Jimmy Buffett

By the time of his fifth album, Havana Daydreamin', Jimmy Buffett seemed to have established a pattern for what a collection of his songs would be. The best one-word description for the musical style still would have to be "country," but Buffett, and probably his record label, had given up on trying to sell him to the conventional country audience, and instead aimed at a slice of the pop market. That was fair enough, since he had evolved a persona as a Gulf Coast ne'er-do-well in compositions full of sentimentally viewed oddball characters ("Woman Goin' Crazy on Caroline Street," co-written with Steve Goodman, a re-recording of "The Captain and the Kid" from his first album, Down to Earth), self-deprecating self-portraits ("My Head Hurts, My Feet Stink and I Don't Love Jesus"), and humorous depictions of life on the road for the working musician ("Big Rig," written by Gregory "Fingers" Taylor, harmonica player in Buffett's Coral Reefer Band, "Kick It in Second Wind," co-written with girlfriend Jane Slagsvol), with plenty of references to alcohol and recreational drugs thrown in. It was perhaps unfortunate that the two best-written songs on the album, each of which ended one side of the LP, were written by others, Jesse Winchester's touching, whimsical "Defying Gravity" and Steve Goodman's road song "This Hotel Room." But that suggested that Buffett was looking for good songs to sing, whether he wrote them himself or not. © William Ruhlmann

Banana Wind is typical latter-day Jimmy Buffett. Over a laidback, Caribbean-inflected folk-rock, Buffett waxes eloquent over boats, booze, sun, and women. Although the sound of the album certainly is pleasant, there's not a single distinctive song on the record, which means it's good for Parrotheads, but casual fans should let this Banana Wind sail on by.

Singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffett has been regaling audiences for over five decades with songs about the faces and places he's seen during his lifetime journey along the road less traveled, and his new album Equal Strain On All Parts is a new chapter in his story. With a title inspired by his grandfather's description of a good nap, Equal Strain On All Parts features a variety of famous friends, including Paul McCartney, Emmylou Harris, Lennie Gallant, Angelique Kidjo, and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.