Jimmy Buffett: A Good Life All the Way

In his memoir, A Pirate Looks at Fifty (1998), musician Jimmy Buffett reflected on his life; in this biography of Buffett, White has written an entertaining life of the entertainer but hasn’t revealed many new anecdotes. White’s starry-eyed fan’s notes perpetuate the legend of the laid-back, shrimp-eating, beer-guzzling, flip-flop–wearing daydreamer who was nevertheless a canny businessman. Drawing on interviews with Buffett’s friends and fellow musicians, White faithfully chronicles Buffett’s rise to fame and fortune from his childhood in Mobile, Ala., and his short-lived college days in Hattiesburg, Miss., to his unsuccessful forays into Nashville’s music scene and his eventual landing in Key West, where he roamed the bars with writers Thomas McGuane and Jim Harrison. Working chronologically, White (Springsteen: Album by Album) carefully takes readers behind the scenes of every Buffett album, revealing an artist who was always in control, despite his slapdash public persona. White aptly captures an ingenious musician who’s expertly figured out how to spin his music and himself into something that his fans will continually follow. (May)