McAnally wins CMA award

For the second year in a row, Mac McAnally was named the Country Music Association's Musician of the Year.

A long-time fixture in the Shoals and Nashville music scenes, McAnally was up for two awards at the association's annual event, held Wednesday at the Sommett Center in downtown Nashville.

"I'm very happy," McAnally said during a telephone interview from Nashville. "I'm very grateful and thrilled. I'm particularly happy I was nominated in a category where I don't have to go on a diet."

The CMA Musician of the Year Award is given to studio musicians in recognition of their work in the past year, particularly with chart-topping songs.

McAnally said he likely received the award because of his studio work with Kenny Chesney this past year. McAnally and Chesney collaborated on "Down the Road," a song McAnally wrote more than 20 years ago.

In typical McAnally style, he downplayed his own accomplishment and praised his fellow nominees, which included drummer Eddie Mason, steel guitarist Paul Franklin and guitarists Dann Huff and Brent Mason.

"It was just a lucky piece of timing," he said. "I'm just a part-time musician."

Part of that time is spent as a member of his sometimes writing partner Jimmy Buffett's Coral Reefer Band.

McAnally also was nominated for the Musical Event of the Year for the duet with Chesney. "Down the Road," which originally appeared on McAnally's 1990 album "Simple Life," was released as a single and rose to No. 1 on the Billboard Country Chart.

The McAnally-Chesney version was stripped down to simply two friends with acoustic guitars and a percussionist who utilized a wooden box for a makeshift drum kit.

McAnally said the Musical Event of the Year Award went to Keith Urban and Brad Paisley for the duet on "Start a Band."

McAnally will perform at Norton Auditorium on the UNA campus at 8 p.m. tonight. For details, visit una.edu/macmcanally.

Russ Corey can be reached at 740-5738 or russ.corey@TimesDaily.com.