MACON, UNCLE DAVE

MACON, UNCLE DAVE (b. David Harrison M., fifties he decided he could not adapt to new times, and Smart Station, Tenn., October 7, 1870–March 22, let his business go. 1952) Throughout this period Macon had continued to play Uncle Dave Macon appeared on THE GRAND OLE the banjo, mostly to amuse his customers and family. OPRY’s stage from its opening days into the early In the early 1920s, while visiting a Nashville barber- 1950s, when he was in his early eighties, performing shop, Macon was playing for customers when he was a combination of traditional BANJO songs, sentimental heard by a scout for Loew’s vaudeville houses. Macon songs, and his own compositions, often commenting was soon performing on stage, and in early 1924 made on contemporary trends. his first recordings. A year later he was invited to be Macon was born outside of Nashville, but the family the second member of WSM’s Barn Dance program soon relocated to the big city, where his father operated in Nashville, which would soon be renamed The Grand a rooming house located on downtown’s main street. Ole Opry. The rooming house was popular with vaudeville per- Macon played both clawhammer and two-finger formers, and the young Macon was particularly im- banjo styles. He was an exceptionally talented musi- pressed by the stunt banjo playing of one traveling star, cian, but it was his ability to perform stunts like playing Joel Davidson. He began to learn the instrument and the banjo while swinging the instrument between his to play locally, mostly in informal settings. When legs, and other tricks he learned through years of infor- Macon was a teenager, his father was stabbed in a mal entertaining, that really won over his audiences. brawl outside the rooming house, and the family Macon’s hearty vocals, good humor, and energetic moved once again. Macon’s mother opened a rest stop banjo playing influenced an entire generation of musi- for stagecoaches in rural Readyville, and Dave took cians, including STRINGBEAN and GRANDPA JONES.He on the task of providing water for the horses. recorded hundreds of 78s, often accompanied by the As a young man Dave established his own freight- talented McGee Brothers and fiddler Sid Harkreader, carting business, using teams of mule-drawn wagons. going under the name THE FRUIT JAR DRINKERS (illegal He was an established businessman working mostly moonshine liquor was often dispensed in used fruit between Murfreesboro, in the northeastern part of the jars, hence the name). In the 1940s and early 1950s state, and Woodbury. However, the coming of motor- he was often accompanied by his son, Dorris, in Opry ized trucks began to threaten Macon’s business. In his appearances. Like other early country performers Macon had a repertoire consisting of a mix of traditional songs and dance tunes, sentimental and popular songs of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and his own offbeat adaptations of these songs, along with original compositions. Macon’s presentation of his material showed the influence of years of performing on the tent-show circuit; his recordings often began and ended with a lusty shout of “Hot dog!” Macon’s biting social commentary is illustrated in songs like “In and Around Nashville,” in which he criticizes, among other things, women who chew gum and wear “knee-high” skirts! In the 1950s one of his popular songs, “The Cumberland Mountain Deer Chase,” describing a deer hunt back in the mountains, was transformed by PETE SEEGER into a long story-song for children that he called “The Cum- berland Mountain Bear Hunt.” Select Discography Go Long Mule, County 3505. 1926–1934 recordings, among Macon’s best, with excellent sound quality. Uncle Dave Macon (left) and his son Doris, c. 1944, on the set Travelin’ Down the Road, County/BMG 115. Bluebird of the Grand Ole Opry movie. Photo courtesy Bob Carlin sessions from 1935.

9