So I have been living life full throttle for a while in so many ways. Sorry if I bore you. I have so many interests I cannot keep up at times. My website is so out of date even though I am going to shows…I’m playing music, listening to music, going to concerts, beekeeping, I like to scuba dive but I need to get back to that as my regulators need a service, kayaking did that twice in the last two weeks…photography especially live music photos, podcasting about music, visiting with my immediate family which has been going on for the last two weeks, landscaping especially rare conifers, cars, F1 racing, German sports cars and off-road vehicles, travel, and lately my two rescue Persian cats that I really love spoiling. I probably left out my passion for amateur radio which I am working on constantly and I have yet to really dive into astronomy but that will happen as I slow up a bit. Did I mention my vegetable garden? Sorry to bore you with details…there is more but I need to get to the topic at hand that brought me to write a post.
About a year ago I can remember waking up and ending up at my dining room table with some good Cuban coffee talking to my friend of many years Roger Bartlett. Roger has spent time at my house several times on his way through the area on his east coast tours. I always bug him about his schedule to try to get a local gig together and generally just hang out as he is on his way somewhere. More on that in a minute.
I came to know of Jimmy Buffett as an 18 year old in Mississippi. I understood the relationship of harmonica wizard Greg “Fingers” Taylor who was in Jackson at the time playing blues which I tell people is my favorite genre of music. Greg played a clubs in Jackson and I was barely old enough to even know about all of this except that I was barely able age-wise to experience 25 cent draft beer and shag carpet that stuck to your feet from all the beer spilled…Can you say the Zodiac or Town Creek Saloon? That is where this connection began. A native North Carolinian I lived all over Mississippi and the southeast as a kid. I still feel all of that even now and I remember living across the street from a park and a cotton field in the middle of Greenwood, Mississippi. The Delta as they call it…the home of the blues. This was the home of “The Gants” the “Mississippi Beatles.” They toured with The Animals. They played on the same show with The Dave Clark Five and the Yardbirds. The Young Rascals of “Good Lovin’ fame opened for The Gants in New York. They recorded at Muscle Shoals’ FAME studios, alongside soon-to-be legends Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin and one of my guitar heroes Duane Allman. Greenwood is also the home of Robert Johnson, Honeyboy Edwards, and a personal favorite Hubert Sumlin who played Eric Clapton’s “Crossroads” before he died.
So all that said…the music buzz in the late 1970’s in Mississippi was “Fingers” was playing with this guy named Jimmy Buffett from Alabama who was pals with Jerry Jeff Walker. Jimmy had gone to school in Hattiesburg at the University of Southern Mississippi which oh by the way I lived in the shadow of in Petal, Mississippi in 1968 as a young kid on my 1 of 13 moving stops before I graduated from high school. Back in the late 1970’s you had to feel the vibe…all of us “southerners” were proud of living life slow and well. Jimmy Buffett was always what I called “the local boy done good.” I was a Jerry Jeff fan in Madden in High School as the “older people” I hung out with brought back music from working cattle sales in Texas and oil rigs off-shore in Louisiana. I remember the movie “FM” which I went to Jackson to see and Jimmy being in it as well as Steely Dan playing the title track. I remember thinking “JB has hit the big time.” Did I mention Charlie Daniels said “The south is gonna’ do it again?” The music made us feel good as mere mortals of the rural south where the locals waved hello at every car on the road. There is a song in there if you know it. I heard about all of this in rural central Mississippi in a tiny town called Madden where my Dad was opening a new bank branch and I was going to high school. Soon I would see Fingers playing in Jackson and Charlie Daniels as my first concert. I shared those stories in person later with Fingers and Charlie through my Nashville pal Casey Wood who recorded his last several albums at his studio in Nashville. I told Casey that story in Key West and it wasn’t long before Casey sent me an autographed album from Charlie with my name on it. That meant a lot to me. Especially now that Charlie is gone.
As I have been told by many…get to the point. I can ramble for days about my life experiences. Back to Roger. Roger is the ORIGINAL guitar player with Jimmy Buffett. I remember the first time I contacted Roger on the internet via email. He was living in the New York City area many years ago. I told him of my personal background and love of the music of Jimmy Buffett. I have the JB bootlegs from the 1970’s through the 2000’s and all of the “official” recordings on vinyl, cd, whatever. Back when Roger was living in New York City he sent me some stuff on cd and we became email friends. Next I met him there when I took my daughter per her request for a visit to NYC so long ago. Roger and I recorded an interview which I still have for a future project. Next I brought him to Key West as I was director of conventions for the annual “Parrot Heads” convention down there which I worked on for close to 20 years and ran for just shy of 10 years as a volunteer. I always felt like I understood the history and the vibe of Jimmy Buffett music from the early days to the present. I lived it in so many ways. I always wanted all of the contributors to the music collection there as much as possible. Being a guitar enthusiast I thought the guitar players should always show up and help provide the feel of the music if Jimmy could not make it to town. That is where Roger came in. I should add it was cool that Roger was in the room talking to JB about old times with me when Jimmy was in Key West in 2015. They both lit up the stages that year.
Whether it was Roger Bartlett or Keith Sykes or Josh Leo or Will Kimbrough or Peter Mayer or Sonny Landreth to name even a few they added so much to the feel of Jimmy Buffett’s music. So let’s close that part of the story and talk about today.
As I started the story Roger was in town about a year ago as I write this tonight and on tour. I asked him to stop in and stay as he is always fun to have around to talk music and just enjoy our times together. On the morning about a year ago we were waking up with some good coffee and he had his acoustic Martin in a stand I brought up right next to my kitchen area. He started playing this riff and said he was working on an new album. I really liked the guitar licks and asked what he was going to do with it. Over the next three hours we co-wrote a song. We just kept going until we finished. We kept drinking coffee and writing down things. Even a few days later Roger was polishing a word or two. It ended up being the first track on his new album “The Spice of Life” called “Piece of Mind.” I have written several songs that I haven’t published so this was a first.
Now let me say that Roger worked his ass off over the last year hiring musicians, vocalists, and mixing all his tracks in Florida. I am happy to contribute in a small way. It just happened and there was no plan. He played the song that week at a local gig I set up and I smiled. I really like this new album.
There are great tracks on this collection that just released on streaming platforms. The CD version is coming. If you like rock, blues, jazz, or Steely Dan for instance you should listen to this album. Over and over. The tracks are well sequenced and sound great. My favorites are the song we co-wrote and I really like “The Habit of Romance.” All of the songs have a nice feel to them. Go stream this one. If you see Roger buy a physical copy. You will enjoy it. The tracks are a result of years of well refined skills and hard work. Roger has a big investment of time and money in this project that will only be paid back by streaming credits and you know how I feel about that! That is another topic for another day. Don’t miss Roger this month while he is out on a tour on the east coast. If you are lucky you may get to see him in a town near you.
Life is short and good friends make great memories. See ya down the road.