McMahon, 40, who played with the Waco country band Santa Fe back in the 1980s, has held down the keyboardist's stool in McGraw's band, the Dancehall Doctors, for more than 11 years. McGraw fans will hear his work on CD for a second time with Tuesday's release of McGraw's Live Like You Were Dying, his second album made with his road band.

The album's title cut already has topped the country music charts, and McGraw's summer "Out Loud" tour has been extended into the fall. McMahon is also featured with Boomer, his parents' Shih Tzu, in the new book Music Row Dogs and Nashville Cats.

McMahon doesn't say it in a recent phone interview, but his meaning's clear: Life is good.

Like Tim McGraw and the Dancehall Doctors, the new album Live Like You Were Dying shows the same close communication between McGraw and his bandsmen. McGraw's a fine collaborator with other musicians, both in the studio and on stage, McMahon said. "He has so many ideas in his head, but he's so interested in other people's ideas, too," he said.

Working with his touring band allowed McGraw to cut directly to the music, without waiting for studio musicians to gel during a recording session. "We find the shorthand and the short cuts without hurting each other's feelings," McMahon said.

Even though the keyboardist received an Academy of Country Music nomination for Musician of the Year/Keyboardist honors in 2001, he's not one to single out his playing on the album. "I wouldn't say I have any more of a role than anyone else had," he said.

McMahon, a Baylor University graduate with a degree in telecommunications, got bitten by the music bug during his years in Waco. He performed in the school's annual University Sing, played in several "short-term party bands" and with roommates Steve Swingler and Don Gooch "sang our way through college."

He played with the country band Santa Fe, led by Deryl Dodd, now a singer-songwriter with a career of his own. When the band broke up, McMahon moved to Nashville. Eventually, the contacts he made in the industry led him to McGraw when the singer was looking for a new keyboard player. Among the highlights of more than a decade with McGraw: the night that an audience sang along to "Don't Take the Girl Back" and an American Music Awards ceremony where McGraw and his Doctors performed "Tiny Dancer" with pop star and keyboardist Elton John.

"As a piano player, you can imagine that's a pretty potent moment," McMahon said.

The Dancehall Doctors spend a lot of time on the road. That's why the musician had to borrow his folks' pet dog for his photo in Music Row Dogs. "I'm gone too much to give my heart to a pet and be responsible for him," he confessed.

He has squeezed in some stage work during his time at home, racking up acting credits in small theater productions of "Oliver!" (Bill Sykes), "Rags" (a union organizer) and "Much Ado About Nothing."

McMahon also is dabbling in film. He won awards for graphics and editing in the national 48 Hours Film Contest short film competition. McMahon plays a film and psychology professor in Red Lightning, his most recent film project and one currently in post-production.

The Nashville musician may expand his film work in the future, but right now it's music that fuels his life. "I never had a dream of doing this for a living," he said.

Carl Hoover can be reached at 757- 5749 or choover@wacotrib.com