Mac McAnally touring on new album, to play Oklahoma show
From Wednesday’s Life section of The Oklahoman.
It’s never too late to be a new face
After 40 years in the business, McAnally showcased
with up-and-comers
Mac McAnally started playing guitar and piano in clubs at age 13. He released his self-titled debut album in 1977. In the past 20 years, he has penned hits for Alabama, Jimmy Buffett and Kenny Chesney and produced records for the likes of Sawyer Brown, Ricky Skaggs and Little Feat.
But when McAnally, 52, comes to Norman this Thursday, the venerable musician/producer/singer/songwriter will be part of the New Face Showcase at Riverwind Casino. Having worked in the music business for four decades, he laughingly acknowledges the oddity of being classified a “new face.”
“If somebody doesn’t know you, you’re a new face. It doesn’t matter if you’re 95 years old. That’s how that equates. And I’m certainly not cynical at all about it; I’m happy that somebody would think of something that I did at all,” he said with a laugh from his studio in Muscle Shoals, Ala., where he also calls home.
“I’m tickled to death to be making a record at this point in life ’cause I still am really crazy about music. It’s what wakes me up every morning.”
Behind the scenes, McAnally is celebrated as a songwriter, musician and producer. Over the past two decades, Reba McEntire, David Allan Coe, Charley Pride, Randy Travis and many more have cut his songs. He is a member of Buffett’s Coral Reefer band and has produced several of the chief Parrothead’s records.
“Everybody dreams big and I dream kind of middle-sized. I’m not very ambitious in the self-promoting way,” McAnally said. “I’ve always been pretty much about the music. I love to play and I love to sing and I love to write, and good things come from all of that. But that’s really different than having ambitions to be the guy in the middle of the stage. … I was standing in the wrong line when they gave out that particular ambition.”
Lately, his mid-size dreams have earned a big boost. In 2007, he was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Last year, the Country Music Association named him its musician of the year. And Chesney, who previously recorded McAnally’s “Back Where I Come From,” decided to cut “Down the Road” as a duet with the songwriter. Their collaboration became a No. 1 hit and earned an Academy of Country Music vocal event of the year nomination.
“I’ve been joking here lately that I’m working my way toward getting a best new artist (award) and a social security card … in the same year,” McAnally said with a laugh.
In the midst of all the attention, his friend Toby Keith and T.K. Kimbrell, who manages both artists, advised McAnally to make a new album while people still knew how to pronounce his name. “Down by the River,” his 11th solo album and debut record on Keith’s Show Dog Nashville label, hit stores earlier this month.
McAnally not only produced and sang, he also played acoustic and electric guitars, acoustic and electric piano, harmonica, ukulele and percussion on the album, which has garnered strong reviews.
He worked to let the personalities of the songs come out: The Muscle Shoals sound romances on the R&B ballad “On Account of You.” “Blame It on New Orleans” gets a Cajun panache, while “(Nothing Like a) Sunny Day” shines with an island flair.
And he belts a honky-tonk autobiography on “If You Hang Around Long Enough.” But he said the song doesn’t mean he suddenly feels on top of the world just because more people know his name.
“I’ve felt on top of the world all my life. I’m just really blessed to have heard music in my head and been allowed to pursuit it and to have it to pay an electric bill from when I was 13 and 14 years old until now. That’s remarkable. That makes me one of the luckiest people in the world, and it doesn’t have anything to do with a platinum album.”
Going on
KKNG New Face Showcase
With: Mac McAnally, Joe Nichols, James Otto, Eli Young Band, Jonathan Singleton, David Nail, Kate & Kacey, Justin Moore, Caitlin & Will and Jessica Harp.
When: 7 p.m. Thursday.
Where: Riverwind Casino, 1544 W State Highway 9, Norman.
Information: 322-6464 or www.riverwind.com.
-BAM
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