Music

One of country music's top songwriters is openly gay, attributes his success to coming out

by Aaron Zorgel

photo via New York Times

Meet Shane McAnally. He’s one of country music’s most prodigious songwriters, having penned seven number one hits over the past three years, for the genre’s biggest acts, including Kenny Chesney, Lady Antebellum, and The Band Perry. McAnally has prospered in a songwriting role in recent years, but prior to 2008, he was a struggling solo artist, trying to find his voice. After his debut album flopped, Shane relocated to West Hollywood, where he found the courage to live openly as a homosexual. What does someone’s sexuality have to do with their abilities as a songwriter? By Shane’s own account, his career started to take off directly as a result of his coming out: “When I stopped hiding who I am, I started writing hits.”

I think it’s fair to say that country music has a reputation for catering to a generally conservative, working class audience. In a recent piece on McAnally in the New York Times, Jody Rosen points out that this makes McAnally a bit of a “paradox” within the country music world — an openly gay man, penning songs for some of the most conservative music fans. That’s not to say that country is altogether uncomfortable with homosexuality, or that other genres, hip-hop for instance, don’t have a complex relationship with sexuality. Both Toby Keith and Carrie Underwood have publicly endorsed gay marriage, but the genre has yet to produce any openly gay stars. That’s why McAnally’s presence as an openly gay powerhouse songwriter is so important, and warrants discussion.

Shane McAnally has enjoyed a prolific string of success, contributing to such monstrous country hits like “Somewhere With You” by Kenny Chesney, “Alone With You” by Jake Owen, and “Mama’s Broken Heart” by Miranda Lambert, all of which reached the summit of Billboard’s Country Songs chart. One of McAnally’s strengths is that his wheelhouse is diverse; he’s got down-home country on lock (Luke Bryan, “What Country Is”), but when it comes to conflicted, revved-up erotically charged love songs, he’s a master. If you flick on your local country radio station and hear a dark country ballad about love gone wrong, chances are it’s one of McAnally’s signature ditties.

Shane’s homosexuality certainly impacts his songwriting. He pushed Nashville upstart Kacey Musgraves to include a line that embraces homosexuality in the co-written “Follow Your Arrow”: “Make lots of noise/Kiss lots of boys/Or kiss lots of girls, if that’s what you’re into.” But for McAnally, he enjoys the songwriting role because it allows a certain level of anonymity, and freedom to write using characters: “I don’t want the audience thinking about the gay guy who wrote the song. Whether it’s a gay guy in the audience, or a gay woman, or a straight guy, or a straight woman — I want them all to hear a song and say, ‘That’s my story.'”

Country music is still waiting for its first openly gay star, but McAnally is changing the landscape of acceptance for a classically conservative inudstry and listenership. You can read a fascinating piece about McAnally over at the New York Times, and check out some of his handiwork below.

Kenny Chesney, “Somewhere With You”

Jake Owen, “Alone With You”

Kacey Musgraves, “Follow Your Arrow”