Mac McAnally treated The Factory to the kind of music you might find sitting on a back porch with family and friends on a summer evening. Just a guitar and some stories, the best way. Mac McAnally is a wonderful songwriter because he’s a wonderful storyteller. He shines in ’90s country ballads that paint full stories, the ones that absolutely hit with a music video. He has had two Billboard Hot 100 hits, and six more on the Hot Country Songs chart. He’s written songs for a lot of the ’90s country stars you know-Kenny Chesney, Jimmy Buffett, Sawyer Brown. My personal favorite track he’s penned is “Two Dozen Roses” recorded by Shenandoah.
The first song he played was “Down the Road,” which he wrote on Christmas morning when his kids were little. His stories were genuine and touching. He has worked closely with Kenny Chesney many times—this time, Kenny called and said he just wanted to record one of his songs. Another moving song he played was “It’s My Job,” which was recorded by McAnally first and Jimmy Buffett later down the road. He spoke so highly of Buffett, whose Coral Reefer Band McAnally has been a member of since 1994, and they seem like dear friends.
McAnally told one of his most interesting stories about “Little Martha,” the Allman Brothers song that has long been featured in his setlists. McAnally was only 15 when he started playing in bands at Fame Studios, the Muscle Shoals, Alabama, studio where “Duane Allman cut his teeth.” He loved Allman’s song “Little Martha” and though he was still a teenager, he had been able to teach himself 60-70% of it, but he could not figure out the rest. But when he finally made it to Alabama and worked with all these people who worked with Allman when he wrote “Little Martha,” he asked them how the hell is anyone able to play that song? McAnally about fell over when they said, “you idiot, there’s two guitars!” What a fun song—it’s an instrumental that has a light but intricate melody that runs and dances. It would do great in a movie with little woodland fairies.
Amy Grant came on stage-she commands such gentle attention. I always love how comfortable seasoned veterans are on stage. It really makes some concerts feel like a family living room in the best way. She said “a night of music should be a night of discovery” and I really loved that.
Amy Grant has had successes in multiple pop genres, which I feel showcases she is just talented. She started in contemporary Christian music and then crossed over into mainstream pop, with her 1991 album Heart in Motion selling over five million copies and spawning four top ten hits including the #1 “Baby Baby.” If you remember Delilah on the radio in the ’90s, she loved Grant. They have the same vibe—very low-key and dreamy.
It was interesting to me that neither Grant nor McAnally had a drummer per se. McAnally’s percussionist mostly played a box with a rack of keys; on one song, the man at the box (the boxer??) out a hubcap with a drum stretched over it. Grant’s backup vocalist played bongos. The rest of Grant’s band— two acoustic guitars, a keyboard, and a pedal steel—all fit the low-key, gentle music style, plus the kind of strong backing vocalists that were popular in the ’80s-’90s. It reminded me of the Muses in Hercules in her song “Walk On Water.”
The night continued and Amy played “House of Love,” a duet originally sung by her and her husband, country star Vince Gill. She played “Nobody Home,” which is such a cool song—it sounds like the intro to an ’80s sitcom in the best way. The background vocals are so perfectly classic to that period. She then brought McAnally back out to join her on some songs—it was heartwarming seeing them together on stage. They really seemed to be reveling in being on stage and interacted wonderfully. A shining star was “The Me That Remains,” the title track from Grant’s latest album (released in May 2026 on Thirty Tigers), which McAnally produced. They also performed “Til We Get It Right”, a song written by McAnally and Caroline Jones that Grant recorded on the new album as well. The night was full of nostalgia and an appreciation for everything these two musicians have contributed to music and songwriting. | Pariss Brown
