Jimmy Buffett

My sh*t detector went crazy the moment I spied the admiring apostrophe by sports novelist Tom McGuane, and indeed, Buffett shares McGuane's sexism (he likes Key West because "the ladies aren't demanding there"), covert nostalgia, reverse preciousness, and brain-proud know-nothingism. But his good-old-boys songs are classics of sheer hair, making up for the overt "They Don't Dance Like Carmen No More" and the know-somethingish "Death of an Unpopular Poet." And a vignette called "Cuban Crime of Passion" has Dickensian heart. (Grade: B)