From AL.com: ‘Pure Joy’ as Jimmy Buffett’s Coral Reefers tour with Doobie Brothers
News that Jimmy Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band would tour this summer with the Doobie Brothers Band was exciting for fans – and for the players it’s “a pure joy,” says an Alabama star in the thick of it.
The Doobie Brothers’ “Walk This Road” tour kicked off Aug. 4 in Detroit and continues through mid-September. It’s a big deal for the Doobies because the tour, like the album of the same name, features all three of the vocalists who’ve sung lead on most of the band’s songs over the years: Patrick Simmons, Tom Johnston and Michael McDonald.
It’s a big deal for the Coral Reefer Band and Jimmy Buffett’s fan base as well. Following Buffett’s death in 2023, the band played a very limited run of shows in 2024, testing the waters to see if the group could chart a future without its charismatic ringleader. Response to those shows, which kicked off in Orange Beach, was positive.
The 20-show excursion with the Doobie Brothers will be the Coral Reefers’ first sustained run in a post-Buffett world. At the heart of the effort is Mac McAnally, who co-wrote, recorded and performed with Buffett for decades and who continues to serve as bandleader for the Coral Reefers.
McAnally said Friday that the first few shows of the tour have been “Amazing.”
“The Doobies have a fair amount in common with Jimmy in that they’re so good and they’re so professional,” he said. “They’re based around some really good people. Their staff, their crew, from top to bottom are just high-quality people. And Jimmy was always that way. He recruited great people.”
There was a mutual “reverence,” McAnally said.
“You know, Jimmy opened shows for the Doobies and then there were times when they opened shows for him later on,” he said. “The careers have gone back and forth and they’re still just as viable, they’re one of the great American rock and roll bands that’s ever been. So for us to get to play with them is nothing but honor and nothing but joy.
“We’ve enjoyed every minute,” he said. “I enjoy listening to them play. They got all the singers. Tom and Patrick and Michael are all out there singing lead. And just in case that’s not enough great vocals, they got John Cowan sitting on the bass, you know, and John McFee. They’ve got great singers all the way across the band.”
In a sense, the experience has taken McAnally full circle back to his teen years, in a sense, he said.
“I remember from last night what [the band] sounds like,” he said. “But I also remember from being a teenager in cover bands in Mississippi, the dismal failure that we had trying to sing the vocals of the Doobie Brothers hits back in the ‘70s.” McAnally was born in Red Bay, Ala., and grew up in Mississippi before having some early professional success in Muscle Shoals. He still calls the Shoals area home.
“They’re so good and you can learn the music, but you’re going to have a hard time singing in the way that those guys put the harmonies together, they’re so good at it,” he said. “So we’ve got 20 shows with them, and I think we have three of those under our belt this week. We’ve got two more this weekend. It’s just a joy.”
“And I know Jimmy’s smiling down because he loved that band and he loved our band, and he loved all of the people involved,” McAnally said. “And the fact that we’re out there together still making folks smile is making him smile, I’m sure.”
The Doobie Brothers tour doesn’t include any dates in the Deep South, but the Coral Reefer Band will return to the Wharf Amphitheater in Orange Beach in October. McAnally also will perform a “Margaritas and Memories” shown Aug. 23 in Montgomery with fellow Coral Reefers Scotty Emerick and Eric Darken.