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Parrots of the Caribbean will serve up laid-back vibes at Summer Arts Festival
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SPRINGFIELD — The job you just lost.
“Margaritaville.”
The foreclosure next door with the unmowed grass.
“Cheeseburger in Paradise.”
The global recession, high gas prices, two wars, expensive insurance, unaffordable tuition, your worthless 401(k), dying polar bears.
“Why Don’t We Get Drunk.”
There’s never been a better time to head for the escape hatch, and the music and laid-back island vibe of Warren Buffett is your ticket out.
Er, Jimmy Buffett.
Not Warren.
OK, it’s officially time to forget the economy and freeze out your brain with a margarita.
And after a couple or three margaritas, what difference does it make which Buffett is on stage?
It probably doesn’t even matter that a Buffett won’t be on stage at all tonight, June 19, at the Summer Arts Festival — the Parrots of the Caribbean band will once again be playing the music of Jimmy Buffett.
For one night, that’s all that matters.
“It’s the party it creates,” said Dave Albrecht, who’s fronted the Dayton-based Buffett tribute band for nine years. “The loud shirts, the parrots, the coconut bras. It creates a theme. People love themes.”
Since first appearing in Veterans Park in 2006, the band has become one of the festival’s breakout hits.
“I was amazed the first time we played how many people showed up,” Albrecht said. “The word’s out.”
With a catalog of 50 Buffett tunes, it’s an opportunity to be transported someplace you’d rather be.
How does Key West sound right about now?
As Buffett himself once put it, “changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes.”
OK, sure, so Florida has even more foreclosures than Ohio has — but at least they get to look at the ocean.
Not surprisingly, to be mentally transported to another place requires, not just calypso music, but lots of liquor.
Let’s just come right out and say it.
Does anybody actually listen to Jimmy Buffett music without drinking?
Didn’t think so.
So how much of a typical Parrots crowd is wasted away in Margaritaville?
“I would say 50 percent,” Albrecht said. “At least. Or more.
“Once you get them drunk, you can do whatever you want with them.”
For the Parrots band, that means throwing a few more original songs into the set.
After all, once the band plays all 13 tunes on “Songs You Know By Heart” — that Buffett best-of disc with the bright yellow cover that’s gone platinum seven times — “people go anywhere with it,” Albrecht said.
“I would love to not be an impersonator anymore,” he said.
But for Albrecht, who also has a Blues Brothers tribute act, it comes so naturally.
“To be Elwood Blues, I have to put the hat and sunglasses on and become somebody I’m not,” he said. “With Jimmy Buffett, I resemble him. It’s just one of those weird coincidences I look like him.
“It’s easier for me to be Jimmy and be myself.”
At 50 (Buffett is 62), Albrecht is a longtime Parrothead himself — “since before they even coined the phrase Parrotheads” — who has led the band from Alberta to Myrtle Beach.
The band also headlines an annual Buffett-themed festival in Caseville, Mich., before crowds of 10,000.
“That’s how much clout we have now,” he said. “The Parrotheads say we’re the best Buffett act in the country, and I’ll put it up against anybody but himself.”
But for all the band’s success, even a professional beach bum isn’t immune from this economy.
For the first time in four years, Albrecht has taken a day job at a Centerville company that does research and development for, as he explained, “lasers and all that kind of stuff.”
Turns out it’s the perfect job for a Parrothead.
“I haven’t been there six months,” Albrecht said, “and I have eight weeks of vacation this year.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0352
or
amcginn@coxohio.com.
How to go
Who: Parrots of the Caribbean
When: 8 p.m. today rain or shine, with a “Parrothead Party in the Park” beginning at 5 p.m. (featuring cheeseburgers, margaritas and the music of Skip Hoyt).
Where: Veterans Park, 250 Cliff Park Road, as part of the Summer Arts Festival.
Admission: Free
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