Jimmy Buffett's longtime bassist says if he weren't a musician, he’d be a psychologist. Jim Mayer not only continues to tour with the Coral Reefers, the band of the late Buffett, he plays in hundreds of schools per year, trying to teach kids social-emotional skills through song, activities, and puppetry.
Mayer is in Bloomington-Normal for workshops in several Unit 5 schools and he gushed about his IM4U learning initiative which also tries to combat bullying, loneliness, and exclusion in 4- to 6-year-olds.
Mayer had played for kids for some years before he developed the program. He started out songwriting for nieces and nephews and an early effort even turned into a song that hit No. 1 on a children’s music chart, Funky as a Diaper. That earned him school gigs and he said he started noticing classroom needs.
“As I visited schools, I noticed all the right messages were on the walls—respect, kindness, empathy—but it was pretty obvious the kids weren’t getting it,” Mayer said.
He said studies have shown 70% of negative student behavior in schools does not get reported to an adult. That poor ratio can cause lasting consequences for a child’s emotional wellbeing. One incident in particular motivated him to develop the program, a young girl who took her own life after being bullied for wearing shoes that didn’t meet her peers' standards.
“When I hear about a 10-year-old girl that doesn't know how to get through the day and makes that choice, it was devastating to me,” Mayer said. “So, I thought, I have to do something.”
Mayer said a core part of who he is, is that he experiences life and translates it into song.
“One of the powerful things that music does is it connects our head and our heart, but in a real natural way,” Mayer said. “You don’t even realize you're learning.”
And the operation of music on the subconscious was Mayer’s intuitive entry into psychology and the curricular foundation of his programs.
“What I didn’t know that what I was doing was actually a psychological practice called 'using transitional objects,'" said Mayer.
For instance, he uses the song Lonely Broccoli to spark empathy in children and allow them to talk about their feelings. The idea came to him one evening while preparing a salad, when he inadvertently left a tiny piece of broccoli out of the bowl.
“It made sense to me to sing about a lonely broccoli that’s left out of the salad,” said Mayer.
He said transitional objects are especially useful for young children.
“Instead of saying are you lonely or do you feel empathy or all that, the lonely broccoli becomes the topic and not the child. This eases pressure for the child, so it doesn’t have to be all about how does little Jimmy feel. That gets very uncomfortable,” said Mayer. “That lonely broccoli is something the child can focus on in a less threatening way.”
Mayer said his programs are also long on play, which is a well-documented help to learning. He consulted other experts including one member of the team from Clifford the Big Red Dog to polish the curriculum. He said feedback from teachers who keep using the model has been positive, sometimes generating changes in child behavior within two weeks of starting IM4U.
Changes in latitude, changes in attitude
It turns out, there’s not that big a stretch between Lonely Broccoli and Wasting Away in Margaritaville, Looking for that Lost Shaker of Salt. He said there is significant overlap between singing for kids, and the Jimmy Buffett parrot head experience Mayer contributed to as a band member.
“Jimmy had the same gift of translating incredibly complex life situations into stories,” Mayer said.
Buffett's songs like Pirate Looks at Forty and He Went to Paris embody the same approach Mayer uses in IM4U.
Buffett was known for his versatility. He was a surfer, pilot, and sailor. Mayer laughed when asked about flying on Buffett’s private jets.
“Let’s just say he was a better sailor than he was a pilot,” Mayer said. “It was a little rough.”
He recalled Buffett loved to celebrate after long studio sessions by sailing and inviting band members along. As for flying, the other musicians suggested Buffett might want to leave it to the professionals when the band was along.
Mayer played with Buffett from 1989 until Buffett’s death from cancer in 2023, just a couple months before Buffet’s final album Equal Strain on All Parts came out. Mayer said he could sense something was wrong. Buffett had been losing weight and needed more rest.
“We actually didn’t know,” Mayer said. “Jimmy was very quiet about it.”
Despite the illness, Mayer said that album is the best Buffett made. It’s a tall claim with 32 studio albums and another 14 live concert recordings among the collected works.
In that last album, Buffett took a different approach. Mayer said he had seen Buffett dash off songs in 20 to 30 minutes, but he approached writing for the final album with rare intensity, reworking lyrics repeatedly, and, unusually for him, bringing in bandmates to help.
Mayer recalled working on “Bubbles Up,” an optimistic song that is one of the better received works on the recording. He said it was a profound moment.
“It felt like a song I had known before,” Mayer said. “But that was just Jimmy and Will Kimbrough.”
The band plays on
“The legend has it that Jimmy said from his deathbed, ‘Keep the party going,’” said Mayer.
And the Coral Reefers continue gigging, keeping Buffett’s stories alive through music. Mayer has also started his own group, Uncle Jim’s Tropical Friends Band.
“I wanted a party band,” Mayer said. “Totally blow the roof off and really rock.”
The set list is about half Buffett songs. The rest usually involve some sort of twist based on past collaborations Buffett had with other musicians in his wide-ranging career. For instance, use of “Magic Carpet Ride,” stems from a New Orleans performance Buffett had with a founder of Steppenwolf.
Mayer said he will try to carry Buffett’s legacy forward, directly with Coral Reefers concerts, and in the same spirit through IM4U and his own band.
