Nearly two months following the death of Jimmy Buffett in September 2023, two new songs off his forthcoming, posthumous album, Equal Strain on All Parts, out November 3, have been released. The new tracks are the autobiographical “University of Bourbon Street” and his cover of Bob Dylan‘s 1976 song “Mozambique.”
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On “Mozambique,” originally released by Dylan on his 1976 album Desire, Buffett revisits the song with Dylan’s singing partner on the original track, Emmylou Harris. Buffett and Harris transform Dylan’s song into a more laidback escape to the southern African nation.
Dylan and Buffett had a mutual admiration for one another’s work. In 2009, Dylan called Buffett one of his favorite songwriters. He also named “Death of an Unpopular Poet” and “He Went to Paris” among two of his favorite Buffett songs.
Joined by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Buffett goes back to school on the more autobiographical “University of Bourbon Street,” which was co-written with Will Kimbrough. Recounting the festive city of New Orleans and how he got his education from the backbeat and brass bands, streetcars, and some smiles.
Co-produced by two of the members of Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band, Mac McAnally and Michael Utley, the album also features McCartney playing bass on “My Gummie Just Kicked In,” a song inspired by a dinner party Buffett and his wife Jane had with McCartney and his wife Nancy.
Along with McCartney, Harris, and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Equal Strain On All Parts also features appearances by Lennie Gallant and Angelique Kidjo.
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“‘Mozambique’ and ‘University of Bourbon Street’ speak to the incredible creative force that was Jimmy Buffett,” said Dominic Pandiscia, chief strategy officer, Primary Wave, Sun Label Group, in a statement, “an artist who was still in his prime recording songs that will stand amongst the greatest ever in his incredible catalog of music.”
Buffett died after a four-year battle with Merkel Cell Skin Cancer, which can grow quickly and spread to nearby lymph nodes and to other parts of the body in its early stage, according to the National Cancer Institute. After being hospitalized in early 2022, Buffett canceled his tour in April 2022.
Buffett, who turned 76 on Christmas Day 2022, hit the road again with the Coral Reefer Band in March 2023 and was forced to cancel another show in South Carolina in May after being hospitalized.
Photo: Julie Skarratt / Courtesy of Press House PR
