Tuesday, July 13, 2010

When the Coast Is Clear

I will admit here, for those of you who don't already know, I am a Parrothead.  I attended my first Jimmy Buffett concert when I was 17 years old.  Even though I was already a fan of his music before I went to the concert, the party atmosphere and feeling like I was in the biggest group of fellow beach bums made me like him even more.  I have been fortunate enough to attend several concerts and each one was more fun than the last (the party in the parking lot is almost more fun than the show itself) .  And yes, I always wear a hat...
I am very fortunate that my husband also embraced the Parrothead culture, and still asked me to marry him several weeks after a pretty embarrassing incident involving me and the gates of the State Fair of Texas prior to a concert.

The reason I like JB's music so much is because it instantly transports me to the Gulf Coast.  One song in particular has always hit a special note with me, When the Coast Is Clear.  The song is a ballad about a small beach town during the off season, when the tourists have left- my favorite time on the coast is the fall.  I love an empty beach and a cold wind blowing.  This isn't one of JB's more popular songs because it's not a party song,  it doesn't get played very often in concert (I think I've heard it once).  So, I was pretty surprised when I was watching his concert for the coast tonight and he chose this song to close the televised part of the show.  He mentioned that they modernized it a bit, but what they did was incredible (the singing not so great, but awesome lyrics).  It was a song of hope for the Gulf and recovering from the BP oil spill.



I teared up a little listening to this song.  I hope that the Gulf can recover and that the places where I grew up will again be clean and full of life.

Updated with new video link, hopefully this one will stay active

1 comments:

Jennifer Wicks said...

Terrell, I loved this post. I love "When the Coast is Clear" too. His ballads often make me long for the coast, and right now, I wish so much I could be down on the coast helping out, as it's always been one of my most happy places too. And on a personal note, I love your picture you posted. I took that! The Gulf Coast has been hit so hard in the last 5 years, and it makes me sad and yet makes me love it all the more.
Your fellow Parrothead,
Jen

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