Mineral Wells will welcome home one of its own this weekend. Shane McAnally (he/him) had gone from North Texan to Nashville with country music on his mind. After some self-reflectiion, honesty and major talent that took him all the way to the Grammys and the Tonys, he found himself much more comfortable behind the spotlight.
Throughout his career, he released an album, he won his fourth Grammy for Best Country Song (“The Architect” by fellow Texan Kacey Musgraves) last year and was nominated for a Tony for Best Original Score for the musical Shucked. McAnally co-wrote and co-produced “Follow Your Arrow” by Musgraves, a song that resonated with the queer community. The New York Times named him among its list of The 30 Greatest Living American Songwriters earlier this year.
And now, with his show Hits and Giggles, he’s aiming for punchlines and laughs.
Ahead of his two-night stop at Tannahill’s Music Hall and Lounge today and Friday, he spoke with Dallas Voice about his career path that has varied but resulted in success as he juggles being a family man with his husband and three kids.
Dallas Voice: To start, a welcome home seems in order.
McAnally: Thank you, yeah! Mineral Wells is where my family still is and where I was raised. And you know, I have this huge love for my hometown and for Texas in general. So much so that we named our new baby Texson.
I love that these Texas towns have delivered high-profile LGBTQ+ folks. Shangela is from Paris; August Ponthier from Allen and you from Mineral Wells.
I just have a lot of pride about being from Texas – especially my area, Fort Worth, um, Parker County, Pala Pinto County., I don’t know what it is. It gets in your blood.
But also, how was growing up gay in Texas at that time?
Sure, there were things about growing up that weren’t fun – especially being gay in a small town in Texas in the ‘80s. But throughout my career and as things have happened for me, my number one source of encouragement and inspiration has been from Mineral Wells.
You started out in country music and released your self-titled album in 2000. Is it safe to assume you grew up listening to it as well?
Absolutely. That’s all we listened to and I knew pop music but I was in love with country and it wasn’t just about the music, it was abou community for me. This atmosphere of it and if there was a program or an awards show of country music, I was just enamored by it all.
That was a big era too with George Strait, Randy Travis, Reba McEntire…
Well you know, my ongoing tagline and I’ve squeezed so many years of storytelling out of this line is that I just wanted to be George Strait but I wasn’t straight.
Jumping ahead to today, you’re bringing comedy to the stage now and not music? How did this happen?
Country music songwriters by nature are just a funny crew. The stories that happened, especially when I work on Shucked. There’s so many things that do not fit in a three-minute box with a melody and so many childhood stories I’ve tried to sneak into songs, but you can only do so much. I’ve just always had this idea that at some point, I would do a one-man show telling how I got here and that’s basically country music. It turned into more stand-up than I would have expected but I’m doing an hour-long country song. Besides, you have to laugh to keep from crying these days.
Do people come in expecting a music show?
I do a lot of music. I do a handful of my hits with the storytelling. stories of my childhood and my hometown that influenced my writing. And also coming out and being gay has affected all of those things and how I ended up being a dad and, you know, how quirky art life is as dads, There’s a lot of humore in being a dad of teenage kids.
What’s interesting is that comedy is so crucial to growing up gay because it’s a defense mechanism to deflect or acclimate.
Right. I love that you say that because it’s so true. I’ve alwaysbeen that person to do something funny in a heavy moment so I’ve always been that clown I guess. But now, I can still do that but with my kids which is something so different and new and I love it. . I try to do anything for the laugh. I think the only thing better than making someone cry when telling a story is making them laugh.
Which you did in Shucked.
Thanks! I remember I was sitting in that theater in New York watching Shucked every night when it first went on Broadway, I looked around and the laughter would actually bring tears to my eyes because I thought this is a universal language of humanity. It’s what connects all of us is this whether we are a completely different race or religion or political views; laughter is this moment of commonality. When you’re laughing with someone, it’s because you know that you both shared an experience. I was so warmed by that and I just thought about how I want to do more things that make an audience experience that.
For tickets, visit Tannahills.com or Ticketmaster.com.
