'Songland's' Shane McAnally jokes: 'My name isn't George and I'm not straight!'

NBC’s fascinating new talent competition Songland, the brainchild of executive producers Adam Levine and the Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart, puts the focus on composers instead of performers. And in the process, the show is not only making stars out of contestants submitting songs for stars like this week’s guest, Meghan Trainor, but it’s increasing the public profiles for judges Ester Dean and Shane McAnally — who are huge names in the industry, but aren’t necessarily well-known by the average television viewer.

McAnally, who moved from the tiny Texas town of Mineral Wells to Branson at age 15 and then to Nashville at 19, certainly got in the best made-for-TV zinger of Tuesday’s Songland episode, when he and Dean were discussing their largely behind-the-scenes careers. “I was relieved when I find out [songwriting] was a job, because I thought you had to be George Strait to go to Nashville,” said McAnally, “and the truth is, my name isn’t George and I wasn’t straight!”

McAnally released only one solo album, a self-titled effort that received mixed reviews and yielded three moderately successful singles that cracked the top 50 of the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart around 1999/2000. But he is now one of the most successful country songwriters of all time, with a multi-page résumé that includes credits for pretty much every major name in Nashville, including Miranda Lambert, Florida Georgia Line, Carrie Underwood, Maren Morris, Keith Urban, Kelly Clarkson, Blake Shelton, Dan + Shay, and most notably Kacey Musgraves, whose “Follow Your Arrow” featured the inclusive line “kiss lots of boys, or kiss lots of girls, if that’s what you’re into.” And McAnally has done all this as an openly gay man in a historically conservative genre/scene, which why he landed on Rolling Stone’s recent “Music’s Unsung LGBTQ Heroes” list next to Frankie Knuckles, Judas Priest’s Rob Halford, and Big Freedia.

McAnally shares a country pedigree with Trainor — who some may not know got her start penning songs for the likes of Rascal Flatts and Hunter Hayes — though on Songland he glowingly praised Trainor for being a complete-package artist who can sing, dance, and write for both herself and others. But surely any aspiring songwriter on Songland, like this week’s four hopefuls, would be happy to have a career like McAnally’s or Trainor’s. While the one country-leaning songwriter of Tuesday’s bunch, Southern gentleman Zachary Kale, was passed over because his sentimental “All Over Again” was too “cute” and “bouncy” (and because newlywed Trainor apparently already has enough love songs set aside for her forthcoming third album), the three other contenders came with the “sassy power anthems” that Trainor was searching for.

First up was Atlanta’s jovial, starstruck Brandin Jay with “No Money Alright,” a song about being broke but happy that evoked the old-soul style of CeeLo Green’s “F*** You” or Trainor’s own duet with Charlie Puth, “Marvin Gaye.” Trainor loved the feelgood gospel outro and told Jay he was “born to do this,” but she struggled with how dated the song felt. (I honestly believe Brandin, whom third judge Ryan Tedder said “emanated joy,” was just too adorable and likable for Trainor to turn him down.)

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:

• A 'Songland' explainer: Why this new talent show is 'Shark Tank' for songwriters

• A ‘progressive twist’: Country star Kelsea Ballerini picks R&B tune on ‘Songland’

• will.i.am just can’t get enough of 'Songland,' picks 3 winning songs for Black Eyed Peas album

• Happiness begins: Jonas Brothers give recovering addict Able Heart his big break on 'Songland'

• Adam Levine abruptly, mysteriously leaves 'The Voice' after 16 controversial seasons

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