KEY WEST, Fla., Aug. 31, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — More than half a century after a young Jimmy Buffett played the Chart Room for tips and drinks, acclaimed singer-songwriter and longtime Buffett collaborator Will Kimbrough will play the first official tribute concert ever staged inside the tiny Key West bar.
The show is a highlight of the Just a Few Friends festival marking the third anniversary of Buffett’s passing. Kimbrough will echo Buffett’s start: one songwriter, one guitar and a small intimate group.
Live in the Chart Room with Will Kimbrough will take place on Labor Day Monday, Sept. 7, from 10 a.m. to noon at Pier House Resort & Spa. Due to the room’s size, capacity is limited to 40 people, including the bartender. Guests will begin with brunch by the beach before moving inside the Chart Room for the intimate acoustic concert.
“This is not a show that could be anywhere else and still be the same experience,” said Just a Few Friends organizer Jill Snodgrass. “Will is returning to the place where Jimmy started, bringing the story full circle.”
When Buffett arrived in Key West with gonzo songwriter Jerry Jeff Walker in November 1971, Walker was already famous for his hit “Mr. Bojangles.” Their first stop was the Chart Room at the then-new Pier House Motel. The funky, unpretentious gathering place soon became Buffett’s home base and the site of his first Key West gig.
It was there that bartender, author and later collaborator Tom Corcoran served Buffett his first Key West beer and Buffett spied Jane Slagsvol, his future wife, at a payphone in the lobby. He also befriended legendary bartender Phil Clark, whose tales of smuggling, sailing and Caribbean adventures helped inspire “A Pirate Looks at Forty.”
Little about the Chart Room itself has changed. Tucked inside the now-luxurious Pier House Resort & Spa, it remains small, weathered and wonderfully unpolished—a rare surviving piece of the Key West that Buffett first discovered.
That continuity took on new significance in July, when the 142-room Pier House sold for $190 million to a global investment firm. The price placed an extraordinary value on the five-acre oceanfront resort surrounding one of Key West’s smallest and most culturally significant bars.
General Manager Robert “Bob” Spoto, who will remain at the helm under the new ownership, stressed that the Chart Room would continue as a Key West institution.
“The Chart Room has never tried to clean up its act, and hopefully it never will,” Spoto said. “People’s ashes are buried in that bar. You shell your peanuts onto the floor. It’s gritty, funny, a little irreverent and full of ghosts—in the best possible way. That’s what we promise to protect.”
Kimbrough was one of Buffett’s most trusted creative collaborators during the final two decades of his recording career. His songwriting and session work appeared on every Buffett studio album released during that period, from License to Chill through Buffett’s final album, Equal Strain on All Parts.
Among their best-known collaborations is “Bubbles Up,” released posthumously as the first single from Buffett’s final album. Inspired by the diving practice of following bubbles toward the surface when disoriented underwater, the song became a message of hope, perseverance and finding one’s way home. Paul McCartney praised it as one of Buffett’s finest vocal performances.
Kimbrough also recently completed the “Keep the Party Going” tour with Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band, helping carry the music forward to fans.
“I’ve played Jimmy’s songs on a lot of stages, but the Chart Room is different,” Kimbrough said. “That room is part of the reason those songs exist. Sitting in that little bar with a guitar, playing songs I wrote with Jimmy and sharing the stories behind them will be incredibly special.”
Live in the Chart Room is one of the events at the legendary water hole as part of Just a Few Friends’ annual Labor Day gathering Sept. 2–7, 2026. The festival celebrates Buffett’s life and legacy through the places, people, music and stories that shaped him, inviting guests to experience his Key West through historic locations, songwriter performances, walking tours, storytelling and community traditions.
For additional information, visit JustAFewFriendsKeyWest.com.
Just a Few Friends is not affiliated or endorsed by Jimmy Buffett’s Estate or Margaritaville Enterprises.
Contact:
Jill Snodgrass
305.731.5780
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SOURCE Just a Few Friends, Key West LLC
