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Belmont in Tishomingo County, Mississippi — The American South (East South Central)
 

Mac McAnally

— Mississippi Country Music Trail —

 
 
Mac McAnally Marker image. Click for full size.
Photographed By David J Gaines, March 1, 2011
1. Mac McAnally Marker
Inscription. (side 1)
Lyman Corbitt “Mac” McAnally, Jr., grew up in Belmont, where he sang and played piano at Belmont First Baptist Church before becoming a session musician and songwriter at the age of fifteen. McAnally wrote and recorded hit songs, their insightful lyrics expanding the range of country music and powerfully evoking the flavor of southern life. He was also a producer and an award-winning guitar player in Nashville form the 1970s into the twenty-first century.

(side 2)
Mac McAnally Born July 15, 1957, in Red Bay, Alabama, Lyman Corbitt (Mac) McAnally, Jr., grew up in Belmont. By the age of three he was singing gospel at the First Baptist Church as his mother played piano. By age eight he was beginning to play piano himself, and a year later writing poetry. At fifteen, he was regularly playing piano in honky tonks up across the Tennessee borderline, despite his lack of early exposure to country music, and he was writing ambitious short stories and poems, which he would soon begin converting into songs. In his junior year in high school, certain that he wanted a musical career, he left school to pursue it. His parents came to support the move though his father was the school’s assistant principal.

Working as a session musician and fledgling songwriter at Wishbone Production and Publishing
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in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, the teenage prodigy turned to the guitar and placed an original song, “I Need You Tonight,” for Hank Williams, Jr., on the first session he played on. By age nineteen, McAnally had his own first record and a pop radio hit, “It’s a Crazy World.” He demonstrated a honeyed, jazz and R&B influenced vocal style comparable to that of singer-songwriter James Taylor, and a direct yet detailed, observant writing style that made natural the dedication of his first album to William Faulkner. It was not obvious that his future would be in Nashville, or in country music, but within the next years McAnally would see the band Alabama take his “Old Flame” to No. 1 on the country charts, and country singers including Randy Travis, John Anderson, Ricky Skaggs, Ricky Van Shelton, and Charley Pride all recording his songs—even as he became a regular songwriter and working guitar ace for pop favorite Jimmy Buffett.

By the 1990s, Mac McAnally would emerge as a singular country music quadruple threat. As a producer, he would helm and sometimes engineer key releases by Marty Stuart, Sawyer Brown, Chris LeDoux and others, and operate a recording studio in Muscle Shoals. As an expressive guitar picker, he would appear on recordings by George Jones, Roy Orbison, Dolly Parton, Keith Whitley and Reba McIntyre, eventually winning the Country Music Association’s “Musician
Mac McAnally Marker, rear image. Click for full size.
Photographed By David J Gaines, March 1, 2011
2. Mac McAnally Marker, rear
of the Year” award multiple times. As a performer, he would still be recording new much-praised records thirty years after his first. His down home, literate songwriting would take him to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2007. Back home where he came from, he would be inducted into The Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame in 2008.

Photo captions (clockwise from top right):
“Back where I come from, I’m an old Mississippian. I’m as proud as anyone. That’s where I come from.” “Back Where I Come From” – Mac McAnally
McAnally wrote a string of hits for the band Sawyer Brown, including “The Café on the Corner”, “The Boys and Me”, “All These Years” and produced six of their 1990s albums.
Kenny Chesney’s 2008 version of McAnally’s “Down The Road” was a Grammy-nominated Number 1 record; Mac sang one verse and harmony.
McAnally reached a wide audience as a regular songwriter and touring band guitarist for pop star Jimmy Buffett, on right.
This 1989 album, Simple Life, introduced McAnally country songs that would be recorded by Kenny Chesney, Jimmy Buffett, Sammy Kershaw, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Ricky Skaggs and Shenandoah, among others.
 
Erected 2011 by Mississippi Country Music Trail. (Marker Number 6.)
 
Topics and series. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Arts, Letters, Music
Mac McAnally Marker in C C Shook Park image. Click for full size.
Photographed By David J Gaines, March 1, 2011
3. Mac McAnally Marker in C C Shook Park
Entertainment. In addition, it is included in the Mississippi Country Music Trail series list. A significant historical month for this entry is July 1965.
 
Location. 34° 30.674′ N, 88° 12.645′ W. Marker is in Belmont, Mississippi, in Tishomingo County. Marker is on 2nd Street (Mississippi Route 25), on the left when traveling north. Located in C C Shook City Park. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 383 2nd St, Belmont MS 38827, United States of America. Touch for directions.
 
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 7 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies. Red Bay Depot & Hotel (approx. 6.1 miles away in Alabama); Red Bay School (approx. 6.2 miles away in Alabama); Yarber Grist Mill (approx. 6.2 miles away in Alabama); Red Bay Ice and Gin Company (approx. 6.2 miles away in Alabama); Bay Theater (approx. 6.2 miles away in Alabama); The Calaboose (approx. 6.2 miles away in Alabama); Pride in Our Past, Faith in Our Future (approx. 6.2 miles away in Alabama); Butler Dogtrot Cabin (approx. 6.3 miles away).
 
More about this marker. Possibly mislabeled as marker #6 and should be marker #20. See Conway Twitty marker.
 
Also see . . .
1. Biography of Mac McAnally from his website.
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(Submitted on March 25, 2011, by Bill Pfingsten of Bel Air, Maryland.)
2. Video - - Dedication (Courtesy: "YouTube")::. (Submitted on November 9, 2012.)
3. Mississippi Country Music Trail. (Submitted on January 20, 2015.)
 
 
Credits. This page was last revised on July 31, 2023. It was originally submitted on March 24, 2011, by David J Gaines of Pinson, Alabama. This page has been viewed 1,343 times since then and 36 times this year. Photos:   1, 2, 3. submitted on March 24, 2011, by David J Gaines of Pinson, Alabama. • Bill Pfingsten was the editor who published this page.

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Mar. 18, 2024