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Life experiences translated in song

By Jennifer Crossley, Staff Writer

Recording artist Mac McAnally will be in concert Nov. 12 at the University of North Alabama. Proceeds from the event benefit the entertainment industry program at UNA.

Mac McAnally compares songwriting to a disease, and he's not looking for a cure.

"I'm just one of those guys eaten up with music. It's like a virus," he said, laughing.

Music legends such as Reba McEntire, Ricky Skaggs and Jimmy Buffett capitalized on his welcome ailment by recording his songs.

But it's writing for country superstar Kenny Chesney that has amplified his already accomplished songwriting reputation.

"Down the Road," which he also performs with Chesney, is nominated for Musical Event of the Year at the Country Music Awards in Nashville, broadcasting Wednesday.

The night after the awards show, he returns to the University of North Alabama's Norton Auditorium, the site where he opened for Orleans in the 1970s.

Ticket sales go toward scholarships for entertainment industry majors.

The transition from the big stage to a smaller stage suits the flame-haired singer just fine.

"I'm kind of a homebody by nature," said the Red Bay native who grew up in Belmont, Miss. "I don't mind traveling, but I'm not inclined to leave."

That sentence could sum up many of his songs, including "Down the Road," written from a father's point of view about falling in love.

Not all of his inspiration is so comfortable and poignant. A divorce and the death of his parents resulted in many a heart-heavy lyric.

"That's something that hit me because I've always been a family guy," McAnally said about his parents' death.

Ever the optimist, he views the experiences as reason to reach out to listeners.

"I can take those painful feelings, and that not only helps me heal, but I can help other people," McAnally said.

Those healing lyrics impacted songwriter and friend Gary Baker.

"Mac is a brilliant songwriter, as good as I've ever known in my life," he said. "He tugs all the right emotions all the time, and that's so hard to do."

Baker cites some of McAnally's saddest songs as his favorites: "Socrates," "All These Years" and "Somewhere Nice Forever."

But not all inspiration results from hard times.

McAnally's muse visits him at unexpected even mundane places - like in the vegetable section of Kroger, where he told Baker the seeds of a hit sprouted.

In conversation, the 52-year-old McAnally speaks the way he often writes, with humor and candor, so perhaps it's fitting that he's touring with his old friend Jimmy Buffett, famous for his own humorous songs. The two men have a long history.

McAnally has played guitar in Buffett's band for years.

In his early years, McAnally made a record at Wishbone Studios, and it impressed Buffett.

He sent McAnally a note that said, "We're both from Mississippi, and we're going to be friends," McAnally said.

"Most people don't mean what they say in the showbiz world, but he did."

It's the similar no-nonsense attitude of the Muscle Shoals music community that keeps McAnally at his home on the river in Sheffield when not in Nashville - that and playing golf with Baker, his neighbor.

UNA asked McAnally to perform for his familiarity and fan base.

"We felt Mac would be a great draw," said Alan G. Medders, vice president of advancement at UNA.

"He resides in the Shoals, and he kind of has a long history in the Shoals."

After past scholarship concerts failed to happen, Medders hopes to make the concert annual, "but we want to see how the response is first," he said.

It's response that McAnally both anticipates and jokingly dreads.

"I am a storyteller kind of by nature so when you play at home sometimes you figure out how much of a storyteller you are ... the stories kind of grow and there are people in Florence who can bust me and say, 'well we're kind of exaggerating aren't we?' "

But he looks forward to seeing his peers in the audience.

"I just hope they can give up their night of sitting in a chair and listen to somebody," McAnally deadpanned.

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What: Mac McAnally benefit concert for UNA entertainment industry majors
When: 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 12
Where: Norton Auditorium on UNA's campus
Tickets: $25; $10 for students
Details: una.edu/macmcanally