Jimmy Buffett’s influence continues in sailing capital Annapolis

If you’re lucky, Dick Franyo will sing a Jimmy Buffett song for you.

He owns Boatyard Bar & Grill, a popular restaurant in Annapolis. He opened it in the Eastport neighborhood after moving there in the early ’90s and then retiring from a career as an investment banker. Together, they have become well-known members of the community.

And Franyo is a fan of the late singer-songwriter, one of many in Annapolis. He had “three good meals” with Buffett and keeps photos of them sailing together on the walls of his restaurant and on his phone.

“What I love about him is that he was a poet,” he said. “If you listen to his early work, he was a poet.”

He knows the lyrics to “Someday I Will” well enough to sing them spontaneously during a phone call about Buffett and his enduring influence on Annapolis. He sang it to his children as a reminder that anything is possible.

I see a white sail jumping over a blue bay

And I say I will do that someday

I see a young man strumming a green guitar

And I say I will do that someday

Jimmy Buffett, “Someday I Will”

Buffett, who died in September at age 76, skin cancer, wrote hundreds of songs in his career. Most people, whether they like his three-quarter beat rhythms or not, can name a few. But it’s more than that.

Buffett’s tropical rock sound can be heard all over town, in marinas or wherever boaters pull up for a summer afternoon. Maybe it’s the laid-back vibe that makes Annapolis so casual. No socks, no ties, but lots of boat shoes. Maybe too many margaritas.

Whatever it is, there is a connection. Understanding it is a chance to get to know Annapolis through the songs of a man who never called it home, but visited often.

If you’re lucky, you can hear some of these pieces through Saturday at the Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre.

The community theater group is wrapping up a sold-out, month-long run of “Escape to Margaritaville,” the jukebox musical based on his songs. It didn’t stay long on Broadway, but it has found a receptive audience in its converted blacksmith shop just a stone’s throw from the water.

Director Melissa Hutson knew from the beginning that this show was going to be something different.

“I wanted to create a Buffett world that was more authentic,” she said. “And more true to Jimmy’s roots, since it’s Annapolis and we have a lot of people here with stories.”

There are Easter eggs hidden in the Margaritaville set — the clock is set to 5 o’clock somewhere and that volcano is about to erupt. The real surprise may be Tom Cagle. It’s the 52nd set he’s built for the company.

Beneath a wide-open parrot-print Key West shirt, his bare chest is adorned with a shell necklace. The 72-year-old hammered and wired his love of Buffett’s music into the show’s collection of repurposed flats and brightly colored backdrops.

“When you go through the process of building it and you know you’re doing it for someone who’s gone, it’s like you’re adding to the legacy of their life,” Cagle said. “It’s a tribute, a tribute to a friend.”

His favorite song remains “Come Monday,” Buffett’s first hit. It’s about loneliness and longing for home, an interesting choice for a fan who never married but has many friends through his long hours as a volunteer.

Monday will be fine

Monday I’ll hold you tight

I spent four lonely days in a brown LA haze

And I just want you by my side again

Jimmy Buffett, “Come Monday”

This is the story Cagle tells. He says he drove 21 hours from Baltimore to pick up a friend who was opening for Buffett in Key West.

“After the concert I went up on stage and said, ‘Hey, I really appreciated it.’”

His friend asked if he wanted to stay for dinner and soon Buffett was seated at a table for 26 people.

“I have to drive 21 hours home. But yeah, I’m staying here!”

There are many people in Annapolis who met the singer. And many more who attended his concerts felt they had met him.

Jimmy Cantler, the former waterman, got stage attention for years at his namesake restaurant near Annapolis when Buffett’s concerts came to Maryland. The singer was a regular for a time.

A friend of mine wrote about the relationship and discovered that Cantler shared his favorite Buffett song, “A Pirate Looks at 40.”

It’s about dreams you didn’t fulfill. Rob wouldn’t live long enough to see any of his books published.

Yes, I’m a pirate, 200 years too late

The guns don’t thunder, there’s nothing to plunder

I am a victim of fate, over 40

Arrive late, arrive late

Jimmy Buffett, “A pirate looks at 40.”

Perhaps the Annapolis connection lies in how Buffett parlayed his easygoing image into a billion-dollar business empire, featuring restaurants and resorts, books and merchandise, and even a short-lived CBD and cannabis brand, Coral Reefer™.

Annapolis is an expensive place to live that attracts people with money. Perhaps part of the appeal is an appreciation for success, even the kind that doesn’t make you rich.

“He was someone who told you to get off your lazy ass,” Franyo said.

If you’re lucky, you can talk to retired astronaut Ken Reightler.

His Buffett story, more than any other, brings together the ties between the singer and the city.

Reightler was responsible for communications with space shuttle astronauts at NASA, and later at the International Space Station. During one mission, an astronaut requested Buffett’s “Gravity Storm” as his wake-up music.

The mission included gravity experiments. But the song is about how life brings unexpected things, and sometimes it’s a storm. Buffett found out and called to suggest playing something else.

“They said Mr. Buffett was on the phone, and I asked, ‘What does Warren Buffett want?’” said Reightler, who said he believed the billionaire investor had called.

Oh, watch out for that gravity storm

It gives no warning signals

Oh, watch out for that gravity storm

Oh Oh

Jimmy Buffett, “Gravity Storm”

The call didn’t change the song, but it did lead to a NASA tour of Houston for Buffett and an unexpected friendship for the retired Navy captain. There were impromptu concerts for space audiences and one for shuttle program personnel when it was shut down.

“We discovered we had a lot in common. We were both sons of a sailor’s son.”

When Reightler came to teach at the Naval Academy, Buffett followed him. There were concerts for midshipmen and introductions to Franyo. He came here in 2016 to sail on a replica of the original America’s Cup champion, America, and to meet the local sailors who competed in the competition.

Buffett’s last trip here was in 2020. He was given a tour of the Thomas Point Lighthouse by Dave Gendell, author of a book about the historic beacon near Annapolis.

Buffett’s 42-foot motor yacht, Last Mango, was moored at the Chesapeake Bay monument. He recorded a few songs for a project that was intended as a COVID concert, but which was never released. More were recorded aboard his 50-foot sailboat, Drifter, in the Severn River and Whitehall Bay.

Some of the videos were shown during his final performance at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in 2022, his home venue in Maryland after 48 concerts in 45 years.

Perhaps Buffett’s appeal in Annapolis has something to do with his talent as a musician. He’s sold 20 million copies of his songs, won a couple of Grammys and has become a fixture on the list of classics for waterfront bars.

Members of the Coral Reefers, Buffett’s band, usually come to the Annapolis Maritime Museum’s end-of-summer fundraiser, the Boatyard Beach Bash. They’ll be back in September.

“We have five members of Jimmy’s Coral Reefer band coming to headline,” Franyo wrote in a text after we hung up the phone. “Great musicians.”

But perhaps it’s the connections with people that explain the feelings for Buffett in Annapolis, whether it’s through friendship, a chance encounter or simply the right song at the right time.

Everyone loves “Cheeseburger in Paradise.” Who hasn’t yelled “Salt, Salt” after hearing someone sing it? “Am I hiding in Margaritaville again, looking for my lost salt shaker?”

Perhaps Buffett’s connection to Annapolis will fade. Fans grow older. Tastes change.

If you’re lucky, you’ll hear “Bubbles Up.” It’s a song Buffett had wanted to release shortly after his death.

It’s Reightler’s new favorite, a spiritual riff based on a safety precaution for the day you fall into the water and get lost.

And the promise of an afterlife, even if it’s only somewhere in Annapolis.

Bubbles up

They show you the way home

It doesn’t matter how deep or how far you wander

They show you the area, the plot and the goal

So when the journey becomes long

Just know that you are loved

There is light up there

And the joy is always enough

Bubbles up

Jimmy Buffett, “Bubbles Up”