'Scenes You Know by Heart' available at Wal-Mart
DETROIT -- Jimmy Buffett is in "no hurry" to make his next album, but he still has plenty to offer his faithful Parrotheads this year.
On Tuesday, Buffett released a DVD, "Scenes You Know by Heart," that will be sold exclusively by Wal-Mart and Sam's Club and the Web site of the artist's Mailboat Records.
The 15-song collection, modeled after Buffett's popular 1985 hits set "Songs You Know by Heart," features live performances of each track, some taken from existing Buffett DVDs ("Mini Matinee," "Live From Anguilla," "Live at Wrigley Field," "Live in Hawaii") as well as previously unreleased performances such as "He Went to Paris" from Paris, "Fins" from Cincinnati and "Grapefruit-Juicy Fruit" from Las Vegas.
"We shoot everything," Buffett said, "and somebody had an idea to do one like this. It's kind of a unique platform in which to feature little vignettes from all over the place. It's National Geographic with a good soundtrack -- that's what I consider it."
This month, Buffett published his seventh book, "Swine Not? A Novel Pig Tale," a young readers story about a single-parent family in New York that lives in the hotel where the mother works and has a pet pig they disguise as a dog.
Buffett credits illustrator Helen Bransford with the idea for what he considers a very different and challenging kind of narrative.
"It doesn't have any sea planes or pirates or anything," Buffett said, "but I loved the characters. It was a challenge in trying to write something different. It reminded me of when I had to write on assignment for Herman Wouk for 'Don't Stop the Carnival,' and I kinda liked that."
Buffett is also developing albums for younger artists, including Coral Reefer Band backup singer Nadirah Shakoor, for his Mailboat label. And his Year of Still Here Tour starts tomorrow at Lakewood Amphitheatre in Atlanta.
As for that next album, the follow-up to 2006's "Take the Weather With You," Buffett said that "the time it takes to write a book kind of produces an offshoot of you (wanting) to go back to something else."
He added that he's been "listening to different things that inspire me musically, but I'm in no hurry to do (an album). I am writing songs; it'll be interesting to see if I wait and get a collection of 12 of them together to do an album or go do four and put 'em online or something. The delivery systems now ... it's very interesting how you can put stuff out there, so we'll see what feels like the best way to do it."
