WHISKEY RIFF – Shane McAnally is not a household name, but we guarantee you’ve heard his music.
The man is a Grammy-winning songwriter and he’s written a ton of hits like “Stay A Little Longer” by Brothers Osborne, “Break Up In A Small Town” and “Body Like A Back Road” by Sam Hunt, “Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye” by Luke Bryan, “Never Wanted To Be That Girl” by Carly Pearce and Ashley McBryde, “Different For Girls” by Dierks Bentley and Elle King, and he’s also written quite a few songs for Kacey Musgraves, including songs like “Follow Your Arrow” and “Space Cowboy”.
He’s a two-time winner of the Songwriter of the Year award at the ACM Awards, and he’s also three-time Grammy winner for his work with Kacey Musgraves.
McAnally is even nominated again for Songwriter of the Year at the 2024 Grammy Awards, as well as a nomination for Best Musical Theater album for the soundtrack of the Broadway musical ‘Shucked’.
Now the songs that McAnally was nominated for recently haven’t been topping the charts like they have in years past. The most commercially successful song was “We Don’t Fight Anymore” by Carly Pearce and Chris Stapleton, and then there were songs like “Good With Me” by Walker Hayes, “I Should Have Married You” by Old Dominion, and “Start Nowhere” and “Walmart” by Sam Hunt.
Even though, country music just had a monster year, with people like Morgan Wallen, Zach Bryan, Luke Combs and Jelly Roll breaking through into the mainstream charts to give country music a presence on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 that the genre hasn’t experienced in a long time.
McAnally spoke with Billboard about being a songwriter at a time when others are dominating the country charts.
McAnally said, “I feel so outside of things. Country music is dominating right now, but it’s the artists I don’t work with — Morgan Wallen, Luke Combs and Zach Bryan — so for this nomination to come now is a big deal.”
Not to say he’s never worked with Morgan, because McAnally actually wrote one song for Morgan Wallen. McAnally and Wallen scored a #1 hit with “7 Summers”, in which they co-wrote alongside Josh Osborne.
From the looks of McAnally’s comments, it doesn’t sound like he has any plans whatsoever on working with Wallen again any time soon – because of their political difference. He explained…
“There’s a gap in political views for me, with Morgan specifically, and they’re just from a different group. I don’t want to stereotype or lump everyone together, but sometimes you just feel outside while other people are killing it, and to be acknowledged this year, when [my work] wasn’t maybe as commercially obvious as some of my past years, feels amazing.”
Morgan has generally avoided discussing his politics publicly. During a interview with Billboard, he spoke about staying out of politics and why he doesn’t plan on publicly endorsing a presidential candidate.
Wallen said, “That’s not where my head’s at. I’m not an expert. I just don’t know enough to try to guide people. I know what I know, and that’s music.”
Hell no one is really an expert in leading anyone in politics. Let’s be real. So, it seems like their political differences are too much for McAnally when it comes to getting back in the songwriting room together. Which is a little immature to me personally, but to each their own.