Camarón De La Isla Songs
Alysa Guillama
Once on an annual fishing trip in Florida around the turn of the century, singer Jimmy Buffett dropped his son and youngest daughter off at an intracoastal island to let them say whatever they wanted, and as loud as they wanted.
Delaney Buffett was 8 at the time while her brother, Cameron, was 10. The siblings offloaded the boat and then dad pulled away from the island. Delaney and Cameron began shouting as many curse words as they could, and they yelled so loud that perhaps the entire state of Florida could hear them.
"We would scream every cuss word we knew, and he [Jimmy Buffett] just sat in the boat and would crack up," Delaney said. "When we got back in the boat, we were quiet because we weren't allowed to cuss around our parents. My dad loves that story."
Thirty-five years after Jimmy Buffett released his first-ever greatest hits album called Songs You Know By Heart, Delaney Buffett is directing a series of videos dubbed "Songs You Don't Know By Heart."
The songs are deep tracks from his albums over the years, and some have rarely been played in concert. But they all have a story behind them, and this is where Delaney brings her film background and experience to help tell those stories.
"The concept was to film dad and give intimate looks into songs and go down memory lane," Delaney said. "I sit down one-on-one with him and get an unplugged version of these songs. Not only to jog his memory, but also mine to remember the stories he would tell. Some songs he knew off cuff, and others it took some time for him to remember."
"Songs You Don't Know By Heart" wasn't necessarily planned. It just happened. When the COVID-19 pandemic began sweeping across America and things began shutting down, so did tours and events by musicians.
Jimmy Buffett's concerts are more than just a musical performance on stage. His faithful followers called Parrotheads have tailgate parties complete with Tiki huts, homemade bars, food, games and lots of booze. And at showtime, rain or shine, they bring their festival to Buffett and his Coral Reefer Band.
"While we've got JB in one place for an extended period of time - with a bad case of cabin fever -a question: What is the song we don't all know by heart that you'd love to hear Jimmy revisit? And if there is special reason please share that too," they tweeted.
The response was overwhelming as that one tweet got more than 1,100 replies. The wheels started turning, and Buffett's staff concocted the "Songs You Don't Know By Heart" concept. The staff called Delaney to ask if she would film and direct it. It made sense because she was living with her parents, and they were already social distancing like they were on the far side of the world.
Delaney would not reveal to Newsweek what other songs are on the project beyond the ones already released, so it was hard to decipher whether or not the aforementioned "Cussin' Island" was on the project. That was the only song Delaney knows was written about her, other than "Delaney Talks to Statues," of course.
In the video for "Something So Feminine About a Mandolin," Jimmy could not remember who co-wrote the song with him. Delaney is heard in the background trying to help him remember. Delaney then calls her mother, Jane, and puts her on speaker phone to ask her. Come to find out, Jane helped Jimmy write that song that was released in 1976 on the "Havana Daydreamin'" album.
"One of the great things about the father-daughter aspect of it is that it gives a look into our relationship," Delaney said. "I can make a snarky remark, and that's the beauty of our father-daughter relationship. I can ask a bad question and he'll brush it off, and then we'll laugh about it at dinner."
"I want to make it as good as possible for his fans and the public," she said. "I can't provide the level of entertainment of a live show, but I can give people a glimpse of him behind the scenes and behind the songs."
Delaney Buffett said the remainder of videos from "Songs You Don't Know By Heart" will come out about once a week, maybe once every two weeks. The videos will all be on Jimmy Buffett's official Facebook and Instagram pages. They can also be seen on his website, jimmybuffett.com.
Scott McDonald is a Newsweek deputy night editor based in Cape Coral, Florida. His focus is assigning and writing stories across all topics, from news to politics, business, weather, sports and international news. Scott joined Newsweek in 2018 after a lengthy career of print journalism in Texas, including The Dallas Morning News, where he was a sportswriter, and he's a voter for the Heisman Trophy. He has been a newspaper editor-in-chief and also a newspaper publisher. He is a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin. You can get in touch with Scott by emailing s.mcd...@newsweek.com. Languages: English
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