On Songs You Don’t Know by Heart, Jimmy Buffett returns to his folk roots to recut deep gems from his catalog.

BY JIMMY LESLIE PHOTOGRAPHY BY JULIE SKARRATT

JIMMY BUFFETT HAS amassed an impressive bounty of instruments over 50 years, and the lengendary troubadour and buccaneer dug into his trove to render his latest acoustic endeavor, Songs You Don’t Know by Heart (Mailboat). The title is a play on his ubiquitous greatest-hits collection, Songs You Know by Heart, an apt title for most listeners whether they’re a Buffett denier or a true-blue Parrothead aware of his every tune. The guitarist’s diehard fans voted for the nuggets on this latest album, which reimagines deep catalog cuts. Songs You Don’t Know by Heart is the perfect album for every banana-bar minstrel who has sung “Margaritaville” or “Cheeseburger in Paradise” wishing they could turn the audience on to hipper choices from Buffett’s catalog. It’s also ideal for anyone who has dug Buffett’s imaginative songwriting but lost touch with it over time as the musician became overshadowed by his island image.

“I ONLY KNEW THE THREE CHORDS THAT A COLLEGE ROOMMATE TAUGHT ME, BUT I COULD DRAW A CROWD AT SORORITY PARTIES”

Buffett has great affection for accomplished string slingers and is actually quite the guitar aficionado. Slide master Sonny Landreth is often seen playing with Jimmy’s Coral Reefer Band in New Orleans at Jazz Fest (he jokingly refers to himself as the band’s unofficial mascot), and Buffett employs a pair of aces: Lead Reefer Peter Mayer and multi-instrumentalist Mac McAnally, both of whom have been in tow since 1989 and 1994, respectively, ripping salty licks and creating cool currents around Buffett’s bedrock rhythms. Along with percussionist Eric Darken, they help transform full-band arrangements into compelling scaled-down renditions. McAnally produced the recording and plays a boatload of stringed things on it, including mandolin, ukulele and an Avante Gryphon 12-string terz guitar. Mayer tears up “Woman Goin’ Crazy on Caroline Street” and drips with delicacy on “The Night I Painted the Sky.” Buffett puts his own sea-worthy solo on “Tonight I Just Need My Guitar,” a lovely tune inspired by an ancient classical Martin. “Something So Feminine About a Mandolin” is simply delightful.