Mac McAnally Honored by the State of Mississippi

He’s won CMA’s Musician of the Year award three years running, and now Coral Reefer Mac McAnally’s home state of Mississippi has bestowed even more honors on the singer/songwriter:

First during a ceremony in Jackson, and emceed by Marty Stuart, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour and the Mississippi Arts Commission presented McAnally with the 2011 Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts. A bronze cast statue designed by artist Bill Dunlap represents the distinction.

The next day, McAnally became only the sixth artist to be recognized with a marker on the Mississippi Country Music Trail. The marker was unveiled at the same city park in Belmont, MS where Mac once played as a child. He joins such music luminaries as Jimmie Rodgers and Marty Stuart.

“This is an amazing honor for me to be acknowledged in such a way by the state I grew up in and was inspired by,” McAnally said. “Music is a vital part of life in Mississippi—from the Delta blues to country to Southern rock. It seeps into your very soul. I am proud to have grown up in a state so rich in culture and with such an amazing and deep musical heritage.”

Music was a direct path for young Lyman “Mac” McAnally. Born in Red Bay Alabama and raised in Belmont, Mississippi, he was a guitar and piano prodigy performing in clubs at 13, writing songs at 15 and a Muscle Shoals studio mainstay by 18. He scored his own record deal by the age of 17 and was later touring as a member of Jimmy Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band, a position he holds to this day. As a songwriter, McAnally has scored numerous #1 hits, including Kenny Chesney’s 2009 #1 “Down The Road.”

Congrats Mac on another well-deserved honor!