Customer Reviews

High Cumberland Jubilee

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This is arguably Jimmy Buffett's most obscure album - which is all the more reason why you should own it. These early glimpses of the man years before he was famous are really fascinating given the image most of us have of Jimmy today. Let's make one thing clear from the top, though: there are no steel drums or tropical rhythms on here. None of the songs deal exclusively with life-or-death parties (to borrow from a more recent Buffett CD) or the ocean. All that was quite a while into the future when these songs were recorded. What you do get is tuneful folk-rock, with enough country twang thrown in the mix to remind us that our hero started off in Nashville. There's also a sharper sense of social relevance here than in most of his better-known works: "Bend a Little" and "Ace" feature some of the most biting lyrics he's ever served up while "Rockefeller Square" (my favorite song on the album, with a deceptively energetic arrangement) is worthy of Dylan in its skewering of hypocrisy. It's too bad Buffett so rarely tries to take on serious issues anymore; this album proves he's quite good at it when he tries. Best of all are early versions of "In the Shelter" and "Livingston's Gone to Texas" which, for my money, top the better known recordings. Winding down the album in style is the title track, which progresses from a pretty, almost Beatlesque piano tune to a country rave-up featuring a terrific banjo break. It's an eclectic mix, but - like the album overall - it works!

High Cumberland Jubilee unfortunately was released on the tiny Barnaby label or else it could have been Jimmy Buffett's breakout. It contains some of his best songs, "In The Shelter" and "Livingston's Gone To Texas" were later revived and re-recorded on future albums, and great singing. "Ace" & "Rockefeller Square" are songs about odd-ball characters. "Death Valley Lives" is one of his all-time best songs and pops along like a car on the open road. "God Don't Own A Car" & "The Hang-Out Gang" are typical Jimmy Buffett wry look at life songs. The album fulfills the promise of his debut and is a great hidden gem.

If you collect Buffett, you gotta have this one. So what if the songs here are on "Before the Beach", that's not the point. Besides, the songs on this CD have a more polished "Recorded in the Studio" sound than "Before the Beach" and with that "bonus track" you would be crazy not to add this to your Buffett library (it actually is on B4TB). So what if it isn't his greatest hits, It was a great start to a great career and the liner notes state what would have happened if...

Having had "Before the Beach" for quite some time, I was surprised to hear the different versions on this re-release. Note the flute on "Ace", the electric guitar on "Death Valley Lives", and the slightly differently set-up version of "High Cumberland Jubilee/Comin' Down Slow". Excellent folk-rock album, recommended more to James Taylor and Gordon Lightfoot fans than those especially fond of "Songs You Know By Heart." Early versions of Livingston's Gone to Texas" and "In the Shelter" are also interesting to listen to.

I agree with Mr. Bede on this one. While I own every Jimmy Buffett album, I certainly am NOT a "Parrothead" or a mindless devotee of any sort for that matter. Also, I actually wasn't alive in the 70's or the better half of the 80's but I know good music when I hear it! While I adore his debut, Down To Earth, I think High Cumberland Jubilee was his first truly great album. All the songs are great. He sounds more confident and full of energy than he did on the debut, plus the lyrics are even more biting in that classic 'protest era' folk way. The best song in my opinion, "In the Shelter", was later re-done for Changes in Latitude, and while I love both versions, I much prefer this one. Sure, the other one fits well on Changes in Latitudes (where it's given a more laid-back beachy treatment) this version is far more evocative and personal. You can't go wrong with this one.

This is Buffett at his best...before he caught commercial success. Nice songwriting with a few small exceptions...almost has a country feel w/ pedal steel thrown in throughout, but still as that Buffett signature sound. He had something to prove still...like Springsteen on "The Wild and Innocent." This album, along with "Down To Earth" and all of Buffett's album's through "Changes in Lat./Changes in Att." are gems as far as I'm concerned...hell, I'd even say up to the Live album "You Had To Be There." This album will not disappoint.

Jimmy's second album follows a similar style as his first, but overall is the better recording of the two. This is still pre-beach bum Buffett and many of the songs reflect a social / political consciousness that would fade away on his later (and more popular) recordings. Songs like "Rockefeller Square", "In The Shelter" and "Ace" all paint pictures of economic social situations that still ring true today. Some of Jimmy's best character studies are to be found here too with songs like "Death Valley Lives" and "Livingston's Gone To Texas". Another highlight is the country rock romp of "High Cumberland Jubilee / Coming Down Slow" medley that closes the album. Along with the good stuff there are some clunkers that sound very hippi-ish and dated. Songs like "The Hang Out Gang" and "God Don't Own A Car" probably went over really well in 1972, but have not aged very well. This album would prove to be the last to be recorded for independent label as Buffett would move on to MCA for his next release. It would also be his last album for many years to be recorded in Nashville which would reflect itself in the music to come.

This album features more of Jimmy B before he discovered Boats, Beaches & Bars, well okay, he'd obviously discovered bars, but the boats & beaches would have to wait for his next album. On this one we are treated to more of the early folksinging style of a young man in transition, or rather a young man on the verge of a breakout to a breakaway career that since that third album "A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean" has gone nowhere but up.

JB has become larger than life, records selling in the bazillions. But for awhile back there, he was just like us, a mere mortal seeking his way. This album, good as it is, is a part of that quest and should be appreciated both for its outstanding lyrics as well as its place in documenting the beginning of an outstanding career. Thumbs up from me and if you give "High Cumberland Jubilee" a listen, I'm sure it'll be getting thumbs up from you as well.

It is quite easy for newcomers to buffett to think him a superficial stadium performer, these days you would be right. The tragic paradox is that JB had the potential to be a truly great artist, up there with Young or Dylan.

This record is living proof of this. If you want to truly hear the Buffett that could have been get High Cumberland Jubilee, A1A, Changes in Lattitudes .., a rare vinyl gem called "before the salt", which can be subsisted with "before the beach" and stop with, and including son of a son of a sailor. You will see the downward spiral. You can pick up Floridays (his best latter day effort IMHO), where JB sorta gets a glimps of what has been lost.

High Cumberland Jubilee is jimmy with a firm grip on his soul. It rocks, as hard as anything i have ever heard. No, there is very little electric distortion, but the whole thing is so tight, such raw energy, that it makes Metallica et al seem frivolous. To see what he could have been put the CD in, Turn up the volume to 11, and pump out Rockefeller Square.

This is a sad album because it shows even the finest talent can be sold for the dollar and an easy lifestyle. Sorry Jimmy, but truth is truth.