Take the Weather With You (RCA, 2006)

This really is a "Best Of" collection of Jimmy Buffett with the one small caveat being that all of the material is new. These 14 songs really do represent the best of what this artist can offer the listener, and the result is one of his strongest studio outings in many years.

His strongest material has traditionally been the slice of life tunes to which many people can readily identify. Those songs are plentiful including his first single, "Bama Breeze," "the title cut and "Everybody's on the Phone." In the latter he sings, "I'm a digital explorer in an analog roam world." That will ring home with virtually everyone who uses a cell phone and isn't that virtually everyone by now?

He also continues to follow popular culture closely even though his career has mostly remained outside of that "flavor of the day" landscape. He cautions people who feel like a Deadwood character being prepared to be given to the hogs. Fans of that HBO series will know just what he means.

Buffett still hasn't left his more recently connected country roots. He has a shuffle that would sound at home on an early Johnny Cash disc titled "Elvis Presley Blues" plus he covers Mere Haggard's "Silver Wings." Overall there's much to like here for anyone who has enjoyed the singer/songwriter in the past.