Perennial Gulf Coast hero and Florida Keys legend Jimmy Buffett passed away peacefully at age 76, reportedly surrounded by loved ones, music, and pups. Buffett’s 2022 touring year wrapped with notices of canceled concert dates due to illness. But his timeless charm and stubbornly youthful approach to life had us all assuming he’d be back on the trail in no time. Today’s news took the wind out of many sails, including ours. We share in the planet’s sadness and shock.

Jimmy Buffett was such a fabulous conundrum. Born and raised on the Alabama Gulf Coast, and having done time in Nashville, he began his career as a sort of Jimmy Webb-like troubadour vagabond and wrapped it up in a flourish as a prosperous Warren Buffett-style tycoon – thanks to a mythical lifestyle fueled by his half-a-century’s worth of songbook.

Having made his fateful, if relatively short-lived move to Key West, Buffett so perfectly captured that certain Floridian languor on his third album, 1973’s A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean. While the album was not a smash, it turned the tide for Buffett and set his course for what was to become a tsunami of success.