07/20/2009
New Mac CD "Down By the River" Set For August 4th
MAC McANALLY SET TO RELEASE DOWN BY THE RIVER ON AUGUST 4TH
Stunning Album For Debut Release on Show Dog Highlights Singer
Songwriter's Award Winning Talents
(NASHVILLE, Tenn) Legendary musician, songwriter, producer and
recording artist Mac McAnally will release his latest album Down By
The River on August 4th. The 11-song collection of new original
material is also his 11th release as a solo artist and his debut for
Show Dog Nashville.
The self-produced album showcases McAnally, one of music's most
respected creators, on acoustic and electric guitars, acoustic and
electric piano, harmonica, ukulele and percussion. On the title
track, you can hear the Muscle Shoals energy in the instrumentation.
While songs like "On Account Of You" and "Until Then" allow his vocal
and guitar work to shine through.
The album's first single, "You First," offers a poignant series of
vignettes in McAnally's direct yet profound simplicity of style. He
also pledged his artist royalties from the single to the Wounded
Warriors Project, whose mission is to honor and empower wounded
warriors. The commitment to helping wounded soldiers fits well with
the song's theme of brotherly love. Earlier this summer, McAnally
performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC to honor wounded
soldiers as part of The Launching Challenge America initiative.
Reports from publications like the Las Vegas Sun praise, "as a
wordsmith or tunesmith [he] has tales to tell. He's born to tell
stories, this Mac McAnally. Set those to music, and they become hit
records for the likes of Jimmy Buffett and Kenny Chesney." And Mac's
longtime friend Jimmy Buffett says, "It's great to know that Mac is
back, but I want to know where he went to write such good songs as
these. I want to go there too!" Now the eminently respected music
maker is poised to hit another high note in his multi-dimensional
list of accomplishments with Down By The River.
Starting as a Muscle Shoals session musician while still essentially
a child, signing as Geffen Records' first artist at the age of 16,
McAnally went on to become one of the most respected guitar players
in the world. He's played behind or sang harmony for artists
including Roy Orbison, Hank Williams, Jr., Amy Grant, Jimmy Buffett,
Travis Tritt, Linda Ronstadt, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Dolly Parton and
many more. As a producer, he's helmed successful projects by Sawyer
Brown, Chris LeDoux and Little Feat, among others. In addition to
the hits he has penned for artists, McAnally received his first No. 1
single as an artist and sixth as a writer on his collaboration with
Kenny Chesney, "Down The Road." The song penned by McAnally and
recorded by Chesney, who invited the acclaimed music maker to sing on
the track with him, also led to an ACM Vocal Event of the Year nod
for the collaboration.
Mac was named 2008 Musician of the Year by the Country Music
Association, the same year he was inducted into the Mississippi
Musicians Hall of Fame. He is also a 2007 inductee to the Nashville
Songwriters Hall of Fame.