By Joshua John

Imagine, if you will, the songwriting and party chops of Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band, mixed with the out-of-this-world improv influences of jam bands such as the Grateful Dead. Truthfully a match made in heaven for any parrothead, deadhead, hippie, beach bum, and especially anybody that just loves good music and good times.

This is what Jammy Buffet is all about. The band has been burning up the Colorado music scene as of recent, and are continuing to gain more and more traction via social media and word of mouth. Pronounced "Jammy Boo-Fay," the group has been bringing primarily Jimmy Buffett staples and hidden gems alike to life in concert, putting fun new twists and jammed out stamps on the singer-songwriter's music along the way. The group recently released "Live in Steamboat Springs" to streaming services, and has a huge show coming up in Nashville at Chief's Bar on April 17th.

Frontman Bob Barrick, a Boulder, CO resident and accomplished songwriter in his own right, was gracious enough to sit down and talk with me regarding his musical background, Jimmy and Jammy, and everything in between.

JJ: "How did you get your start?"

BB: "My family lived in Fort Walton Beach, FL for about 2 years. When we were there I was in middle school and we were hit by this big hurricane, Hurricane Ivan. We did not have water or power for like a week. My older brother had been playing guitar at the time, and during the hurricane his guitar was sitting around. I picked it up and started strumming, started learning a few chords because I couldn't play any video games or anything. It all took off from there.

"I was always singing and whatnot. I was writing songs long before I could play guitar or knew anything about music. I would just write lyrics and sing them, there was no melody or anything. I would share them with my family, and it all kind of came to fruition from there.

"It was really when I went to college that I started taking it more seriously. I was seeing this girl my freshman year, and she encouraged me to sign up for an open mic contest called Java Jams. I signed up for it, got to perform at African Union at Butler University (where I attended school), and ended up getting second place. There was a crowd of about 100 people there, and I was just a freshman, just a little dweeby dude, and I got my first big applause. I had performed a couple times before at church and similar talent shows in high school, but nothing like this. It was a loud room, and the applause felt big. I had written a song for the competition so that I could come with an original piece and people loved it. That's the bug that really bit me, and I realized that I liked applause! I wish it were deeper than that, but I like performing, I like being on stage, and I like the flow of energy between an audience and a performer."

JJ: "Is Indiana where you linked up with Joshua Lee Turner?"

BB: "Josh and I went to college together… he was a year below me in school. My sophomore year he came in as a freshman and by that point was already a known quantity across the internet specifically, because he's a big Youtuber. We started working together almost right away, I can vividly remember the first time we sat down in the dorm room and jammed. We did 'Don't Think Twice It's Alright.'

"At that point, I was not a great musician. I was a passionate dude, I was a hip guy, or at least I thought I was, but that's what I had going for me. Josh, you know, he was stellar right out of the gate. I learned quite a lot just from playing with him over the years. We made quite a few records together. He was a founding member of Kingdom Jasmine and our college band Coyote Armada. We wrote together, and the (song) lyrics generally came from me and he arranged and also got co-writes on things. We wrote something like, I don't know, fifty-plus songs, we have a big catalog of work together"

JJ: "So then what happens next? What's the timeline on how you got out to Colorado?"

BB: "Graduated school. I joined AmeriCorps and served for a year. Which isn't really interesting, it's just the truth. Then I went back to Indianapolis for about 6 months, and during that time Josh and I decided 'Hey, let's do this for real,' and we moved to New York City.

"I lived in Brooklyn for about 9 months. It was a really formative period, lot's of growth songwriting-wise, musicianship-wise. I was performing, almost full time frankly, with Kingdom Jasmine—which was Josh, myself, and our friend Carson McKee. We were invited by a friend, a very wealthy friend, to come to her parents' house in Nederland, CO for the Frozen Dead Guy Days festival. She bought our tickets, flew us out, everything. So we went out and it was like Jimmy going to Key West. I fell in love immediately. I was like, 'I have to live here.'

"We had a great time, and went back to NYC. The band broke up. My girlfriend at the time, who is now my wife, was living in Columbus and dancing in the ballet. Her contract was ending and we were going to be moving in together for the first time. She got an offer from the Boulder ballet, and there was some synchronicity to it. We looked at each other and realized, 'It's obvious, we're going to Boulder.' So, she technically is the reason I am here. And I am happy about it, the universe pointed me here I guess."

JJ: "So you get out to Colorado and start playing out there - how does Jammy Buffet get going? Is Kingdom Jasmine still a thing at this point?"

BB: "For about 3 years, I continued Kingdom Jasmine as a solo project and was involved in the folk scene here (in Boulder). And we surrounded a place called the Laughing Goat Coffee House. There's a great folk scene in Boulder. I was pretty engaged in that and doing a lot of work with the Bluebird Music Festival, which is like a Newport Folk Festival in the West. So I got to volunteer with them and got to know the owner, and opened for some folks. I got to open for Phil Lesh's kid (Grahame Lesh), got to open for Josiah Johnson from The Head and The Heart, got to open for the banjo player from Gregory Alan Isakov's band. Really doing things that I wasn't really qualified to do, but I got these opportunities. That accelerated me along the way.

"I left Kingdom Jasmine behind, primarily because I got tired of people coming up to me and being like, 'Hey Kingdom!' So I left it behind and started going by Bob Barrick and releasing music under my own name. All along the way, there's this jam band scene here (in Colorado). I was kind of on the outskirts of it. I didn't really want to hang out with these guys too much, because it was kind of like a big party scene, and I am not really a big partier. I considered myself a very serious singer-songwriter. I would always make a joke though, and say, 'I have this great idea for a jam band—Jammy Buffett!' And it would always get a laugh, every time. It was just a joke that I would tell.

"And then Jimmy passed. By that point, Bob Barrick 'The Brand,' had sort of a connection with Jimmy's people in that there were covers that I would put on Youtube that Jimmy's social media people would share out to Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band's official Facebook page and whatnot. So there was a little bit of a tap on the shoulder there, which as a lifelong fan was insane. When he passed, the final tap on the shoulder sort of happened. I had sent his social media guy a live cut of me covering 'Pirate Looks at Forty' at this venue in (Boulder) called eTown Hall. I sent it to him around July 4th, and I never really heard back from him, and kind of forgot about it. Then 2 days before Jimmy's passing, he shared it out. Obviously I did not know that Jimmy was in hospice at that point.

"It was wild because it was such a quick turn. When he shared it initially I was kind of like, 'Okay another Jimmy Buffett share, frankly these are kind of getting old. It was neat the first time, the eighth time it's just a thing that happens.'

"So when Jimmy passed it was like, 'Oh, that was really meaningful. That's one of the last communications that came from that camp. Period.'

"That's not meant to be egotistical about it, it just feels weird to have that connection as a fan.

"So, after that happened I started cooking up ideas for a tribute act of some sort, and it was supposed to be a one off. We called it, 'Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes: A Tribute to Jimmy Buffett' or something like that. We sold it out at this place called The Velvet Elk Lounge.

"After we sold it out, I realized, one, that the show was just transcendent, to be engaged with the fandom (again in that way). And two, that it was good business and it really meant something to me, and in a lot of ways it felt like my calling. Which was bizarre, because I really consider myself a songwriter at my core. However, there's something about that particular carrying on the spirit of these songs and bringing a youthful perspective to them that strikes a chord with me really intensely."

JJ: "I like that, that's a great way to view things. You being able to pursue your songwriting as well as pursue Jammy, has that helped you creatively?"

BB: "That's a good question. It has helped me discover my voice, which is something I guess you hope to discover before you are 32. I think that I thought I had discovered my voice, but in a lot of ways, I thought that I was too cool to let my Buffett fandom be a part of who I was as an original artist. Now that it has become so tied up in who I am, it is seeping into my songwriting. That's not to say I am writing songs about the beach, because that's not where I am from, it doesn't make any sense for me to write that kind of stuff. I am writing more colloquially, The way that Jimmy did. Speaking plainly, saying exactly what I mean… it has helped me realize who I am as an artist."

JJ: "I love it. What was your first Buffett concert?"

BB: "I will tell you what my first Buffett concert was supposed to be—September 11th, 2001."

JJ: "Oh boy."

BB: "Yeah. It was supposed to be at Deer Creek in Noblesville, IN. Obviously we all know what happened that day and it was cancelled. I did go the next year in '02 at ten years old."

JJ: "Wow, ten years old at your first Buffett concert! Does anything stand out from those shows?"

BB: "To be honest, no, I was too young unfortunately. You fast forward a couple years and I do remember. For example, I always reference my first taste of alcohol was at a Buffett show. I was 13 or 14 in the parking lot and someone made a margarita in my mouth, or as Jay (in reference to Jay Surf of The Songwriter's Joint and The Fool Button Podcast) likes to refer to them a 'Parrothead Blender.' I was stolen away from my parents for it, and I am sure I acted drunk all night even though I probably was not at all.

"Another one, and I do not remember the year exactly, my father was working security at Deer Creek. The head of security knew that my dad was a Parrothead, and he somehow ended up getting to work security in Charleston for Buffett. There's photos of my dad in Charleston protecting Jimmy from the crowd even. As a result of that gig, my dad was somehow given 6th row tickets for the Deer Creek show. Jimmy recognized my dad, and towards the end of the set, pointed at him and said, 'I've got a redhead too!'. Jimmy took off his wristband and threw it, intended for me. This guy in front of us caught it and started celebrating. Jimmy and the band were about to go into another song, and Jimmy came off the mic and said, 'No, no, give it to that boy behind you!' The guy turned around and handed me the wristband. I still have it! I keep it with my passport and my social security card."

JJ: "That's so cool! We may need to get a photo of that wristband, without the card and passport of course."

BB: "For the longest time, it was not that I had forgotten about it, but it was just something from my childhood. Now when I look at it I realize this guy who is my hero in multiple ways, but beginning when I was about 13 or 14 years old, has made distinct connections with me. I'm sure he has done that with all of his fans, because I have heard he is a really nice guy. It is just so telling of what kind of business he was running, what kind of artist he was, and how he held himself."

JJ: "Absolutely. Half the fun of going back and listening to those old shows is hearing the crowd banter and how Jimmy would relate to the crowd."

BB: "Exactly—he cared! I think it was Brendan Mayer who mentioned to me that before every set Jimmy would sit down and look at old setlists from that particular venue to make sure he was not repeating ideas and was catering shows to that particular audience. Despite there being thousands at these shows, he's doing that kind of personalization with the performance. There is a level of professionalism and a level of care for the audience there that is super respectable."

JJ: "Switching to the flip side of things—Jammy Buffet obviously has the Jimmy Buffett influence. But it also has a jamband, improv aspect to it too. Can you talk about your jam influences a bit?"

BB: "Frankly, I don't really have jam influences. My role in the group is to be the one that holds down the actual 'song' component of the shows. I trust the guys that I play with to take us into outer space when it is time to go to outer space. That is when I let go and hand over control to whoever is leading the jam at that moment.

"I do not personally do a lot of shredding, I may turn on a modulation pedal to get a vibe going, but I take a back seat during the jam components. I have a ton of respect for it though.

"When I moved out here, that was really the first time I got into the Grateful Dead. I was familiar with the stuff off 'American Beauty' and 'Workingman's Dead,' but I never really considered myself to be a 'Deadhead.' When I moved out to Colorado I started engaging more. I was working at a poster shop downtown, where they sold a lot of concert posters, and we always would be playing the Dead. When I first started working there I was like, 'Are we just going to listen to the Grateful Dead forever?' And by the end I was like, 'More Dead!' I wish I could jam like that, but that's not my role."

JJ: "You can still see and hear that you are the one largely directing traffic up there. When the band goes into outer space, what does the communication of the group look like?"

BB: "We find ourselves in the chord progression of the song. Fortunately a lot of Jimmy's songs are in a major key, which is pretty easy for folks to jam over. We can just follow the chord progression and continue to build tension. It naturally releases and we know when to get back into the tune.

"We are all buddies too, so knowing each other and knowing how each other plays, the music really guides us… everybody gets it."

JJ: "How do you pick the setlists?"

BB: "At this point, we have only been around for a handful of months, so we only know so many songs. We try to add something each show. We are going to be adding something in Nashville. If we are playing a short set, then we go hits heavy. If we have a longer set, we will engage with some deeper cuts…

"I am really proud that we are engaging an audience, still playing hits, but not playing the super hits that only folks who have heard Buffett's name in passing would know. We are introducing people to a deeper-than-the-surface level of (Jimmy's) music."

JJ: "When I heard the Live in Steamboat album, I thought it was so cool because it went just deep enough into the Buffett catalog."

BB: "If I had it my way, we would be playing songs that people have never heard before, but the goal of the band is to broaden the audience of Buffett's music. There are Parrotheads, for sure, and they all know all the words to every song of Buffett's music. I love that community, I am part of that community in many ways. That is, however, an aging community. Jimmy has a vast catalog that younger folks are just not familiar with, and I want to bring that music to those people…

"It's about the music. I am a fan of Jimmy Buffett. I like the philosophy that he created in his songs, in his writing, and in his speaking. I try to live by it. He's not my messiah by any means, but I tend to think that the way he went about his life was 'cool.' His product was the songs, and I think those songs are going to live on… and that's where we are trying to go.

"His subject matter was beaches and boats, but the ideas behind them went way past that."

JJ: "What's the dream song you would like to play with Jammy?"

BB: "'Love and Luck.' We have done it once, and I really want to pull off an excellent 'Love and Luck.'"

(Bob would go on to recommend the song where 'Love and Luck' originates from. It comes from the tune "Kolé Seré" by a group known as Kassav'. Check it out!)

JJ: "Jimmy was such a master at pulling songs from different places, whether it was world music or the likes of Steve Goodman and John Prine."

BB: "Yeah, I mean you hear the guy talk and he was very much a dude from Alabama right? But he was also very much a man of the world. That's a major component of what goes into his songs—being worldly. I think he did a really great job incorporating these elements without being a colonizer. I don't think he ever acted like he invented the rhythms that he was using, or really took it all too seriously… he found party music from around the world, and he kept it a party."

JJ: "That's a great way to put it. You do have a show coming up in Nashville at Chief's here soon. Can you talk a bit about Nashville?"

BB: "This Jammy Buffet show is kind of our coming out party, outside of Colorado. I think we are ready for the world, I think the world is ready for us. Roger Bartlett is going to be joining us (lead guitarist of the Coral Reefer Band from the 70's). Brendan Mayer, who has grown to be a buddy of mine, son of Peter Mayer, will be there too."

(It would later be announced after this conversation that Peter Mayer and Jim Mayer would also be joining for the show, with potentially more special guests to come! Peter is the longtime guitarist and Jim is the longtime bassist of the current Coral Reefer band.)

"Dave Portnoy is a big Buffett fan and will be out there too, and he will be hosting a big parking lot party across the street at the Barstool Nashville bar ahead of the show."

JJ: "I am so excited, I cannot wait."

BB: "…It's legitimizing. It feels real."

JJ: "A couple rapid fire questions to round it out here: what was your first paying gig?"

BB: "I have no idea. If I were to go back, I think it would have been with my first college band Coyote Armada at the Starbucks Coffee House on campus."

JJ: "Remember any songs from that show?"

BB: "It was songs that I was writing when I was 19 years old, so a lot of original stuff and stuff that would probably make me cringe now. There was one song titled 'Colorado' that was certainly foretelling for later in life."

JJ: "Favorite venues to play or that you have played?"

BB: "I am going to adjust the question a bit. My favorite venue that I have ever played is Macky Auditorium at the University of Colorado. I played there with Josh for the Bluebird Music Festival. Ben Harper was the headliner that year."

JJ: "Artist or band, dead or alive, that you would want to see live from the front row?"

BB: "John Mellencamp, man. I know you would expect me to say Buffett, but I would love to see him.

I think he is one of the great American songwriters just like Dylan, Joni, Neil Young, Buffett, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger."

Make sure to check Bob and Jammy Buffet out online via Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube for content and in order to see where they are playing next.

Tickets are still available for the upcoming show at Chief's as well!