Shrimpboat Sound Studio

Shrimpboat Sound sits at the Key West Historic Seaport, the harbor area known as the Key West Bight, in an old ice house near the shrimp docks that Jimmy Buffett leased in 1986 and turned into a recording studio. The building backs onto the alley known as Lazy Way, and its exterior became covered in stickers over the decades.

Across its run, the studio was the home base for much of Buffett’s recording, with roughly thirty-two albums made there, and it hosted a long list of other artists including George Strait, Alan Jackson, Kenny Chesney, Zac Brown, Old Dominion, and Mac McAnally. That history is what gives the small waterfront building its place in Key West music lore.

After Buffett’s death in September 2023, the lease was canceled and the studio’s equipment was sold, leaving the building empty and slated for a full rebuild. A proposal to reopen the space with a museum, tours, and a working studio is under discussion with the Key West Bight board but is not yet finalized, so the studio is not open to visitors at this time.