Chris Moss Online

The inimitable Jimmy Buffett released his 26th original album (not counting live and compilations) on October 6th. Now that I’ve had a few days to absorb and bask in the new songs, I offer my review and analysis of the album, which is eagerly awaiting by many. Overall, the album is very good and has some good and at least two “great” songs, but does not rank as highly as some of his more recent work. Nevertheless, it is a good album and I’m enjoying it.

Jimmy’s last album, “License to Chill” was his greatest commercial success to date from a career that has lasted over 35 years. That album featured several popular country artists and was recorded after Jimmy appeared with Alan Jackson in a song called “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere” and attracted the attention of large, mainstream country music fans. Suddenly, Jimmy was cool.

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John Mayer has a new album out, “Continuum”. Do yourself a favor and go get it and listen to it.

John Mayer has been my favorite new artist for about 3 years now. Music in general went through a weak period, but it’s getting better. The further through time we go, the more influences new artists have. John Mayer reaches back to the “right” kinds of influences – heavy blues and classic rock. He’s influence by guys like Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Elton John and others of that ilk. I read an article about him before I ever heard any of his music. The author had seen him live and the debut album was about to come out, and the single most people know is by John Mayer, “No Such Thing” had just started playing in heavy rotation. The thing that stuck with me was how humble this guy seemed, and I was struck by his claim that he just wanted to make “good music that lasts.” I think that is he is staying true to that. He seems more interested in created good music that he likes, that he hopes other people like, and that stands the test of time. Timelessness – what a goal!

Besides making great melodies and having a smooth, sultry voice, John Mayer often writes these great, sexy lyrics that I just love, like those in “Your Body is a Wonderland,” “Come Back to Bed” and now “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room.”

One more thing. I always enjoy reading the liner notes, and I’m so glad that iTunes gives you a .pdf version of the CD booklet when you buy an album. Among the acknowledgments for “Continuum” John says, “Eric Clapton knows I steal from him and is still cool with it.”

Jimmy Buffett will perform a fund-raising concert for Kinky Friedman in Austin on Sept 19th. Details here.

I guess I’m the only one interested. It’s a school night, too. Tix on sale this Sat.

The countdown to Key West has already begun, but if I have time I will post the lyrics to a few songs to help all of you get into the mood.

Tonight, may I present a selection that is relatively obscure. This song appeared on the soundtrack to the stage play that Jimmy wrote based on Herman Wouk’s novel, “Who’ll Stop the Carnival”. “Island Fever” by Mr. Jimmy Buffett…

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There is now a link over on the right-hand menu bar to an iMix I submitted for iTunes. If you have iTunes installed on your machine, you can click on the link and it will pull up my iMix.

I also currently have one other iMix there and I plan to submit more. Unfortunately, some of the songs in the iMix either aren’t available on iTunes or otherwise don’t come up, so you don’t see the whole thing. I may soon devote a whole page to the iMixes and detail the missing songs.

Once in iTunes, you can click on “iMixes by this user” to see the other iMix, which is actually the first part of the compilation linked to.

So I made it to the Jimmy Buffett concert in Dallas tonight.

It was the first Buffett show I’ve seen in several years and I can’t remember when I saw him last. I saw him in Atlanta in ’98 and I’m sure I’ve seen him in Dallas since then but I can’t remember. For those who don’t know, he tours annually and always sells out all his shows. It was amazing to see so many younger concert-goers there. Buffett fans have introduced their children to his music (and books) and now it seems many of them come on their own. There were a lot of youngish (under 30) people around me, and right next to me were a group of about 4 young guys, about 19 or 20. I think one of them’s mom brought them. She was “being cool” and giving them beer. They seemed to really be into it, they knew some of the words and were yelling “we love you Jimmy.” They whipped out their cell phones when “Margaritaville” came on so that some other friend could hear it. They were saying thinks like, “Yeah man, we’re really here! Can you hear it?”
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