Jazz Fest 2011

Busking Out: Becoming Jimmy Buffett
by Garland Robinette

Note: Jimmy Buffett passed away in 2023. The original painting by Garland Robinette commissioned for this poster sold at auction in late 2023 for $137,500. The ReMarque, C-Marque & Proof editions are signed by him.

The world wouldn't have Jimmy if Jimmy hadn't had New Orleans. Emerging musicians have drifted to New Orleans from near and far for over a century, earning a living on its streets as they hone their craft – a practice called busking.  Many such venturers go unnoticed, but all those who play here in their formative years invariably carry a dash of roux within them forever. That Jimmy Buffett released a tune called I Will Play for Gumbo in 1999 – more than three decades after he first came to New Orleans as a budding troubadour – proves the point.  To this day, Jimmy is a presence on the streets of New Orleans, at the CAC or attending a Saints game, in his Margaritaville Café and performing at Jazz Fest (and was early to commit to the post-Katrina 2006 Festival, clearing away uncertainty and inspiring others to join in its rebirth). 

All in the Gulf South know Garland Robinette as the mid-day host on WWL, a singularly intelligent voice of reason in a region battered to the limits of endurance by disasters, natural and otherwise. What many don’t know is that this Boutte, Louisiana native is an equally accomplished and sought-after painter. For the Jazz Festival poster, Garland literally took pages from Buffett’s autobiography & imagined what it would have been like to meet the young musician as he played on the streets of New Orleans in 1967. He pictures Jimmy at the corner he worked as night melted to dawn, with the musician’s trusty Falcon parked nearby. Flying in the distance is a parrot, prefiguring Buffett’s ultimate destination of Key West, FL. And if you look closely on the sidewalk behind the Falcon, you’ll see the contemporary Jimmy Buffett walking into the future, glancing overhis shoulder at the young man who would eventually catapult him to international acclaim.

Editions:

Poster originally sold for $69 (Unsigned), $239 (Signed), $595 (Re-Marque), $895 (C-Marque)

Poster and specifications may vary slightly.

Image ©2011 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation, Inc./ Text ©1998-2011 ProCreations Publishing Company