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.

In addition to the hits he has penned for artists, McAnally received his first No. 1 single as an artist and sixth as a writer on his collaboration with Kenny Chesney, "Down The Road." The song penned by McAnally and recorded by Chesney, who invited the acclaimed music maker to sing on the track with him, also led to an ACM Vocal Event of the Year nod for the collaboration.

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.

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, "It'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.