To honor the recent passing of the great Jimmy Buffett I’ll be offering several tribute songs. Here’s my rough-and-ready attempt at “A Pirate Looks at Forty.” As always, thanks for listening and let’s raise a glass to JB this weekend. If you’re a Buffett fan, stay tuned. There are several more of his songs in the pipeline.

Songfacts: “Buffett was only 27 when this song was released, but it’s not about him. He wrote it about Phil Clark, one of the more colorful characters he met when he first came to Key West, Florida, in the early ’70s. Clark was a modern-day pirate, described in various accounts as a smuggler, a mercenary, a drug runner and an adventurer. Buffett got to know him, and wrote this song based on their conversations.”

I had a special request from my wife to learn and record this one. True story:

The movie Urban Cowboy starring John Travolta and Debra Winger came out in 1980 and fueled the cowboy dance hall craze in much the same way that Saturday Night Fever lit up disco in the ‘70s. In October of 1982 I had my first date with my future wife, Tina, and after attending a college football game we wound up at the biggest cowboy dance hall in Lafayette, Louisiana. There’s a very good chance that we two-stepped our way around a sawdust-covered floor to this very song that night. Forty-one years later, she’s still the love of my life.

“Could I Have This Dance?” was written by Wayland Holyfield and Bob House and recorded by the Canadian superstar Anne Murray. It was included on the Urban Cowboy soundtrack and became a #1 country hit for Murray. Join us for a spin around the floor in ¾ time.

I was excited to have Roger Lisenko II contact me to see if I’d like to work with him on a collaboration and we were able to put together our version of this Eagles classic. Roger’s great performances on the rhythm guitar and lead vocals could stand on their own, but I took the opportunity to pull out my bass, add a little lead guitar, and some background vocals. “Tequila Sunrise” was one of the first two Frey/Henley songs written in their first week of collaborative songwriting. I think they knew from the start that they had a winner with this one. Hope you enjoy our take on it.

Well, I jumped at the chance to work with this talented bunch again: Gary Schoolcraft, Ben Robert Eastman, John Bacon, and Ed Gonzales. We were also thrilled to have Eddie Minyard sit in with us on this project.

The Traveling Wilburys were a true supergroup from 1988-90, consisting of George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, and Roy Orbison. “End of the Line” was released as a single off their first album. If you’re not familiar with this gem of a group from musical history, it’s worth looking them up.

Great musical performances from the whole gang, and I’m particularly happy with how the vocals turned out. It’s been a couple of months in the making–hope you like it as much as we enjoyed putting this together for you.

“But You Know I Love You” is another “sucks being on the road” song, but this time it’s not one by John Denver. It was written by Mike Settle, a member of the First Edition, along with Kenny Rogers. They recorded it first in 1969 and it became a hit for them. It was also covered by country music stars Bill Anderson and Dolly Parton (separately) and has since been covered by many more. Glad I’m not recording this in some lonely motel room on the road.

“Starwood in Aspen” is another song in John Denver’s extensive list of “sad to be on the road” compositions that started with “Leaving on a Jet Plane.” I don’t know if any other artist wrote more songs lamenting the traveling life–I could probably reel off a dozen titles here without thinking too hard. It’s a tough life, I’m sure, and I guess he was conflicted about it, but he certainly used his experience as a creative springboard.

“Cherokee Fiddle” was written and first recorded by Michael Martin Murphey and rose to #52 on the country charts and in 1980 Johnny Lee’s version was included on the Urban Cowboy soundtrack album. A later re-recording by Lee cracked the country top 10. The story is based on a fiddle player named “Scooter”; his real name was Dean Kirk. He was of Choctaw Indian and Irish descent and he worked as a professional musician and in his later years played at the train station in Silverton, Colorado (Wikipedia). Obviously, it could use some fiddling in the breaks, but since I didn’t have that I tried a little hammer-on/drone trick to try to at least evoke the feel of a country fiddle.

Shel Silverstein wrote “A Boy Named Sue” and sang it for Johnny Cash at a songwriters’ jam in Nashville. According to the Songfacts website, Johnny’s wife, June Carter, thought it would be a good one for Cash to do. He took a copy of the song with him and performed it for the first time ever while recording his “Live at San Quentin” album, reading the lyrics onstage as he sang it, and it became one of his biggest hits. You just never know.

Anybody who knows me knows that I’m a big fan of John Henry Deutschendorf. Looking back through my previous posts I was surprised to see that I’ve never done one of his most famous songs, so I’m here to rectify that. John wrote this one while he was still a member of the Chad Mitchell Trio; when Peter, Paul, and Mary covered this in 1969, it effectively launched his solo career. You may know him by another (easier to spell) name: John Denver.

Beatles fans can name this tune in four notes. This is not so much a replication of the song as an interpretation–hope you enjoy my take on this classic Lennon/McCartney oldie.