“High Cumberland Jubilee”: a folk album with depth

“Down to Earth” was just released; it was receiving good reviews in West Texas. Riding high, Jimmy Buffett set off to perform in El Paso.

Following the record-breaking success of this album, Jimmy Buffett set forth making his next hit album: “High Cumberland Jubilee”!

Oh apologies, I have the wrong script. Ah okay, “Down to Earth” bombed; in fact, to quote Buffett, “We arrived back in Nashville like Roman conquerors returning from the conquest of Gaul, and then reality reared its ugly head. We had bombed in El Paso. The record was not selling.”

Regardless, “High Cumberland Jubilee” was recorded, and it was prepared as the second album to be released by Buffett.

Much like the previous album, it was a folk album.

My view of the track list is positive; here are some of the highlights:

Listening to “In the Shelter,” you’re taken into the perspective of a young woman’s burdens, which are implied to be depression.

The song details how isolating it feels to suffer from this mental state.

The lines “All the days out on your own are growing empty. Nothing is going well, if you could only tell them how you feel, they’re too real to understand” speak of how compounding the experience is when those around you don’t understand what you’re going through.

The woman goes to the mouth of the Mississippi in New Orleans, where we hear the most chilling line: “She sits on the big gray rocks, takes off her boots and socks. And knowing what she will do next, just starts to cry.”

The song means to demonstrate how people are suffering, and how they sometimes only get “Too many wild rejections,” and how, much like her, “No one knows the trials” they had.

“The Hangout Gang” is about a ragtag group of people who are the epitome of hippies living life free from all social norms.

When they moved into this town, they took over a shabby old building and used it only for communal living and hanging out, all while rejecting capitalism.

This song is from the early 70s, and their lifestyle represents what the counterculture movement of the prior decade was all about.

These long-haired hippies are progressive on issues of race, sexuality and women’s rights, and you can be sure that they are anti-authority figures and the war in Vietnam. They’re the bane of President Nixon’s existence.

I think this song talks well about this subject and how these people are just trying to live their lives their way, and with the help of music and a St. Bernard, they can do that.

Another short and simple song is “God Don’t Own a Car.” It is a song that talks about how if God were here on Earth, he wouldn’t drive around in an expensive Lamborghini, rather, “He would pay a tourist fare so he could sit with us” and experience what we go through.

It is a very folksy interpretation of religion and life, and I find meaning in the few verses of this barely two-minute song.

It’s about rejecting materialism and how that isn’t what life is about, because that isn’t how God would live if he were here among us.

Other tracks also comment on political and social life, such as “Bend a Little,” where everyone in the country needs to be able to bend a little to acknowledge other perspectives and views.

Overall, I liked this album more than “Down to Earth;” though it’s his second album, you can already tell he is starting to develop his sound.

However, I failed to mention something important about Buffett’s early career.

Buffett’s music was about the outsiders, those looked down upon and misunderstood, like members of the counterculture movement.

Buffett played music with the anti-Vietnam protesters while being signed to a country label.

To quote the wonderful biography (which has helped me understand Buffett’s songs more) “Jimmy Buffett: A Good Life All the Way” by Ryan White, anti-Vietnam protesting “was anti-establishment, and Nashville liked establishment. Establishment meant order.

Order meant money. A lot of people were making money in Nashville.”

Nashville was a very conservative place, and Buffett’s folk music wasn’t what they wanted.

After “Down to Earth” bombed, Barnaby Records dropped Buffett and claimed the master tapes of High Cumberland Jubilee were lost; the album wouldn’t be released.

In his memoir, Buffett said, “In the winter of 1971, my marriage of two years was basically over. My career was going nowhere, and I was freezing to death, desperately missing the ocean.”

Hoping to escape this bleak place, Buffett accepted an invitation by country musician Jerry Jeff Walker to stay at his place in Miami.

There, Walker would introduce Buffett to a little-known place called Key West.