How Lennie Gallant almost brushed off Jimmy Buffett's request to write songs together

It was an opportunity that dropped out of the blue, but it almost didn't happen because of a bad connection.

P.E.I. musician Lennie Gallant had worked with the legendary songwriter Jimmy Buffett before. Back in 2001, Buffett recorded Gallant's song Mademoiselle (Voulez-Vous Danser) and they have performed it on stage together. There have been visits, both in the Maritimes and in Nashville.

But it had been a while since they had spoken, and when Buffett called Gallant last fall, there was a bit of a communication breakdown. It was a noisy room and Gallant had trouble hearing.

"It was a little embarrassing," Gallant told Mainstreet host Matt Rainnie this week.

"I thought he said his name was Jimmy Doucette and he wanted to write some songs."

It was the kind of call Gallant had received before. P.E.I. is a close-knit community. It's not too hard to know somebody who knows somebody and get somebody else's phone number.

"As a songwriter, you often get approached from various people wanting to work, and when you're pretty busy, it's hard to accommodate," said Gallant.

"So I was being polite and everything."

'Something about his seaplane'

Gallant told the man he thought was Jimmy Doucette that he was about to go on a tour in Alberta, and he didn't really have the time. The caller said he understood, but persisted.

"It wasn't until the end of the conversation when he said something about his seaplane that I realized who I was talking to," said Gallant.

"So I was on the cusp of brushing off Jimmy Buffett when he wanted to write a song together."

The confusion cleared up, Gallant and Buffett got together in Florida this month and did write and record two songs in Buffett's Key West studio.

Buffett has a different kind of writing process, said Gallant, and it was a terrific experience.

"It's fun. You never quite know where it might be heading," he said. "It gets to be a little elliptical, but in the end it all comes together and you go, 'Wow, that's awesome.'"

One song will be of particular interest to Prince Edward Islanders, Gallant said, but people will have to wait for the release — expected in September — to learn more.

Gallant hopes the release will attract more attention for him south of the border. He's done a few tours in the United States, he said, and he'd like to do more.

Gallant has been a cornerstone of the Canadian music scene for decades, having released his first album Breakwater in 1988 and racking up 18 East Coast Music Awards since then. He was made a member of the Order of Canada in 2003. 

Buffett is a music legend who wrote and recorded classics like Margaritaville and Come Monday, and is revered by a band of avid fans known as Parrotheads.