Album Review: 'Live at Fenway Park' - Jimmy Buffett

Dec 20, 2005, 8:57 GMT

Jimmy Buffett spends plenty of time in the liner notes and DVD component of 'Live at Fenway Park' grabbing partial credit for the Red Sox` 2004 World Series rings, thanks to a skit wherein his voodoo-dancing 'Jolly Mon' exorcised the Curse of the Bambino with a few calypso moves and a frozen, salt-addled beverage of some kind.

OK, sure. But time and the gods of baseball, who are leagues more powerful than even the jolliest mon, have debunked Buffett`s baseball-related powers. He played Wrigley Field twice this year, but whatever curse-busting mojo he brought there took the Red Line to the South Side (or at least fell victim to a monster lake wind). Regardless, this two-CD and one-DVD set, culled from Buffett`s two-night stand last September at the baseball-shrine-turned-semi-regular-concert-venue right before the Sox`s insane championship run, will fill the stockings of many a Parrothead this year.

This is the sixth 'official' bootleg from Buffett`s recent tours, but its set list easily trumps all others. There`s not a favorite absent, and for those interested in something other than 'Volcano' for the hundredth time, there`s the acoustic and forgotten 'Great Filling Station Hold-Up,' a bouncy cover of the Dead`s 'Scarlet Begonias' and a Fenway-specific medley of mid-game rally bumper 'Sweet Caroline' and 'Why Don`t We Get Drunk' (though the live version also involved 'Purple Rain' as well, missing here. It`s OK: Prince didn`t want 'Weird Al' messing around with his catalog either).

The performance is a little spotty and sports a few of those 'senior moments' Buffett warns about in the liner notes, but that`s not the idea. 'Fenway' only wants to sail on goodwill.

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