Calling All Parrotheads: The Jimmy Buffet Guitarist is Coming Back to Avalon with His Own Band
Peter Mayer and son, Brendan Mayer
By Alexa Lesniak
Summer at the shore would be incomplete without Surfside Park’s classic summer concerts, and Avalon is thrilled to welcome back the Peter Mayer Group. As part of Avalon’s “Spring into Summer” series, the Peter Mayer Group will perform on Friday, June 19 at 7pm. Come by to celebrate the start of summer, the beginning of the weekend, and the first of many outdoor concerts.
Mayer is no stranger to Parrotheads, as he was Jimmy Buffett’s lead guitarist in the Coral Reefer Band. But he is a renowned singer, songwriter, and guitarist in his own right, known for his original music aside from the Buffett connection.
Mayer spent the first years of his life in Tamil Nadu, India. He has said that his musical influences “start from a 6-, 7-year-old boy in India, hearing world music, and Indian instruments, hearing the Beatles there, and how multicultural they were as they kept releasing albums.”
Then his family “moved to the United States, and it was, rock and roll Jimi Hendrix, it was the Eagles, it was Peter Gabriel, Sting … All those people really touched me. There was one common thread that kept going through them, and it was harmony. I really was drawn to intricate harmony. I think some of that came from the fact that my father used to play classical records all the time: Bach, Brahms, and Tchaikovsky. So, all of those influenced me and influenced the way that I wrote.”
Mayer’s entry into the music world started with the creation of his band “PM” which included his brother Jim and his childhood friend, Roger Guth. The trio secured their first record deal in 1988 with Warner Brothers. Their first single, “Pieces of Paradise,” took off and reached No. 8 on the Billboard chart. However, with the changing music landscape, the group was unable to reproduce their previous success and began to look at other avenues.
It just so happened that Jimmy Buffett was looking to hire a band: the Coral Reefer Band.
In 1988, theaMayer brothers and Guth joined the Coral Reefer Band and began touring with Buffett. Peter Mayer became his lead guitarist, Jim Mayer one of his bassists, and Guth a drummer. Throughout their 35 years working together, Mayer contributed to countless Buffett songs as both a guitarist and a songwriter. Since Buffett’s death at 76 in in 2023, the Coral Reefer Band continues to tour, and the three original members of “PM” are still a part of the band.
Eventually, Mayer formed the Peter Mayer Group, which creates and performs original music as well as Buffett classics. The band is composed of Mayer’s son Brandon, bassist Zeb Briskovich, and drummer Miles Vandiver. The group is touring the country this year performing songs from their newest album: “Songs & Stories from the 12 Volt Man.”
Inspired by the Buffett song “Twelve Volt Man,” the 15-song album features every member of the Coral Reefer Band.
“I am just honored to still be playing with [the Coral Reefer Band] and playing with my son and playing with the [Peter Mayer Group] because the company you keep is the joy you will reap in life,” Mayer says. “That’s what means the most to me.”
As far as performing Buffett songs, Mayer noted “You are never going to do it better than Jimmy did. But I thought, I am going to bring out some color that I hear in [his songs] and that will open up different aspects to the words ... The way I play it, I am hoping means something new to Jimmy fans.”
He highlighted the new guitar arrangement he created for “Twelve Volt Man.”
Over the years, Mayer has performed for the South Jersey Parrot Head Club chapter. It was during one of these concerts that Avalon’s Mayor John McCorristin was introduced to Mayer.
“I met Peter and we started talking and just hit it off,” McCorristin says. “Then, we started to see him at Key West when he was with the band, and we’d catch up before the shows. He’d come over during the show if he could come down off the stage and rub elbows with us and … we became, pretty good friends.”
Mayer began coming to Avalon and performing above Bobby Dee’s Rock’n Chair and a few backyard concerts.
“They always incorporate everybody’s songs,” McCorristin says. “They just don’t play strictly their own, but music that they were involved in. It is meaningful and it is really good.”
The mayor adds: “When they were here last, Mayer got a bumper sticker from the Avalon Library that they put on the van. When he was playing at the Key West Theater, I saw the van outside and there it was: the Avalon Library sticker! I thought he must have had a good time at Avalon.”
In 2023, McCorristin broached the idea of adding Mayer to the Surfside Park Summer Concert Series as the season closer.
“There’s a little bit of history with Avalon because shortly, I mean, I’m talking a week, maybe less, after Jimmy died, we played Avalon,” Mayer says. “And I was still kind of in a fog, numb from the news, just shocked. But it was so meaningful to us because Surfside Park was just packed with people and alive. People wanted to hear songs and celebrate Jimmy and celebrate music in general. And it was really, really healing to be there at that time.”
We have Kara Buono, the assistant director of programing and engagement at the Avalon Free Public Library, to thank for scheduling this amazing group to come back.
“When the opportunity arose this year that they had some time in their schedule, we wanted to try to make something work. We jumped on the opportunity to bring them in,” Buono says. “They’re really energetic on stage and connect with their audiences really well. Plus, they have great music!”
Says Mayer: “It will be heartwarming to honor Jimmy and all he brought to summertime, as kind of the start of summer there in Avalon.”
If you missed the Peter Mayer Group’s last Avalon performance, here is your chance to catch the band in action.