{"id":165335,"date":"2026-08-25T15:08:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T20:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=165335"},"modified":"2026-08-25T15:11:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T20:11:37","slug":"grammy-museum-mississippis-2026-gala-to-honor-mac-mcanally-jimmy-buffet-this-october","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/grammy-museum-mississippis-2026-gala-to-honor-mac-mcanally-jimmy-buffet-this-october\/","title":{"rendered":"GRAMMY Museum\u00ae Mississippi’s 2026 Gala to Honor Mac McAnally, Jimmy Buffet this October"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Crossroads of American Music<\/strong> Awards will recognize the<\/strong>ir contributions to American music<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Longtime friends and collaborators, and Mississippi natives, Mac McAnally <\/strong>and the late Jimmy Buffett<\/strong>, will both be awarded Crossroads of American Music\u00a0Awards <\/strong>at Grammy Museum\u00ae <\/sup>Mississippi<\/strong>\u2019s 2026 Gala, set to take place at the Museum in\u00a0Cleveland, Mississippi, on Thursday, October 22, at 6 pm. <\/strong>The event will feature a reception, dinner, and\u00a0cocktails, live music, and a silent and live auction. It will also feature the presentation of the 2026\u00a0 L.U.C.Y. Award<\/strong>, which honors a K-12 educator from the state of Mississippi who embodies the\u00a0 educational mission of GRAMMY Museum Mississippi. Additional details will be announced soon.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both natives of Mississippi, Jimmy Buffett born in Pascagoula<\/strong> and Mac McAnally raised in Belmont<\/strong>,\u00a0the two musicians first met after Buffett had gotten a copy of McAnally\u2019s self-titled 1977 album. According to McAnally, Buffett followed up by writing him a note that said, \u201cWe\u2019re both from\u00a0 Mississippi. We\u2019re both storytellers. We\u2019re going to be friends.\u201d That note blossomed into a decades long working relationship and friendship during which McAnally wrote or co-wrote as well as produced several songs with Buffett, including \u201cIt\u2019s My Job,\u201d \u201cCoast of Carolina,\u201d and \u201cOysters and Pearls,\u201d\u00a0among others. Though he\u2019d been collaborating closely with Buffett as a songwriter and in the studio\u00a0since the early 1980s, he officially joined Buffett\u2019s Coral Reefer Band as a touring member in 1993. All in all, Buffett and McAnally\u2019s professional relationship spanned over four decades of recording,\u00a0songwriting, and touring.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is with tremendous honor that we dedicate our 2026 Gala to honoring two of Mississippi\u2019s most\u00a0 esteemed musicians \u2014 the late, great Jimmy Buffett and his longtime friend and collaborator, Mac\u00a0 McAnally,\u201d said Emily Havens<\/strong>, Executive Director of GRAMMY Museum Mississippi. \u201cThrough iconic\u00a0 songs, exceptional musicianship and careers that span decades, they helped shape the American\u00a0 songbook while proudly carrying their Mississippi roots to a global audience.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2026 Gala is made possible by presenting sponsor Quality Steel<\/strong>, with additional support provided by platinum sponsors the Cannon Motor Company<\/strong>, Kirk Auto Group, The Paul Janoush\u00a0 Family <\/strong>and Whole Cellars Package Store<\/strong>. The Red Carpet Guild level sponsors are Cardiovascular Solutions of Central Mississippi<\/strong>, McCartys, The Millie and Bennie Wright\u00a0 Family, The Joyce and Larry Perry Family<\/strong>. Additional details will be announced soon. The 2026 Grammy Museum Mississippi Gala is presented by The Red Carpet Guild, an organization of committed volunteers whose mission is to promote, support, and sustain the Mississippi Museum.\u00a0Additional sponsors will be announced soon.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tickets to the 2026 Gala will go on sale to Grammy Museum Mississippi Members on September 4, and\u00a0 can be purchased at grammymuseumms.org<\/a><\/strong>, or by calling the Mississippi Museum\u2019s Box Office.\u00a0Pending availability, tickets will go on sale to the public on September 18.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Established by the Museum’s Board of Directors, the Crossroads of American Music Award honors artists whose extraordinary contributions to music reflect the creativity and cultural legacy born in the cradle of American music. Previous recipients include Grammy winners Bobby Rush, the late Charley Pride, Jerry Lee Lewis, Keb’ Mo’, Marty Stuart, Rosanne Cash, and Trombone Shorty. The annual\u00a0Grammy Museum Mississippi Gala is the Museum\u2019s signature fundraising event. Proceeds from this year\u2019s Gala will benefit the Museum\u2019s education programs, which seek to use music as a gateway to\u00a0learning by inspiring and cultivating creativity, critical thinking, and self-expression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Crossroads of American Music Awards will recognize their contributions to American music Longtime friends and collaborators, and Mississippi<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":238,"featured_media":165336,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17316],"tags":[8903,8580,3756,35659,5,642],"class_list":["post-165335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mississippi","tag-emily-havens","tag-grammy-museum-mississippi","tag-jimmy-buffett","tag-mac-mcanally","tag-mississippi","tag-ms"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Gala-Graphic-for-Announcement.png?fit=1080%2C1450&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165335"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":165341,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165335\/revisions\/165341"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}