License to Chill

As most devoted Parrotheads are well aware, Jimmy Buffett is no stranger to country music. Before he developed his trademark brand of Caribbean-influenced good-time pop, the sun-loving singer paid his dues on the Nashville circuit, eventually recording two albums of accomplished, if not particularly commercially successful, country rock (the best tracks from which were collected on 1994's BACK TO THE BEACH). With LICENSE TO CHILL, Buffett brings the cowboys to the beach, employing the talents of Music City's first-call studio musicians and superstar performers. Buffett's music is so comfortable that duet contributions from artists as diverse as Toby Keith, Nanci Griffith, and Bill Withers all sound perfectly at home. By applying island rhythms to country classics and combining steel of the pedal and drum varieties in a single song, Buffett has once again developed a new hybrid style that could perhaps be called "all-American world music."