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>> JIMMY BUFFETT GUITARIST AND LONGTIME NASHVILLE SONGWRITER MAC McANALLY HAS HIS OWN DAY IN THE SUN

September 3, 2009 12:35 am

BY JONAS BEALS

At 52, Mac McAnally is enjoying one of the best years of his career.

It's an impressive feat, considering country music tends to rely on fresh talent and McAnally released his first album in 1977.

"This has been an unusually fine year," he said in a recent phone interview. "The ultimate irony is that I played a 'new faces' show in Oklahoma City."

McAnally may be a new face to many country fans, but he is well-known to Nashville insiders and singers who grew up on the music of Jimmy Buffett.

Before his chart-topping duet with Kenny Chesney last year on "Down the Road" (which McAnally penned), he was probably best recognized as a guitarist in Buffett's Coral Reefer Band.

McAnally still tours with Buffett, and will play alongside the Mayor of Margaritaville at Nissan Pavilion tonight and Saturday. Tomorrow night, McAnally will play a gig of his own material at the State Theatre in Falls Church.

In his time away from Parrothead Nation, McAnally has written, produced and played on scores of hit Nashville records for the likes of Alabama, Sawyer Brown and Ricky Skaggs.

He performs alongside giants like Buffett and Chesney, but McAnally's gifts are getting harder to hide in those sizable shadows. He was named the musician of the year at the 2008 Country Music Awards.

McAnally said he feels fortunate to have his new visibility and success, but was quick to explain that it doesn't come easily.

"It relates to growing up as a farm kid in Mississippi," he said. "It's not a positive character trait to call attention to yourself. What do I do? Get into showbiz. It works against my nature.

"In the beginning," he added, "I didn't have the nerve to call it songwriting. I was a bashful kid."

In an act of extreme self-effacement, McAnally even admitted that he doesn't much like the sound of his own voice.

But none of those traits affects his music, which is filled with confidence that comes from years of playing.

"I did have my dues-paying gigs," he said. "But I was dumb enough to enjoy it. I was always able to learn a little something, even on a bad night."

His solo career hit a snag in the mid-'80s, when legal issues with a management deal kept McAnally from releasing an album for a few years.

"I had to scramble to make a living," he said. "I sang commercials, I played guitar on a lot of custom gospel albums."

It was still a productive time for his songwriting, and the songs that came out of that experience were some of the best of his career. Many of them were featured on the album "Simple Life," released in 1990, including "Down the Road" and "Back Where I Come From," another tune recorded by Chesney.

His new album, "Down By The River," has more depth than the typical country-pop record. McAnally worked at Muscle Shoals--the famed soul studio--and his songs benefit from shots of gospel and blues. The result is neither Buffett nor Chesney, but it shows why both artists have turned to McAnally. He makes Americana with soul and intelligence.

Like on his past records, the tunes on his latest disc are perfect fodder for a country superstar. That's a consequence of good songwriting, but it wasn't on his mind when he made the album.

"I have nothing but a high regard for commercial music," McAnally said.

"I'm not bound by that, but I hope somebody with a bus payment and a personal trainer takes one of those songs and does the heck out of it."

Jonas Beals: 540/368-5036
Email: jbeals@freelancestar.com