If there’s a Mount Rushmore of Music City sidemen-turned-songwriters-turned-quiet-legends, Mac McAnally has been chiseling his own face into it for decades. This June, the 10-time Country Music Association Musician of the Year graces the cover of The Nashville Musician, and honestly, the only surprise is that it took this long between features.

Nashville, Tenn. — dated June 8, 2026 — is when the issue dropped, spotlighting a career that reads more like a highlight reel than a resume. GRAMMY-nominated, inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame, and the Alabama Music Hall of Fame, McAnally has spent his life quietly out-writing, out-picking, and out-classing just about everyone in the room. He’s the guy behind hits for Alabama, Kenny Chesney, and Jimmy Buffett, and he’s added guitar, harmony, and heart to records by Toby Keith, Dolly Parton, Keith Whitley, and George Strait. Seventeen studio albums in — the most recent being Once In A Lifetime — the Mississippi-born, gospel-raised songwriter still treats music like a calling rather than a business card.

The cover story lands in the middle of a stacked touring year. McAnally is currently rolling through his headlining All The Way Around tour and popping up on select dates with Scotty Emerick for their Margaritas & Memories shows — a set built on Buffett-era stories, laughs, and songs you didn’t realize Mac wrote until he tells you.

Then comes the big one. This summer, McAnally leads the Coral Reefer Band on the Keep The Party Going tour, keeping Jimmy Buffett’s catalog alive and salt-air-soaked for fans across North America. Presented by Margaritaville, the run kicks off July 9 in Bethlehem, PA at the Wind Creek Event Center and rolls through Atlantic City, Washington D.C., Wilmington, Charlotte, Atlanta, Orange Beach, Rogers, Austin, Houston, Fort Worth, Highland Park, Indianapolis, Grand Rapids, Clarkston, Holmdel, Wantagh, Gilford, and wraps August 8 at Boston’s Leader Bank Pavilion.

McAnally’s own headlining dates continue to weave through the summer and fall: Stephenville (June 26), Cape May (June 28), two nights at Sunset Cove in Portsmouth, RI (July 1-2), Beaver Dam Amphitheater (Aug. 21), The Caverns in Pelham (Aug. 22), Dakota in Minneapolis (Sept. 18), and Blue Gate Performing Arts Center in Shipshewana (Dec. 5).

Add in his 2025 ACM Poet’s Award and a featured spot in the Country Music Hall of Fame’s “Muscle Shoals: Low Rhythm Rising” exhibit, and it’s clear McAnally isn’t slowing down — he’s just doing what he’s always done, at the pace of a man who knows the song will still be there tomorrow.

Cue up Once In A Lifetime and settle in: https://open.spotify.com/search/Mac%20McAnally

Grab tickets and tour info at MacMcAnally.com and coralreeferband.com.