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Jimmy & Sports Illustrated Play for New Orleans

The yearly Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition is as much an annual tradition as a Jimmy Buffett concert, so it seemed a natural when SI approached Jimmy - not with a 2-piece, but with an offer. The theme for this years issue was music, and SI wanted to involve New Orleans musicians, and they knew Jimmy could help.

Jimmy agreed to donate one of his guitars to the cause, and he autographed it—Play well, fins to the left, fins to the right, Jimmy Buffett—before it was passed on to the swimsuit models in the issue, each of whom signed the guitar during her photo shoot. The guitar, a Jimmy Buffett-Shellback Signature Edition Guitar, number 5 of 168 created by the C.F. Martin & Company, was auctioned on eBay with 100% of the proceeds going to the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic and Habitat for Humanity Musicians’ Village. Jimmy told Richard Deitsch “I was born in a little town called Pascagoula , which was devastated by Katrina. I believe New Orleans is the cultural soul of America and needs to be saved.”

Each year under the March full moon, Bankie Banx hosts his annual Moonsplash Music Festival, three days and nights of music, food and fun at his funky beach bar, The Dune Preserve, on the shores of Rendezvous Bay in Anguilla . The Moonsplash Music Festival has featured a wide array of performers from a variety of musical genres. Each year hundreds of local residents and visitors to Anguilla converge on The Dune Preserve to soak in the sounds of reggae, funk, folk and jazz emanating from the Moonsplash Main Stage.

In March, 2007 Jimmy & The Coral Reefers performed at the festival. The local paper asked, "Who is Jimmy Buffett? That was the response of many Anguillians when they heard that he would be performing in concert at the Dune Preserve Retreat at Rendezvous Bay on Saturday 24th March. Most of them had never heard ‘bell nor market’ of him and wondered where the organisers of the concert had found him and why not bring in somebody like Michael Jackson. Then when our local news media began reporting that some 3,500 tickets (at U.S. $100.00 each) had already been sold everybody began wondering what was so magical about Jimmy Buffett – and what was so great about his music." Proceeds went toward three local institutions: the Anguilla Tennis Academy , the Stingray Band and the Anguilla Community Foundation.

Jimmy crossed the Atlantic in June, 2007 performing in a Paris Jazz Club. The New Morning Jazz Club in Paris has over 25 years become a, “cult institution, much like the Blue Note and the Village Vanguard in New York.” "Paris was wonderful ... it had been a dream of mine to play there for a long time ... we've adopted some Paris-heads, they were there in full force. The show was great ... about 450 people ... I think they want us back too. That's kind of in the plan to do a some little fun things along with these big show. Between Paris and Anguilla , we have a couple other things we are looking at."

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