A new doc, Occupational Hazard: The First Coral Reefers, pays tribute to Margaritaville’s first citizens<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cJimmy Buffett<\/a> was a force of nature,\u201d might read like the most obvious sentence in the world, but when you hear Jeff Bridges narrate the words as the Margarita Man sings \u201cWhy Don\u2019t We Get Drunk,\u201d it feels otherworldly. The moment occurs about halfway through the trailer for Occupational Hazard: The First Coral Reefers, a new documentary about the band that backed Buffett up in the Seventies and early Eighties. The film, which John H. Cunningham directed, will premiere at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Feb. 9<\/p>\n \n\tIn interviews in the doc, the musicians recall how the Coral Reefer Band<\/a> were \u201cragged\u201d but how they helped Buffett find his signature sound. They also explain how the group got its name from Key West\u2019s coral reef but also \u201creefer,\u201d a word for \u201cmarijuana back then.\u201d One musician even pantomimes a big reefer toke. But of course pot wasn\u2019t all they consumed. \u201cWe had more liquor on our rider than Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones,\u201d a woman says with a laugh. (The Coral Reefer Band played on Buffett\u2019s biggest hit, \u201cMargaritaville.\u201d) It all adds up to what looks like a wild and freewheeling look at a wild and freewheeling band.<\/p>\n \t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI first saw Jimmy and the Coral Reefers in 1977 and then moved to Key West shortly thereafter,\u201d filmmaker Cunningham said in a statement. \u201cHaving known many of the first Reefers for several years, I felt the band\u2019s origin story needed to be preserved. Once we started the interviews, their collective sentiments about life in the Seventies, their time on the road, in the studio and their feelings about Jimmy, I knew we had captured lightning in a bottle.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tKenny Chesney, Mac McAnally, songwriter Keith Sykes, and many original Coral Reefers, including the road crew, participated in interviews for the documentary. Updates on future screenings will feature on the film\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new doc, Occupational Hazard: The First Coral Reefers, pays tribute to Margaritaville’s first citizens \u201cJimmy Buffett was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[123473,93,61,60,123474,270],"class_list":{"0":"post-245086","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-coral-reefer-band","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-jimmy-buffett","13":"tag-movies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}