This post has been a long time coming - Uncle Dave Macon has come up a lot in my blog posts and I do keep saying that he needs his own post - well here it is!
Uncle Dave Macon was perhaps the most influential, popular and important folksinger of the first half of the 20th century. He was known as the King of the Hillbillies (also the Dixie Dewdrop) and was consistently popular from his first single in 1924 up until his death in 1952. He was one of the very first performers on the Grand Ole Opry radio show in 1925 and people have been imitating his style, vocals, banjo-playing up to this day.
So what's the deal with Uncle Dave? Well there's a few point:
1. Age - Dave Macon was born in 1870. Think about that. It means he was born only 5 years after the end of the civil war and was a full grown adult in Victorian times. He didn't record until he was in his fifties and, as such, he gives a better insight into the folk music of the 19th century than pretty much any other perfomer - most folksingers only give their interpretations of 19th century music, Uncle Dave was actually there! He was older than any of the blues singers, older than Leadbelly, older than recorded music itself. Many of the songs which have become so well known as to merge into the public consciousness were probably written while he was adult and that's something to think about.
2. Wildness - Uncle Dave opitimised the "crazy old guy" persona. On most of his records he screams, hollers, whoops and howls out the lyrics with a reckless abandon and often the sound of him stomping his feet on the floor of the recording studio can be heard. His attitude towards folk music was at the complete opposite end from the bombastic pretentious nonsense that so many people now like to churn out. His music was wilder, faster and noisier than your average hardcore punk band and rocked mercilessly.
3. Repetoire - He had one of the widest ranging repetoires of any folk singer. Just take a look at the nine CD boxset, "Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy" and marvel at the sheer number of songs he knew and recorded. What's even more remarkable is the diversity. He played hillbilly, appalachian, proto-blues, minstrel songs, coon songs, vaudeville, cakewalks, spirituals, comic numbers and more. He played songs by both black and white musicians - some of which can be a bit, er, racially charged by today's standards. He had no qualms about using words like "nigger", "darkie" and "coon" and sometimes it can be a bit discomforting to listen to songs like "New Coon in Town" and "Run, Nigger, Run" - a song which was, ironically, originally sung by black slaves. He was, however, a man of his time; there no genuinely malicious intent behind these words, like if someone used them in today's society - the man was born in 1870 for christ's sake, concepts like racial sensitivity didn't even exist then. Not to mention he often gives kudos to the black folks at the beginning of some his songs - I dunno, it's these seeming contradictions that make the music that much more interesting.
Still, you really can't get the point about Uncle Dave until you hear his recordings - the song "Way Down the Old Plank Road", released in 1925, is probably his most famous song as it was included on Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music. And what a song it is - this is the recording that turned me forever onto the path of the old music and just listen to it and you'll know why:
Rockin' stuff. Uncle Dave's first single was "Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy" backed with "Hill Billie Blues", one of the first uses of the word "hillbilly". Most of Uncle Dave's early singles were just him by himself on banjo and, recorded before the 1926 advent of electrical recording, can sound a bit hollow, although his charisma still shines through the tinniness. In 1925 he teamed up with legendary country guitarist Sam McGee - who will also need a page of his own later - and expanded his sound to guitar and banjo in unison, with the guitar providing bass behind the banjo. These recording are where he really began to take off - other than "Way Down the Old Plank Road" he also recorded the negro spiritual "Poor Sinners, Fare You Well", the railroad classic "John Henry", crazy stomper "Whoop 'Em Up Cindy" and even dropped the banjo for "I've Got The Mourning Blues" in which Sam McGee plays some fingerstyle guitar in Open-D tuning. Here's "John Henry" in case you're one of the strange people who doesn't know this song - beginning, like many Uncle Dave records, with one of his peculiar monologues:
He expanded the line-up even further the following year adding Sam's brother Kirk on banjo and fiddle and Mazy Todd on fiddle to form the Fruit Jar Drinkers, who became the premiere string band of the 1920's. Their recordings are among the best recordings ever - I have already played "Sail Away Ladies" on an earlier blog, but screw it, I'm gonna play it again:
Perfection in music form. Another good recording from this era is "Jordan Am A Hard Road To Travel" a cover of Dan Emmett's 1853 mock-spiritual with heavily altered lyrics:
One of Uncle Dave's main points were political messages he often stuck in his songs - the above song, with lines like
I don't know, but I believe I'm right, the auto'll ruin the country,
Let's go back to the horse and buggy and try to save some money.
Before starting into music, Dave ran a horse and buggy business which collapsed due to the introduction of the horseless carriage - yeah, he's THAT old - and many of his songs have a personal beef with cars and, in particular, Henry Ford, who gets digged in the above song too.
Another, more explicitly political song of his is "Buddy, Won't You Roll Down the Line", which deals with a mining company leasing convicts to work in the mines and how free labour rebelled against this:
Way down yonder in Tennesee, they leased the convicts out
To work in the coal mines, against free labor South;
Free labor rebelled against it. To win it took some time.
But while the lease was in effect, they made 'em rise and shine.
BTW, the number of Uncle Dave Macon songs on YouTube is bloody disgraceful - it barely scratches the surface.
Anyhoo, another good example of his political style is "Wreck of the Tennessee Gravy Train". Recorded solo in 1930, the song deals with a scandal involving Henry Horton, the governer of Tennessee and the collapse of the Caldwell Company Bank in Tennessee, leaving the state $6 million in debt.
Uncle Dave kept going and touring with the Grand Ole Opry until basically the end of his life - he was beloved by everyone from his fellow old-timers, to the new breed of Bluegrass musicians, to the folkies of the 50's folk revival. In 1940, he appeared in the film "The Grand Ole Opry Movie". Here's a clip of him raving it up with his son, Dorris:
As well as a more crazed scene of him and bunch of other Opry stars playing something which sounds a bit like "Soldier's Joy":
The legacy of Uncle Dave Macon in today's day and age is that he essentially embodies the entire period of folk from after the end of the Civil War, post-Stephen Foster and post-Dan Emmett, up until the beginning of modern country music like the Carter Family their ilk. He presents folk music as it once was and, still often is, and always should be - loud, raucous, wild, accessible, moving, eccentric and unpretentious. So there!
Some of his stuff can be found on the Internet Archive, but if you're further interested, I highly recommend the boxset "Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy" which contains all his recordings. You can buy it or otherwise type it into google and see what happens...
Peng...
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