Buffett targets Parrotheads with new album

NEW YORK, Dec. 4 (UPI) -- U.S. singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett says that the success of his new album, "Buffet Hotel," relies on his Parrothead fan base more than anything else.

"Thinking of getting on the radio, that's way in the past for me," Buffett says. "Making something that people who like what I do can add to their collection is all I'm doing these days. I write for that live, paying audience; it's like writing on assignment, and I think it works pretty successfully."

"Buffet Hotel," the Alabama-born singer-songwriter's 28th studio album, comes out Dec. 8. The title track was inspired by a visit to Mali for the Festival in the Desert, while other songs were written by Will Kimbrough, Roger Guth, Jesse Winchester and Bruce Cockburn.

Buffett plans to tour Australia and the Pacific Rim in addition to North America in 2010, with a stop at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. He's also working on a documentary about his trip to Africa with director Margaret Brown and has two books in the works -- a collection of short stories set in the Pacific and "a rock 'n' roll novel" called "Mudbath."