PASCAGOULA, Mississippi -- Come next month, Mac McAnally will appear at Jazz Fest with Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Refer Band in front of 80,000 people at the New Orleans Jazz Fest & Heritage Festival.
One week later, McAnally will perform in a much more intimate venue, the Grand Magnolia Ballroom in Buffett’s hometown of Pascagoula.
The 10-time Country Music Association Musician of the Year will perform two shows in Pascagoula on May 13-14, with the second show recently added after the first show quickly sold out.
McAnally’s “Jazz Fest Unplugged” appearances next month will be his third and fourth in Pascagoula in the past five years. He also performed with Buffett on Pascagoula beach in 2015 and again at The Grand Magnolia two years later.
McAnally is a Belmont, Miss., native and has been performing with the Coral Reefer Band for more than 20 years.
“I’m a Mississippi guy,” McAnally said, “I like coming back home and playing my songs. I like playing my own shows in small venues, because my music is like a story you would tell to a small room of friends.”
The Grammy-nominated McAnally is a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame, the Alabama Music Hall of Fame and was recently honored with a star on the Music City Walk of Fame in downtown Nashville. His 10 CMA Musician of the Year awards are a record in that category.
Also an accomplished songwriter, McAnally has written numerous hits for artists including Kenny Chesney, Alabama, Shenandoah, Sawyer Brown, and Sammy Kershaw. Buffett has also covered McAnally songs such as “It’s My Job” and frequently performs the McAnally-penned “Back Where I Come From” during live performances. Chesney’s cover of that song reached #1 on the country charts.
“I’ve been around storytellers all my life, Southern whittlers and guys at the courthouse,” McAnally said. “I’ve listened to the melodies in their conversation, the rising and falling. I’ve watched how they use their hands and tried to translate that into music.
“I’ve read a lot of Faulkner, Eudora Welty and Flannery O’Connor, you know the Mississippi writers. I’m definitely not in their league, but I’ve tried to write as if I were cooking short stories down to a reduction of three-minute songs. It’s not that I’m a brilliant guy or anything; that’s just the way I work.”
As noted, the May 13 performance is sold out. Tickets for the 7:30 p.m. show on May 14 are available at www.grandmagmusic.com.
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