you see a lot of people, but very few people you think have it,” says Buffett.
According to Country Music Tattle Tale, Jimmy Buffett will team up with the Zac Brown Band for an episode of CMT Crossroads, a series that pairs country artists with musicians from other genres. Past episodes have featured Jason Aldean and Bryan Adams, Brad Paisley and John Mayer, Martina McBride and Pat Benatar, and Taylor Swift and Def Leopard.
The taping will reportedly be invitation-only in Nashville next month, with the episode airing in March.
The Zac Brown Band is one of the hottest new acts in country music, winning the 2009 ACM Award for Top New Vocal Duo or Group. They’ve had two number one singles: “Chicken Fried” and “Toes”.
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 new album from the Zac Brown Band, 
Jimmy Buffett appears on the upcoming Zac Brown Band album 
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New York Magazine has an 
