The Country Music Association's 2008 Musician of the Year is the kind of guy who appreciates an offbeat question.
Anyone who's ever talked to Mac McAnally will tell you that he's got a highly developed sense of humor and certainly isn't above poking fun at himself.
So here goes:
Hey, Mac, will you have any specific responsibilities to fulfill during your reign over the next 12 months, like Miss America does?
"Well, I don't have to wear a tiara or anything," McAnally says, laughing. "But I get to play music every day, and I'd still be playing music, anyway, even without the award. I guess I'll play harder next year."
The guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer -- and longtime member of Jimmy Buffett's Coral Reefer Band -- just might look good with a jeweled headpiece sitting atop his thick red hair. Musicians have been known to sling flowered leis around their necks with Buffett, after all, on his "endless summer" tours around the globe.
But McAnally, 51, who was born in Red Bay, doesn't seek glitter and glamour. Nor does he aggressively compete with other performers for high-profile accolades.
He's by nature a rather shy and modest fellow who dislikes any kind of excess attention. In fact, when his name was included in a list of five guitarists nominated by the Country Music Association, McAnally says he expected to be applauding someone else.
"Historically, on the night of the CMAs and Grammys, I try to sit home and write songs," he says. "I figure everyone else is there and not working, so that gives me a leg up on the other songwriters."
On Nov. 12, however, McAnally found himself dressed in a fancy jacket, escorting his girlfriend to the Sommet Center in Nashville. That evening, he picked up a heavy trophy that resembles a Plexiglas missile and shared the spotlight with stars such as Kenny Chesney, George Strait and Brad Paisley.
McAnally's award was one of two given out before the cameras started rolling on ABC, but he says that wasn't a problem. A "little acceptance speech" in front of his peers, with his pal Vince Gill goofing around, trying to crack him up, suited McAnally fine.
"I'm honored," he says. "I was happy to be named in that pile of players. I'm a jack of a few trades, going back and forth between playing and record producing and other things. Most of the ones nominated for this award are full-time pickers. When I won, I didn't understand it. I thought it was a typo."
Forget the platinum records and No. 1 song certificates piled in his garage, McAnally's long list of writing credits and session work, and all of those admiring colleagues.
McAnally's basic philosophy, learned while growing up on a farm in Belmont, Miss., is to put himself last and be of service to others. His 10-album solo catalog, which has earned modest success, is part of a larger career that provides material and backup for big-name acts, and boosts the output of talented newcomers.
"I've done my Mac songs, written my records, in the cracks of time," he says. "I like being of use, if I have friends that I can help along or help realize their dreams. It never was my dream to have a big hit record out as Mac McAnally. There are plenty of folks who already have a bus and a personal trainer. I like to sing and I like to play and I like to play some more."
Small singer-songwriter shows, like the ones McAnally occasionally performs in Birmingham, are squeezed in among his commitments to artists such as Buffett, Strait, Chesney, Paisley, Reba McEntire, Dolly Parton, Travis Tritt, Hank Williams Jr., Patty Loveless and Mary Chapin Carpenter. McAnally stays busy all year, dividing his time between Nashville, the road and his home and studio in Sheffield. There, amid high-tech and old-school gear, he produces discs that range from a Little Feat tribute compilation to an instrumental project for Jake Shimabukuro, a Hawaiian ukulele virtuoso.
"You never know how these things parlay; everything is connected," McAnally says. "Every piece of high-visibility work I've done is connected to a piece of low-visibility work I've done, and done well. I've played a lot for free and some for pay over the years, and there's a great network of friends I get to pick with."
That's McAnally you'll hear on "Down the Road," for example, dueting with Chesney on a tune he wrote for Chesney's latest CD, "Lucky Old Sun." McAnally also had a hand in "Kentucky Jelly," a track on Paisley's new album, "Play."
Continuing his collaboration with Buffett is a given, McAnally says, and he's become an honorary member of Strait's studio band, nicknamed the Critters. There's another "Mac record" on the horizon, as well.
"The songs are all written," McAnally says. "I just have to record them."
Other musicians might feel professional pressure after a CMA win or the need to amp up their agendas on stage. McAnally says he doesn't consider himself among the most sublime guitarists on the planet -- not a showy stylist or a subtle wizard -- so he feels no need to change.
"If I blow a lick on the guitar, I always say, 'Well, that's pretty good for a songwriter,'" he says. "If I write a song that doesn't work, I say, 'Well, that's not bad for a producer.' Whatever it is that I'm not doing is my real job."
McAnally's joshing, of course, and later admits that he takes performing music, and enjoying music, very seriously. Always has, always will.
"I haven't played yet as CMA Musician of the Year," he says. "We'll see what kind of face I make."