Posthumous Jimmy Buffett Album Will Feature Unheard Songs

Jimmy Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band has confirmed the completion of a new album, with the leader’s voice to be heard three years after his passing.

Buffett died aged 76 in 2023, but the band kept going – and now they’re preparing to launch a record featuring previously unreleased songs.

Mac McAnally and Michael Utley co-produced Equal Strain on All Parts, which was tracked with Buffett and released two months after he died. In a new interview with Billboard, McAnally outlined what to expect from the upcoming release.

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“[F]or the most part [it’s] things that have never been out,” he said, adding that the few which had were “cut for a one-off purpose, a TV episode or a movie.”

He continued: “The oldest of these tracks is, like, 2003, and the newest is maybe four years ago or so. None of those things have ever been on a Jimmy Buffett album. We’re pretty excited.”

The album includes the song “Workin’ 'n’ Playin’,” first performed on tour in 2015 and 2016. “[Buffett] and I used to talk about the fact that our work is playing, and our play is work,” McAnally explained.

“[W]e wrote that song the year we had a tour called Workin’ 'n’ Playin’. It’s really good, so it’s on this album, and we do it now as sort of a duet between the band and Jimmy.”

‘You Can Tell Jimmy Buffett’s Smiling’ on Posthumous Album

Also present are an unused track from the 2017 musical Escape to Margaritaville, backing music for Buffett’s Frank Bama character on the 21st-century version of Hawaii Five-O and the full piece backing his Jurrassic World cameo, of which only a few notes have previously been heard.

Reporting that the music was all done, but that there was no title or release date as yet, McAnally added: “It’s a good hodgepodge. When you hear Jimmy sing you can tell that he’s smiling; you can hear that smile…

“I’ve been listening to that smile for three months finishing this record, so I’m almost sore from smiling — but I ain’t gonna quit.”

The Coral Reefer Band are currently touring the U.S.