LITTLE ROCK — When Mike Utley was wrapping up his undergraduate zoology degree at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in 1969, he faced a choice: take a pre-med lab exam or go to Memphis and help recording artist Tony Joe White record his second album.
It was no contest — medicine’s loss was music’s gain. The Blytheville-born and reared Utley has spent the last 39 years as Jimmy Buffett’s keyboardist, band leader, producer and right-hand man.
“It really came as no surprise to my Dad, who was a doctor himself,” Utley said from a Buffett tour stop in Orlando, Fla., as the band meanders toward its first concert appearance in central Arkansas in two decades. “He had always known music was my first love, ever since I’d come home from football practice and would go and play our piano to chill out. I was in a band while I was in high school in Blytheville, which had the memorable name, The Flowerescents.”
Utley traveled a long and winding road before joining Buffett and his Coral Reefer Band. Prior to working with White, who was riding the crest of his Southern-flavored hit “Polk Salad Annie,” Utley had experienced a taste of life as a musician when he performed and recorded during summer vacations from high school with the Bill Black Combo, a welltraveled Memphis instrumental band.
“Before that, I’d always thought of music as a hobby,” Utley said. “So when I got that call inviting me to go work with Tony Joe, I decided to be true to myself. I had such a passion for playing and for working in the studio.”
Utley moved to Memphis, finding work for a time in Little Rock native Jim Dickinson’s rhythm section as Dickinson was building his own impressive resume as a musician and producer. In 1970, Atlantic Records executive Jerry Wexler invited Utley to work at Criteria Studios in Miami, an offer too sweet to pass up.
“What an unbelievable break that was,” Utley said. “Just a year before I’d been listening to Aretha Franklin’s Spirit in the Dark album and then I’m down there working with her. That’s where I met Duane Allman and there was this connection happening. ... I soon met Tom Dowd, the eminent producer and engineer at Criteria. He had produced Jerry Jeff Walker’s hit song ‘Mr. Bojangles,’ in Memphis, and I had met Jerry Jeff there.”
Settling into studio work, Utley recorded with Sam & Dave, Brook Benton, Ronnie Hawkins, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, Jimmy Cliff, Lulu, Petula Clark, Jackson Browne and Booker T. Jones before spending 11 years with Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge.
Buffett became aware of Utley’s talents listening to a Jerry Jeff Walker album, which convinced Buffett to invite Utley to play on his album, A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean.
“At the time, I was touring with Kris and Rita, and I also was the musical director of the band Speedway, who were in the movie A Star Is Born with Kristofferson. I gradually spent more and more of my time with Jimmy. And after nearly 40 years, I’m still at it.”
Utley has produced 11 of Buffett’s albums, starting with One Particular Harbor in 1983. He was producer and musical director for the acclaimed Black and White Night, a Cinemax special that showcased Roy Orbison and a host of his musical admirers.
When fellow Arkansan President Bill Clinton was in the White House, Buffett and the band played a couple of shows there.
“I met Bill at Boys State in the 11th grade and I believe he was the president of Boys State then,” Utley recalls. “I knew Mack McLarty ... he was my fraternity rush chairman. In 2000, Bill borrowed a saxophone and sat in with us.”
Besides his work with Buffett, Utley and the Coral Reefer Band’s steel guitar player, Robert Greenidge, have made a series of tropical-flavored instrumental CDs under the name Club Trini.
“I do a lot of multitasking these days,” Utley said. “Mac [Mac McAnally, a member of the Coral Reefer Band] and I act sort of as editors for Jimmy, who has the ideas. Mac and I are working on putting together the CD and DVD of a couple of the band’s Las Vegas shows, and there’s a new album Jimmy will be releasing next year. Robert and I do some charity work and Christmas shows, and we also do a lot of Parrot Heads club functions. For the past 18 years we’ve had what’s called the ‘Meeting of the Minds’ for four or five days in Key West in November. Jimmy came to the latest one.”
Since Buffett does only a small fraction (24 to 28 concerts a year) of the touring most bands do, Utley has time for other projects, along with maintaining a more or less normal family life. He lives in Venice, Calif., with his wife, Fran. Their sons, Nick and Slade, are pursuing musical careers.
“I feel so fortunate in having lived such a great adventure,” Utley said. “I have to pinch myself. Who would have thought that working with Jimmy would be such a lifetime gig? And I’m still living it. The travel is the work part; the playing is the joy.”
Style, Pages 50 on 02/26/2012