Porches, kitchens, and courthouse squares hold divine secrets from generations of Southern storyteller virtuosos.
Like a barn spider slinging a line of silk, so too is the Southern lineage that casts a common thread through the line of oral tradition.
In the years before the mobile phone takeover, the only entertainment save a knob-turning television, was telling or listening to a story where fish got bigger and the truths were stretched like taffy.
Many were content to sip on iced tea while neighbors spilled it, but a starring role in the center of the storyteller’s ring meant honing your craft in a way that people would listen. No Southerner worth their salt opens their mouth without an understanding of the rhythmic magic shared in intonation, timing, tone, and timbre.
Some might think it’s for attention, but the truth is that Southerners just love their people. And what better way to give and receive love than to spend time together, satiated by stories, home cookin’, and an homage to those gone on to Glory.
When the firey-headed middle schooler Mac McAnally was too bashful for the dance of young love, he instead found his place at the foot of the storytelling grandfathers on the Belmont, Mississippi small, town square and at the tables of biscuit-making grandmas in home kitchens.
Like his song, “Back Where I Come From,” shares, life was simple for the budding songwriter.
“I initially fancied myself a prose writer and wrote short stories and couplets. But then someone introduced me to William Faulkner and what he wrote about the same part of the country, and I thought I better find a different medium,” he reflects, with laughter.
And find a different medium he did. He learned to whittle and condense paragraphs into full stories told in three minutes or less.
Like the storytellers he learned from, you don’t have long before your audience is no longer captivated. While technology has changed and McAnally has learned every role in the studio, time and experience have only refined what he has always done best…give birth to a story.
Those stories and Mac’s musical abilities and talents have won ten Musician of the Year trophies from the Country Music Association and a 2007 induction into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Those trophies are the result of a career where he created fifteen albums, led by McAnally’s 1978 “No Problem Here,” through his most recent sold-out masterclass at the Ryman Auditorium on February 3 of this year.
He has written songs for or shared the stage with Kenny Chesney, Zac Brown Band, Shenandoah, Sawyer Brown, James Taylor, Alabama, and more. But one of the most meaningful musical partnerships Mac made was the one he formed with Jimmy Buffett. Jimmy included Mac’s song, “It’s My Job,” on his 1981 album, “Coconut Telegraph.” Mac and Jimmy expanded their songwriting partnership when Mac joined the Coral Reefer Band, where he continues to sing and play guitar.
“It’s My Job,” was the first song Mac and Jimmy performed and it would be their last, when Jimmy joined Mac for one last song together in July 2023, before Jimmy died two months later, in September.
When asked what it was like balancing his career and the legacy of someone so dear to him, he said, “It’s a precious thing and a responsibility I never considered having. Just because you sort of assume that Jimmy’s always going to be around. And he will be, because he made all this positive music that’s gonna live on for generations beyond ours.”
“It’s just happy music about the human spirit. I think the music will last. But I do take responsibility for trying to honor the way he built his legacy and the way he treated everybody. He treated people well, he found good people, and hired them, and worked with them. He assembled a great audience of fans and every time we played, it was like a family reunion in whatever town we were in.”
On April 15, 2025, at the Saenger Theatre in Pensacola, the reunion of friends continues with the “Margaritas and Memories” show. Mac will share music and stories from his career that began as a teenager in Belmont, Mississippi, budded at the famed Muscle Shoals studio, and blossomed across a career that continues now more than fifty years later.
He will be joined by songwriter and fellow Coral Reefer Band mate, Scotty Emerick, who Mac says had the same partnership with Toby Keith that Mac had with Jimmy.
“He was with us in the Coral Reefer Band during the last full tour that we did with Jimmy. Scotty is a Florida boy who grew up listening to Jimmy’s songs. He wrote all those big Toby songs like “I Love This Bar,” “As Good as I Once Was,” and “Beer for My Horses,” He’s an entity on his own, he’s a great singer and guitar player. He’s got great stories about Toby and Willie, and Jimmy.”
While the tributes and masterclasses are a part of the gratitude that emanates from this artist, new music and even better stories continue to flow. In 2024, he released the beautifully reflective “Oysters and Pearls” and dance-worthy “All The Way Around.”
I reckon much of Mac’s success was propelled not only by his talent, but by his humility, gratitude, sincerity, and ability to share the stage.
“In a hundred years from now, when people buy boats, those boats are gonna come preloaded with Jimmy Buffett music and people may not even know why, but they’re gonna be glad they got it,” Mac says.
With the fingerprint of AI on everything in the music and writing industries, I believe people will always crave the authenticity of artists like Mac McAnally and the joie de vivre of Jimmy Buffett. That’s one thing AI can’t do: make good people.
“It’s an Old Testament Miracle that I got to make a record and do what I do for a livin’, but I’m really grateful that I’ve gotten to do that,” Mac says.
We’re grateful, too, Mac McAnally. See you at the reunion.
To buy tickets for Margaritas & Memories on Tuesday, April 15 at 8 p.m. at the Pensacola Saenger Theatre, click here.
For more on Mac McAnally’s music and career, visit https://www.macmcanally.com/
