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, "I
t'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.
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.