#124 – Abandoned On Tuesday
#124 – Abandoned On Tuesday
-by Stacy Garwood-
A new year, a new theme, but still deep diving into the music of Jimmy Buffett. Deciding on a theme this year felt easy. Jimmy Buffett has long been known for a concert schedule that had live performances predominantly on Tuesday’s, Thursday’s, and Saturday’s. It became so much of a theme in his life, that he titled a live album exactly that. So this year, we are honoring Tuesday’s, and instead of the first part of the month, we are playing it much more laid-back and focusing on the last Tuesday of each month. As for a song to discuss, we are reaching way back this month, way, way back into Jimmy’s past, finding a song that was written and recorded before Jimmy even had the hope of an actual record contract shining in his future. Many will recognize Jimmy’s “Monday” song as Come Monday, but Jimmy has a “Tuesday” song, too. Abandoned On Tuesday!
“Trembling she spoke, And left me standing, Aith a dream in my hand, And no one to keep me warm, Yesterday someone loved me, Abandoned on Tuesday man I’m feeling blue…”
Abandoned On Tuesday was formally released on JB’s 2017 album called Buried Treasure Volume One. The album was released on Jimmy’s own Mailboat Records and was produced by Travis Turk. This all seems simple enough, but the story of the album reaches back to Jimmy’s earliest recording forays. It was after his time spent in New Orleans’s Bourbon street bars, after his years in college and after his first group, known as the Upstairs Alliance, went separate ways. It was long, long before Jimmy Buffett was filling stadiums, before he became the king of insane parking lot tailgate parties phlocked to by his faithful Parrotheads, before he opened a chain of restaurants called Margaritaville, that eventually grew into a hotel and resort empire as well. Long before he had his own record labels, Margaritaville Records and Mailboat Records, and before he opened his own recording studio in an old Key West shrimp storage icehouse that he named Shrimpboat Sound Studio.
There always must be a point where things start, where there is a first, and for Jimmy, that was recording two demo songs in a Mobile, Alabama upstairs recording studio. One of those two songs was Abandoned On Tuesday, the other, probably the first song recorded, was Don’t Bring Me Candy.
In the early years of Jimmy’s career, he played music and performed in college in Hattiesburg, and while he made a name for himself in the bars in his home town of Mobile, and even made a bit of a name for himself on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, to even begin to “make it” in the record business, you need a record contract and a record. Jimmy didn’t have a record contract, or a current path to getting one, but he did have a phone book and enough money to book himself some studio time an upstairs record studio in Mobile called Product Sound Studio.
Product Sound Studio was a pieced together project by several people, including John Edd Thompson, Milton Brown, Travis Turk and Nick Panioutour. Although a few of the pieces of equipment were new. most of the equipment in the studio was sourced from a local junk shop called Marina Junk, which happened to be owned by the father of Margie Washicheck, who would become Jimmy’s first wife.
Jimmy paid for time and a two-sided 45, and then he went into the upstairs studio, which only had recording sessions at night because the downstairs dental office was too loud for recording during the day. There, he would meet Travis Turk, who would become an integral part of Jimmy’s early years in Nashville, and much later, an integral part of Buried Treasure Volume One. Jimmy sat down on a stool with his guitar and he recorded two songs. The songs had a much more country or folk sound that Jimmy’s later “beach vibe”, which has become known as Gulf and Western. They were more aligned to the sound that fans will recognize from Jimmy’s first two albums, Down To Earth and High Cumberland Jubilee.
Now, Jimmy didn’t make a fortune from recording these songs, or even sell that one record, but the recordings have lasted. He also made some connections that would help his future. Soon after this, Travis Turk would move to Nashville and find himself working at a record studio in Nashville and would eventually produce Jimmy’s first two studio albums.
Milton Brown took Jimmy’s record to Nashville, and while he had some interest, he couldn’t find any real money or a record deal for Jimmy. But Jimmy also recognized that while he was able to fill the Admiral Room at the Admiral Hotel in Mobile, if he wanted more, then he would have to relocate. And so, soon after getting married in July of 1969, he and his new bride moved to Nashville to pursue Jimmy’s dreams. He got a job as a writer for Billboard Magazine in Nashville and also was hired as a songwriter and to record demo records.
Buzz Cason, a notable Nashville songwriter and producer, recognized not only Jimmy’s raw talent for songwriting, but also his drive and ability to promote himself. The two men developed a strong rapport while Jimmy worked for Cason, who had a Berry Hill suburb recording studio called Creative Workshop. Jimmy was able to make connections in Nashville while honing his music craft, still focusing on his music in the folk country scene. In a short amount of time, Buzz Cason had signed Jimmy to a two-record deal with Barnaby Records and found him some recording time at Spar Recording Studio.
Travis Turk was the head producer for Barnaby Records, and the two friends reconnected, still making music, but in a much bigger way than recording a two songs on a 45 that would never be sold. Together in the studio, with Turk at the helm, Jimmy was able to record his first full length record. He didn’t sell many copies (if you have one, it’s literally worth gold-please call me), but his contract was for two records, so a year later, he and Travis Turk went back into the Spar Recording Studio and recorded Jimmy’s second album, High Cumberland Jubilee. This album was not initially released, and it was reported to Jimmy that all the masters were lost. Of course, in Buffett lore, this was known as the “the lost album” that suddenly reemerged after Jimmy had a several more albums and a little hit named Margaritaville under his belt.
But more interesting is that Jimmy spent a lot of time before “the lost album” in the recording studio, writing songs and recording demos. And all of that was simply forgotten. Even by Jimmy. Jimmy felt like he had a failed marriage and a failed Nashville career, and maybe it was time to forge a new path. so he picked himself up and limped his way back to the ocean. He didn’t go back to Mobile, however, he ended up in the Coconut Grove area of Miami, and from there, on a sunny day drive in a 1947 Packard convertible ride with Texas music legend Jerry Jeff Walker, Jimmy found Key West at the end of US Highway 1.
Key West was a brand-new world, and he never gave those left behind songs much of a thought again.
Until thirty years later, in 2002, when Buzz Cason sold Creative Workshop to John and Martina McBride. At that time, Buzz contacted Travis Turk, still active in the Nashville music scene, to go through a back-room storage closet of demos and tapes to see if there was anything that was worth keeping. It didn’t take Travis Turk long to find 125 demos that Jimmy Buffett had recorded as part of his job writing for Cason in 1969 and 1970. Turk quickly contacted Jimmy Buffett, to see if he had any interest in any of these songs.
Jimmy would later say he had nearly forgotten most of those songs, and didn’t even remember some of them, but he also recognized his own history and his budding career as a songwriter and was quite interested in listening to the recordings and perhaps even more. Another decade passed before a plan came into action, perhaps because of already busy and successful careers of both men, but Jimmy and Travis Turk went to work together in the studio and put out a 23-song record album that Jimmy named Buried Treasure, Volume One. Always quick to joke, even if he was the butt of said joke, reported that that the songs were hidden in a closet and destined for the junk pile, and that seemed like “buried treasure” to him. Which interestingly calls back to Jimmy’s very first album cover, for Down To Earth, which highlighted Buffett sitting in a car buried in junk pile in a Nashville dump.
Two of the songs that made Buried Treasure Volume One were Don’t Bring Me Candy and Abandoned On Tuesday, the very first songs that Jimmy ever recorded, way back in a studio above a dentist office in his hometown of Mobile, Alabama. And for this foray into 2026’s Topsail Tuesday, honoring Jimmy Buffett, Abandoned On Tuesday seems like the perfect song to focus on this month. It’s about a Tuesday, after all.
I didn’t hear this album until about a year after it came out, and the thing that touched me the most about the album was how Jimmy interspersed audio history into this record, along with his older songs. How he could tell a story about incidents or people that seemed unrelated but played such a strong role in the development of his career. Then those people and places reemerged into his life, thirty years later, reminding Jimmy himself, and his fans, how intriguing his career has been.
Listening to it also reminded me that before the 20-piece band of talented artists that Jimmy traveled with for decades, Jimmy himself was a talented guitarist, and could hold the attention of a crowd with his music and his personality.
The songs on Buried Treasure Volume One felt very much like Before the Beach, which was an album that combined most of the songs from Jimmy’s first two albums from his Barnaby Records deal. A lot more folk country, a LOT less beach. Yet, the songs had charm, and Jimmy’s ability to write heartfelt and sensitive lyrics, intermingled with affectionate and often humorous lines, was apparent. Sometimes it seems like Jimmy’s beautiful gift as a wordsmith was often overlooked, but these songs made it clear that even from the start, he was in the early stages of in developing into a fantastic writer of songs. And eventually a writer of short stories and novels. Jimmy Buffett could tell a story, and the medium he used changed as he saw fit. Creativity finds a way, and Jimmy was a creative person. And he took that creativity and built it into an empire.
It was several years later, after the pandemic, that I ordered this album on vinyl and listened to it in a different way. I wasn’t driving in my car, only half paying attention at times. I was in my house, focused on the sound, the lyrics, and the overall theme of the songs. Several songs stood out to me and Abandoned On Tuesday was one of those songs.
It starts with the end of a relationship, seeming to catch the writer unaware, “left me standing with a dream in my hand”, and then questioning how to possibly move on. The end of something and needing to find a new path, “where do I go, starting today”. Maybe not all of us, but many have felt that way, based on sudden changes in our lives. Not just the end of romantic relationships, but friendships and partnerships, losing family members and beloved pets, even the ending of jobs or the loss of homes. What happened and how do I move forward, “then fly away, and try to find my soul, in a place somewhere” and “try to count the miles”.
The music of Jimmy Buffett will stand the test of time, not just in the fan base that he has currently, which has actually grown since his death, but in the generations to come, as Parrotheads introduce their little parakeets, or as the music, sometimes starting with just one song, catches the attention of even of a new person, who suddenly finds themselves traveling down a road listening to the lilting melody of a Jimmy Buffett tune. And I hope that something they take away from Jimmy Buffett, is that it’s important to believe in yourself, it’s important to keep trying, even if you get blown off path. A new path will present itself, and perhaps that was the path you were meant to be on all along. And if someday, you cross an old path and see some of your old footprints, you take the time to revisit your younger years and find that you still are finding joy on your own unique journey ability.
“Then fly away, To try and find my soul, In a place somewhere…”
Stacy
Please enjoy Abandoned On Tuesday. I have included the link below. Enjoy!
2017 Version of the 1969 Demo:
The link is from Jimmy’s official YouTube channel, which I have no personal affiliation with.
More links that may be of interest:
Jimmy Buffett – Buried Treasure Trailer
Timeline – 1946 to 1969 | BuffettNews.com
Fun Facts & Hidden History of The Admiral Hotel in Mobile, AL
Travis Turk, Chief Engineer — Spare Time Records
Nashville Pop Pioneer Buzz Cason Passes – MusicRow.com
Buzz Cason, Father of Nashville Rock, Dead at 84 – American Songwriter
Our History — Creative Workshop
Shrimpboat Sound Studio ‘A Key West treasure’ | Entertainment | keysnews.com
