$5.

00
MIDDLE TN STATE UN IV

rd County

3082 01501326

stdrical Society
Publication No. 35

Uncle Dave Macon

976
.857

R931p V. 35

1995
Murfreesboro; Tennessee

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in

2010 with funding from

Lyrasis IVIembers

and Sloan Foundation

http://www.archive.org/details/publication35ruth

RUTHERFORD COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY

PUBLICATION NO. 35

Published
by the

Rutherford County Historical Society

OFFICERS
President
Charles L. Nored

Vice President
Recording Secretary Treasurer
Directors

Kirk McCrary
Ed DeBoer

Mary Cox
Robert Walden Ernie Johns William Hall

Publication No. 35 is distributed to members of the Society. The annual membership dues are $15.00 per family, which includes the two regular publications and the monthly Newsletter to all members. Additional copies of this and other publications may be obtained by writing to the Society. A list of publications available is included in this publication.
All correspondence concerning additional copies, contributions to future issues, and membership should be addressed to:
MlSuLiDrary

Rutherford County Historical SocietyMiddle Tennessee Stale UnK/ersity Murfreesboro, Tennessee 37132 P.O. Box 906 Murfreesboro, TN 37133-0906

10-028S7

'J

31^2
i-iwfvt

The Rutherford County Historical Society would

like to express its appreciation to Dr. Charles Wolfe, Professor of English at Middle Tennessee State University, for writing this publication for the Society. The co-author of The Life and Legend of Leadbelly^ Wolfe has also authored ten other books on American music. He has been nominated for three Grammy Awards.

Wolfe received his A.B. degree from Southwest Missouri State College and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Kansas.

The following publications are for sale by;

THE RUTHERFORD COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY P.O. Box 906 Murfreesboro, TN 37133-0906
(All publications are $5.00 + $2.00 postage and handling)

Publication

Rutherford County Marriage Records (1851-1853), Bride Index, Rutherford County Militia Commissions 1807-1811, Rutherford County Offices and Officers (1804-1973), and Union: Murfreesboro s Other University.
'

Publication

2:

Rutherford County Marriage Records (1854-1856), Bride Index (continued), Rutherford County Militia Commissions 1812-1820, Mayors of Murfreesboro, and a History of the Kittrell Community.
Rutherford County Marriage Records (1857-1860), Bride Index, Griffith Rutherford, 1803 Census of Rutherford County, and Rutherford County Militia Records.
History of Readyville, Artists Depict Battle of Stones River, and Census of 1810 and List of Taxpayers not in Census
The Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad (1845-1872), Rutherford County Post Offices and Postmasters, and the Rutherford Rifles.

Publication

3;

Publication

4:

Publication

5:

Publication

6:

A History of the Link Community, History of Lavergne, Fellowship Church and Community, and The Sanders Family.
Hopewell Church, Petition by Cornelius Sanders for Revolutionary War Pension.

Publication Publication

7:

8:

History of Bethel-Leanna Community, the Crowders of Readyville, A view of the Battlefield of Stones River from New York Times (Sept. 2, 1865), Record of Jordan Williford, Revolutionary War Soldier from Records in U.S. Pension Office, Company Roll of Major Hardy Murfree (Sept. 9, 177 8 from the National Archives
)

Publication

9:
10;

History of Dilton Community.

1864 Diary, Peter Jennings, Henderson Yoakum,

Publication

Early Methodist Church, and Overall.

Publication 11

State Capitol, Ben McCullough, Petition of Michael Lorance, Country Store, and Soule College.

Publication 12

History of Smyrna, Sewart Air Force Base, Goochland, Index of Some Actual Wills of Rutherford County, 1802-1882.

Publication 13

Tennessee College, Coleman Scouts, New Monuments in Old City Cemetery, and James Bole's Revolutionary War Pension.

Publication

14;

Murfreesboro Presbyterian Church, Kirks and Montgomerys, Russell Home, John Lytle's and John M. Leak's Revolutionary War Pension.
John W. Childress Home (1847), Whigs in Rutherford County (1835-1845).
Hart, Childress, Miles, Fosterville, Cherry Shade, William Cocke.

Publication Publication Publication

15;

16;

17

Jefferson 1803-1813, Will Abstracts (18031814), Old City Cemetery.

Publication
Publication

18;

Railroad Stations in Rutherford County, Rion Family, Stones River.

Footprints ... at Smyrna, V.A. Medical Center, Manson Family, Jenkin s Homes, Will Abstracts (Record Books 3 & 4), Rutherford County Historical Society, Early News, Sketch from Macon County, Illinois, 1981 in Rutherford County
'

19;

Publication

20;

Roads and Turnpikes of Rutherford County, includes many Rutherford County names.

Publication 21

Jefferson Springs Resort, Lascassas Baptist Church, John Price Buchanan, Will Abstracts, 1836 Tax Records of the 25th District.
Ft. Rosecrans, Big Springs, East Main Church of Christ, Tax Records District 23 & 24 for 1836, 1837, and 1849, Mathias Hoover.

Publication

22;

Publication

23;

Harding House, Milton, County Stores in the Jefferson Area, Will Abstracts Book 7, Tax Record of Districts 15 and 16 (1836, 1837, and
1849)
.

Publication 24:

History of Medicine in Rutherford County.

Publication 25;
Publication 26:

Legends and Stories of the Civil War in Rutherford County.

A Yankee in Rutherford County, Literary Interest Expressed by Women in Rutherford County, Mt. Olivet and Hoovers Gap Methodists, My Years at Linebaugh Library.
History of Central Christian Church, Alfred
Blackitian.

Publication 27:
Publication
28;

Coleman Scouts (Henry B. Shaw, Leader; Sam Davis, Dee Jobe, Williams Roberts, William Manford Street, and others.)
The Churches of Christ in Rutherford County, History of the Salem Methodist Church, and Municipal Officers of the Town of Murfreesboro (1818-1891)

Publication

29:

Publication

30;

History of Rutherford County Farm (including insane asylum and the pest control center). Architecture of Rutherford County Farm.
The Rutherford County Rifles (a group of 150 young men from Rutherford County who volunteered for service in the Confederacy). Includes a list of these men and what happened Article on Violence in Rutherford to them. County.

Publication

31;

Publication

32:

A Researcher s Guide to Rutherford County Records by David Rowe; Jerry Sneak by Homer Pittard (discovered after his death).
'

Publication Publication

33;

Census and Tax Records for First District.

34;

Mattie Ready-John Hunt Morgan Wedding; Dement Family; Two Gallant Leaders at the Battle of Murfreesboro

The following publications are also available through the Society:

History of Medicine in Rutherford County Part II (A collection of Biographies of Physicians Who Practiced in the area during the Nineteenth Century.) Robert G. Ransom, M.D. $16.00 + $2.00 postage
,

Westbrooks, Williams, and Related Smothermans of Rutherford $14.50 + $2.00 postage County

Brothers and Others and Fosterville $21.00 + $2.00 postage (OUT-OF-PRINT)

History of Versailles - OUT OF PRINT

History of Rutherford County by C.C. Sims (pub. 1947) $12.00 + $2.00 postage
History of Rutherford County by Mabel Pittard (pub. 1983) $12.50 + $2.00 postage

A History of Rutherford County Schools, Vol.

section of the County)

I (Northern $12.00 + $2.00 postage

A History of Rutherford County Schools Vol II (Southern section of County, including Murfreesboro) $12.00 + $2.00 postage
,

1840 Rutherford County Census with Index $5.00 + $2.00 postage

Deed Abstracts of Rutherford County, 1803-1810 $5.00 + $2.00 postage Cemetery Records of Rutherford County; Vol. I (Northwestern third of County and part of Wilson and Davidson Counties, 256 cemeteries with index and maps) $10.00 + $2.00 postage
Vol. II (Eastern third of County, cemeteries with index and $10.00 + $2.00 postage maps)
Vol. Ill (Southwestern third of Rutherford County and the western part of Cannon County, 241 cemeteries with index $10.00 + $2.00 postage and maps)

The History of Rutherford County by John C. Spence

The History of Rutherford County by John C. Spence

Vol. I, 1799-1828 $25.00 + $2.00 postage

Vol II, 1829-1870 $25.00 + $2.00 postage

A Civil War Diary by John

C.

Spence $25.00 + $2.00 postage

The Pictorial History of Rutherford County by Mabel Pittard OUT OF PRINT

Map of 1878 Rutherford County (shows land owners) $3.50 + $2.00 postage

Available from Mrs. R.A. Ragland, P.O. Box 544, Murfreesboro, TN 37133-0544 Marriage Records of Rutherford County $10.00 + $2.00 postage

UNCLE DAVE MACON

by

Charles Wolfe

There was in those days a big old two-story house out on

the Woodbury Pike near Murf reesboro,

Tennessee,

in the dusty

little community called Kittrell.

there

Everybody knew who lived

it was hard not to.

Across the top of the long front

porch was a sign that said UNCLE DAVE MACON, and to the right
was a big wooden picture of a genial older man holding a banjo
and grinning a big gold-tooth smile.
"I

want people to be able

"

to find me in case they want me to come and play for them,

the

owner of the house explained to the curious

Back

in

the

1930 's,

people were having little trouble

Churches came to him to see if he

finding Uncle Dave Macon.

would help them raise money; auctioneers came to him to get him
to play for country sales to attract bidders; vaudeville bookers

came with offers

Florida;

to play

tours that ranged from Boston to

schoolhouse superintendents came to him asking for a

show to help buy books in Depression-racked rural districts.

Even the bank of nearby Woodbury came to him when they finished
building the new bank and had to transfer all the money from the
old one:

could they hire Uncle Dave to sit on top of the wagon

with the money chests and play his banjo during the move?
Surely no desperado would dare try to rob a wagon that had Uncle
Dave Macon sitting on top of it.

People all over middle Tennessee knew David Harrison Macon

and were used to seeing him at local schools and on the little

courthouse squares.

He was the one with the chin whiskers, the

red suspenders, the gold watch and chain, and what Judge Hay at the Grand Ole Opry called "that million dollar Tennessee smile."
He was the one with the hat that bore the hat band slogan OLD

BUT REGULAR,

that twirled his banjo like it was a baton and

fanned it with his hat, and that refused to drive a car because

they weren't as dependable as mules.

But he was also the one

that was heard every Saturday night on the Grand Ole Opry, and

that was

featured on dozens of Victrola records put out by

Vocal ion, Brunswick, RCA, Okeh, Champion, and Montgomery Ward.

He was the one who was country's first real superstar, winning a

national reputation years before Jimmie Rodgers or The Carter

Family ever stepped into a studio.
For years he was the most
a

popular single performer on the Opry,

grand old man whose

He was the first
As one of his

humor and personality won him fans everywhere.

artist to make style a part of country music.

fans said,

"He may not have been the best banjo player or the
!

best singer, but he sure as heck was the best something

David Harrison Macon had roots running deep into Tennessee

history.

He as born October

7,

1870, in the community of Smartt

"I

Station in Warren County; in Uncle Dave's own words,

was born

near the beautiful mountain town of McMinnville.

"

His father
in

was Captain John Macon, born in Warrenton, North Carolina,

1829,

and a Civil War veteran.

His

mother was Martha Ann

The

Ramsey, a native of Viola in Warren County, born in 1838.

1870 census for the 9th Civil District shows David Harrison was

the ninth child born to the family.

The oldest was a daughter

1857),

Lou

(born 1856),

followed by Vanderbilt (b.

1860), George (b. ca.
ca.

Betty (b.
1863),

1858),

Samuel (b.
(b.

1862), John (b.

and Sallie C.

1867).

After David Harrison would come

1875)

two younger children. Bob (b.

Some of these siblings

and Pearl

(b.

ca.

1879).

especially Lou and Bob

would play

important roles in Uncle Dave's later career.

Captain John Macon was a well-known and popular figure in

Warren County.
His own father was a Henry Harrison Macon, who

in turn was descended from a Revolutionary War hero.

Colonel
a

John

Macon,

and

from his

uncle,

Nathaniel Macon,

North

Carolina Congressman and one-time Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Sometime prior to 1830 Henry Harrison Macon

settled in Warren County, on Hickory Creek, on a plot of some

600

acres.

Before his death in 1851,

Henry Harrison Macon

expanded

his

holdings

by

over

2,000

more

acres,

and

had

established a distillery, as well as a saw mill, grist mill, and

cotton gin.

By 1850, the year before Henry Harrison died, his

son John shows up in the census records as a student at Irving

College, one of 55 students in that local institution.

By the

time of his father's death,

John found himself inheriting a

Most of these he

considerable amount of business and property.

administered with his younger brother, Joseph K.

The Macon family Bible indicates that John married Martha

Ann Ramsey on December

2,

1855,

in Warren County.

The young

couple soon built a handsome house in McMinnville, and the Macon

Brothers

soon

bought

grocery

store,

tin

shop,

and

mercantile business downtown.

Martha's

All this,

as well as John and

growing family,

was

interrupted in 1861,
.

with the

outbreak of the War Between the States

Both Macon brothers

closed their stores and joined the 35th Tennessee Infantry

Regiment,

sometimes called the First Tennessee Mountain Rifle

John Macon

Regiment, commanded by Colonel Benjamin J. Hill.

helped to organize the 2nd Company D; it along with some nine others was mustered in at Camp Smartt,
September
6

near McMinnville,

on

and

During the early days of the war, the regiment moved from

Trousdale County to Bowling Green and finally to Shiloh, where

they joined in one of the bloodiest battles of the conflict.
Here the brigade the 35th was in suffered over 1,000 killed or

wounded

over

third of

its

roster.

Reorganized,

the

regiment fought in the northern Mississippi campaign, as well as

at Perryville and at the Battle of Murfreesboro. of

The exact fate

"Captain Macon's company" during the balance of the war is

not clear; his regiment was reorganized and merged with others

throughout the conflict,

Greensboro, NC, on May
1,

until
1865.

their eventual

dismissal at

Nor are there any clear records

to indicate exactly when Captain John returned home; he bought out his brother's share in the family businesses in 1862,

and

there is a record of the marriage of Joseph in 1865.

We do know

that by 1867 Captain John had reopened his store with a new
partner.

The world young David Macon was born into in 187

was the

grim world of the Reconstruction South.

In Warren County, crops

lay fallow, buildings were in disrepair, and money was in short

supply.

Still,

two generations of Macon prosperity gave the

family at least some sort of cushion, and the year young David

was born,

his

father was still relatively prosperous.

The

census records gave his real estate value that year as $2000,
his "personal value" estimated at $4000

over six times the

The Macon

average per capita income in the state at that time.

household

also

included

three

live-in

employees,

two

housekeepers and a "male farm laborer."

Though the Macon family

was

large,

it

was well provided for;

young David was

soon

attending school in town,

music from the region.

and listening to some of the folk

His

sister Lou was an accomplished

pianist, and often bought the latest sheet music to try out in
the family parlor.

Through her, David picked up rudiments of

singing and a knowledge of songs.

The young boy was soon playing the guitar -- he had not
been introduced to the banjo yet

and picking up songs.

Many

years later, when he was asked if he remembered the first song

he learned, he smiled, nodded, and proceeded to sing it.
a comic piece called "Greenback."

It was

If

had a scoldin' wife,

tell you what I'd do.

Run my finger down her throat, gag her with my

thumb,

Hi yo, that greenback, greenback, hi yo today.

Hi yo, that greenback, they're done courtin' me.

Once

had a brand new overcoat and

hung it on

the wall,

Someone stole the overcoat, and whoa, mule, whoa!

Hi yo, that greenback, greenback, hi yo today,

Hi yo, that greenback, they're done courtin' me.

You may ride the old grey horse,

will ride the roan.

You may court your own true love, leave my wife alone.
Hi yo, that greenback, greenback, hi yo today.

Hi yo, that greenback, they're done courtin' me.

During Reconstruction, of course, one of the bones of contention

between southerners and the national government was the issue of

paper money,

or

"greenbacks."

There was even an independent

"Greenback Party" which ran on the platform in 1876 that paper

money should be the only currency.
In the meantime,

things were not going well for Captain

John.

The so-called Panic of 1873 delayed what recovery was

underway in the region, and by 187 7 he was starting to sell off

some of the Macon property.
By early 1884 he had decided that

times were so hard up country that the best chance for him and
his young family would be to do what many of his friends were
doing:

head for the cities.

In December 1883 he sold his house

in McMinnville,

along with the original 600 acre tract that

In

Henry Harrison Macon had originally settled 40 years before.

early 1884 he packed up his family

at least those that were

still living at home

and started down off the Cumberland rim

down to Nashville, 60 miles to the west.

With them came the two

youngest children, Bob and Pearl, as well as 13-year-old David,

young Martha, young John, Samuel, and Eugene.
and Bettie had each found husbands
By this time Lou

Captain John and Martha had decided to enter the hotel

business,

and settled in at the Broadway House hotel,

at 166

Broadway in Nashville
Cafe.

near the current site of the Hard Rock

For reasons unclear, the hotel was in Martha's name (M.A.

Macon and Company), though Captain John was a very visible part
of the scene. In the 1880 's Nashville had a rich vaudeville and

theater scene, and many of the touring performers liked to stay

at the Broadway House.

One reason was that the building had a the acts

--

large,

open

basement where

which ranged

from

jugglers to animal acts

could rehearse.

Young David, who

after school began to clerk at the hotel, was fascinated with

the old vaudeville style and spirit of

the performers,

and

watched with great attention as they rehearsed not only their

music and songs, but their jokes, their slapstick tricks, and
their comedy lines.
a

It was an age of showmanship, when how well

performer sold himself to an audience could make or break his

Style became more important than substance -- a lesson

act.

young David Macon was learning well.

The

13-year-old

boy

was

also

fascinated

with

his

schoolwork.

Many years later he would write that he "attended

He continued:

the old Hume Fogg high school in the city."

It was in this first school in that city

that my beloved teacher Miss Julia Burton aroused

in me an ambition to be neat, to learn my lessons

well, and above all be careful with my writing.

And though to this day

am past 62 years old

never write a letter but what her dear face filled

with tender instructions comes up before me urging

me to do my best.
I

do not know if she is still

living or has seen How Beautiful Heaven Must Be.

But let that be as it is, I'm hoping to meet her
some sweet day and thank her face to face for her

good influences that have followed me through life.

Throughout his life. Uncle Dave's penmanship was graceful and

distinctive,

and his

letters have a

19th century charm and

formality that impressed almost everyone who got them.

In

the fall of

1885

circus pitched camp in downtown

Nashville, in an open field that was then at the corner of 8th

and Broadway.

Run by a man named Sam McFlinn,

it

featured,

among other acts, the comedy and banjo playing of Joel Davidson.

Davidson was apparently a native of Davidson County,

and the
a

Nashville city directories

"comedian"
Street.

for

1884

and

1886

list him as

who lived at the corner of Lee Avenue and High

Little other information has been discovered about

but Uncle Dave recalled that
at

Davidson,

the

time he was

"noted" as a banjoist and comedian.

Whatever the case, Davidson

became the single most important influence on young Dave.

was he, Macon wrote,

It

"who proved to be the spirit that touched

the mainspring of the talent that inspired Uncle Dave to make

his wishes known to his dear old mother and she gave him the

money to purchase his first banjo."

(A famous

photo of the

young man proudly holding this banjo has often been published in

various stories about Macon and was used by the artist himself
in one of his own songbooks.)

We do not know if Macon knew

Davidson personally, or just watched him on stage; one of his

later trick banjo-twirling numbers called "Uncle Dave Handles a

Banjo Like an Elephant Handles a Peanut" apparently came from

Davidson.

By 1886,

the year he turned sixteen,

David Harrison was

working part time as a clerk at the Broadway House.

Living

there with him were his parents, John and Martha, as well as his

younger brother Bob, and his older brothers John and Samuel.

Another brother,
Market Street.

Eugene L.,

operated

livery stable up on

John and Samuel also operated a distillery (and

were officially described as "cider and vinegar manufacturers")

on south Front Street

a detail that

would play a key role in

the events that would soon occur.

That fall would see one of

the most colorful and bitter political campaigns in Tennessee

history,

the

"War of the Roses"

between the fiddling Taylor

Brothers, Alf and Bob.

But for the Macon family, the stage was

being set for a much more personal and dramatic tragedy.

Late in the afternoon of October 14, 1886, the Macon family

was lounging around the door to the Broadway House when a man

10

passed by that all of them instantly recognized.

J.C. Fowler,
a

He was one

former resident of Warren County who was also a

United States

Internal Revenue Deputy Collector.

For

some

fifteen years, bad blood had existed between Captain John and
Fowler; back in Warren County, Fowler had been responsible for

inspecting the distillery that Captain John ran,

and he had

written him up for numerous violations.

that these were trumped-up charges,

Captain John argued

and that

Fowler had a

vendetta against

him and

his

family.

Apparently Fowler's

superiors agreed, for they had reassigned all inspections of the

Macon distillery to other agents.

Now both Fowler and the

Macons found themselves working in Nashville, and Fowler was

starting to find violations in the distillery run by the Macon
sons John and Samuel.

According to later trial testimony, on this evening,

as

Fowler passed in front of the hotel, one of the brothers made

some sarcastic comment to him.

Words followed; Captain John

overheard
argument.

from his

position as

desk

clerk

and

joined

the

One thing led to another, and soon he and Fowler were

scuffling on the sidewalk.

Fowler had in his hand a penknife he

was whittling with, and he abruptly stabbed Captain John under

the forearm.

At first, the cut appeared to be superficial, and

the son took Captain John to the hospital.

Once there, though,

they soon found that the knife had cut a major artery, and that

Captain John was losing blood fast.

Shock set in, and the next

morning. Captain John Macon, late of the Confederacy, aged 57,

was dead.

11

The Macon boys were horrified, and swore to bring Fowler to

justice.

Several, including young David Harrison, had actually

On

witnessed the attack, and were more than willing to testify.

October 19, the Grand Jury indicted Fowler for murder, and plans

were set for the trial.

Fowler, who apparently was well off,

got three attorneys to defend him,

and succeeded in getting a

series of continuances through the fall of 1886 and into the

spring of 1887.

Apparently the defense thought the Macons would

eventually tire of waiting and move out of Nashville, but they

stubbornly hung on, with Martha continuing to run the Broadway
House, Sam and John to run their cider and vinegar company, and

Eugene La Vanderbilt to run his livery stable.

Finally, on May 24,

1887,

the trial started.

It lasted

three days, and dwelt extensively on the bad blood between Macon

and Fowler.

There was also testimony about the wound Captain

John suffered, and how it would not normally have been fatal,
but due to the Captain's "advanced years" and "feeble health,"
the loss of blood was fatal.

On the 28th of May, with the Macon

clan watching in the courtroom,

decision of not guilty.
It was
a

the

jury came back with

bitter blow to the Macons,

but especially to

Martha.

Within weeks she had decided to leave Nashville and

She chose not to return to Warren

return to the countryside.

County,

but

to

go

to

Readyville,

about

halfway

between

Murfreesboro and McMinnville.

the

There she took the proceeds from

Broadway

House

and

bought

the

old

Ready

Home

("The

Corners"), a big three-story structure that literally stood on

12

the county line dividing Rutherford and Cannon Counties.

In

recent years,

the house had been used as a stopover for the

local stagecoach line, as well as an inn, and Mrs. Macon planned

on continuing to use it that way.

In a sense,

she was trading

one hotel for another.

Mrs. Macon moved to Readyville in the latter half of 1887,

but it is not clear how many of the boys moved with her. two youngest children.

The

Bob and Pearl, were only fifteen and

thirteen respectively, so they were certainly there, but Dave

was seventeen and might have been out on his own for a time.
1889 we have him living at Hermitage,
In

Tennessee,

courting a
station.

young

woman

that

he

thought

somewhat

above

his

Sometime after that, and with the courtship abandoned, he did

return to Readyville.

Here he worked for his mother tending to

In his spare time,

the horses from arriving stagecoaches.

he

continued to sing and play the banjo, taking what he had learned

from the

professional entertainers

in

the basement

of

the

Broadway House and adding to it the older folk traditions of

rural middle Tennessee.

He was especially interested in African-American music in the region.

During the late 1800

's,

there was a considerable

black population in the rural counties to the west and south of

Nashville;

many former slaves had come up to the area from

and some parts
of

Mississippi after Emancipation,

showed as much as
25%

the area

black residence in the

1910

census.

Though

black

fold

music

would

later

be

associated

with

spirituals and blues, the older forms of it featured fiddle and

13

banjo music, and young Dave Macon was fascinated with the odd
tunings and different picking styles he saw local blacks using.

One of his close friends was a black man named Tom Davis, who

worked for years at the Readyville mill,

and who supposedly

"Keep

taught him what would become one of his most famous songs,
My Skillet Good and Greasy."

By

the

1890

's

young

Dave

had

hit

upon

the

idea

of

entertaining the passengers

arriving by stagecoach,

and he

constructed a little platform on top of a barn where he could do

impromptu shows.

Though he received nothing but an occasional

tip and some polite applause, he found he enjoyed making music

though he had no real hope to ever be able to do it for a

His marketable skill seemed to be with horse and mule
"he was a mule man," recalled his son Archie.

living.

teams

He was

learning how to care for, drive, and harness up teams, and he

had little doubt that his future lay in the farmland of middle
Tennessee.

14

II

By 1899 David Macon had grown into a handsome young man

with the dark, brooding Macon eyes and a neat Van Dyke beard,
fond of dressing well,

not a bit shy about meeting strangers.

By now he was some 29 years old,

and friends and family were

wondering if he was ever going to marry.

They were relieved

when he met and began courting a girl named Matilda Richardson,

a

native of nearby Kittrell and seven years David's junior.

She

was the daughter of a well-to-do farmer, Patrick Henry Richardson,

and his wife Mary Bowling Richardson.

She was not especially

musical, and didn't share David's enthusiasm for banjo picking,

but she was charmed by the Macon style; when he proposed to her,
she accepted.

The wedding was held on November 28,

1899,

in

Kittrell - probably in the nearby Methodist church.

The young couple settled in Kittrell, in a house facing the

Woodbury Pike, and began working the sizable tract of land that
Matilda received as her dowry.
By May 1901 their first child,

Archie Emery Jesse Macon, was born.

few years:

Others followed within a

,

John Henry David Macon (June 1903)

Harry Richardson

Macon (September 1906), Glenn Samuel Macon (June 1908), Dorris

Vanderbilt Macon (July 1910), Esten Gray Macon (February 1913),

and Paul

Franklin

(May

1919)

(Uncle Dave would later make

.

jokes to his friends about "He-Kittrell

To

"

help

feed his growing

family,

Uncle Dave organized,

about 1900,

the Macon Midway Mule and Transportation Company.

15

The plan was to haul freight between Murf reesboro, in Rutherford

County, and Woodbury, to the east in Cannon County.

This was

necessary because Woodbury didn't have

railroad, and the only

way to get goods in or out was by wagon.

Since the Kittrell

farm was about half way between the two towns, it was decided to

make that the layover point;

one day's drive would be from

Murf reesboro to Kittrell, the team and driver would rest there,

and the second day's drive would be over the hilly,

roads into Woodbury.

winding

"We hauled everything," recalled his son

Archie,

who later helped him on the route.

"Flour,

nails,

barbed wire, piece goods, horse shoes, medicine

can think of.

anything you

We hauled something that paid good in those days,

and still does

Jack Daniel No.

7.

We hauled it to Woodbury

for 25 cents a gallon

that is, what they didn't make at

Woodbury!"

Uncle Dave soon hired a friend and neighbor, Hatton

Sanford, to be general manager for the company, and using what

he later called "four good mules and a Mitchell wagon," he got

the business into high gear.

But the newly minted teamster couldn't quite keep his

interest in music down.
As he drove along, people on the route

could hear him singing, and whenever any little boy on the road
got hold of an old banjo, he would be standing at the side of the road to show it to Uncle Dave. old folk songs from the area He had picked up dozens of

in

ones like "Sail Away Ladies" and

"Whoa

Mule"

and

"Rabbit

the

Pea

Patch,"

and

he

still

remembered some of the favorites he had heard in Nashville, such

as

the stage song

"Over the Mountain"

and the old riverboat

16

roustabout song

"Rock About My Saro Jane."

But now he was

beginning to write his own songs, and to customize some of his

old ones.

People liked to hear about local topics, and about

current events, and about people they knew -- a lesson that he

would remember

for

years.

And then,

in

1902,

Uncle Dave

suddenly found himself right smack in the middle of a major

news-making event.

On

March

28,

1902,

the

Nashville Banner
weather;
one

carried two
heavy

innocent

articles

about

the

described

rainfall that had hit Alabama; the other predicted "continued

rain"
in

the middle Tennessee

area.
it

That Thursday night,

though,

and the following Friday,

began raining hard in

"The heaviest fall of

Rutherford County and middle Tennessee.

rain ever known here
Banner.
"Every
fell
in

here,"
the

said one dispatch to the

and

bridge

county was washed away

Murfreesboro is cut off from the outside world.

lines in many directions are burned out, impossible to get complete information."

The telephone

and it is therefore

Nor was there any work

from nearby Woodbury,

well.

since the phone lines were out there as

Throughout the weekend there were attempts made to get

word from Woodbury; a wagon driver who tried to cross one of the
flooded streams to get to the town was swept away and severely
injured.

When communication was eventually restored, people

learned that an entire "Negro church" was washed away, as well

as a number of cabins near Rush Creek.

When the water finally went down. Uncle Dave and Hatton
Sanford were among the first to get into Woodbury.
Uncle Dave

17

later remembered:

"When we at last reached the city limits of

Woodbury, to find the first face to greet us was none other than

the old familiar face of Bob Vernon, a noted musician, chimney

builder, gardener, and general flunky.
'Well,

Our first question was,

He replied,
"Boss,

Bob,

how did the flood serve you?'

all I've got is gone.'"

The phrase and the situation struck

first

Uncle Dave,

and he soon had turned it into one of his

"All I've Got is Gone."

original songs:

Well,

am going to sing you a brand new song.

She's a dandy as sure as you are born.

Everything just running in rhymes.

Of matters and things concerning these times.

For all I've got is gone, all I've got is gone.

A whole lot of people had acted fools.

Went along here and bought a lot of mules.

Cotton was high, but now it is down.

You can't jump a mule man in your town.

For all I've got is gone, all I've got is gone.

went to the bank to borrow some money.

I

Tell you right now,

The banker said,
'I

didn't find it funny,

have none to loan.

Get your old hat and pull out home.

For all we've got is gone, for all we've got is gone.

Uncle Dave would sing this song often at local events and on his

Mitchell wagon, and would even record it at his first recording

session years later.
first "hit."
It would,

in a very real sense, become his

In November 1906 Uncle Dave's mother, Martha Ramsey, died,

leaving her old house in Readyville to her son Vanderbilt.

Other changes soon followed.
Two of the Macon brothers, Emory

John and Bob, had moved to Oklahoma, and it was there that Emory

John died in 1908, under somewhat tragic circumstances.

He was

single, and left most of his estate to his brother Bob; however,
a

handsome bequest came to Uncle Dave as well, providing even

more capital for his farm and freight business.

It was about this time, however, that David Harrison began

to suffer from emotional problems that would bother him for the

rest of his life.

He started having fits of depression,

and

would go

into

states

that would

sometimes

last

for

days.

Sometimes these states would involve drinking,

times they simply came on of their own.

but at other

Miss Mary Hall, whose

father was

for many years

the Macon physician,

recalls her

father coming home one night after a house call and saying,
"Well,

Dave's going down again.

He's just sitting there, not

Sid Harkreader, who would

talking,

just staring into space."

later be his partners, recalls:

"There would be nights when he

19

wouldn't sleep at all.

One time he told me,
come.'"

He'd just sit in the dark and stare.

I

'There's times

wish morning would never

He was hospitalized several times for the condition;

even before his mother died in 1906 she sent Bob with him to
Bolivar, to the state psychiatric hospital there.

And in 1913

the family sent him to the old Central Hospital near Nashville,
for a stay that lasted from February 10 to May 10 -- some 13

weeks.
born.)

(This started only four days after his son Eston was
It is hard to say exactly what his condition was, but it

sounds like what a modern therapist might call manic depression.

Whatever it was, it seems to have been a deeply rooted condition

that had been with him long before he began performing

public.

in

By the end of World War

I,

about 1918, The Macon Midway

facing a new challenge.

Mule and Transportation Company was

Competing lines were starting up, using the new-fangled gasoline

powered trucks to carry freight.

Scime,

Friends urged Macon to do the

but he wouldn't hear of it; he had always been suspicious

of automobiles,

and had never even learned to drive one.

(To

the end of his life, he refused to drive one, though he got to

where he saw the need to travel in them.

time that he also wrote a song,
his freight line.

It was

about this

"From Earth to Heaven," about

The chorus ran:

Been wagonning for over twenty years.

And a-living on the farm.

20

I'll bet a hundred dollars to a half a ginger cake,

I'll be here when the trucks is gone.

The last two stanzas compared the truck system to the mules:

An auto truck has a guiding wheel.

While

hold my line.

Oh, when my feet and body get cold,

I'm a-walking half the time.

I

speak right to my power.

They understand my talk.

And when

holler,

'Way, get a-right!

They know just how to walk.

Says an auto truck runs quick and fast.

The wagon hasn't the speed. Four good mules and a Mitchell wagon.
Is the safest, oh yes indeed.

I'm on my way to Heaven Well, gonna tell you just how

I

feel,

I'd rather ride in a wagon and go to Heaven,

Than to hell in an automobile.

But the writing was on the wall, and it was only a matter
of time before the gasoline trucks took over, and the mule power

was a thing reserved only for parades and special occasions.

And while Uncle Dave was comfortably fixed on his farm, he was

21

fifty years old,

public eye.

and he was used to working and being in the

Most of his boys were still at home, and with farm

's,

prices what they were in the 1920

his son Eston later explained it,

he began casting about.

As

"You know the old saying. When

life gives you a lemon, make lemonade.

did.

That's what my father

When his freight line was put out of business, he turned

to music.

In the summer of 1920,

shortly after he quit his freight

In
a

line,

Macon visited

nephew in the Arkansas Ozarks.

letter he wrote in 1933, he admitted that it was here, for the

first

time,

that

he

"gave

himself

almost

entirely

to

his

favorite past time, that of playing and singing on his banjo."

He was staying at a hotel, and the other tourists there totally

enjoyed the informal playing he did.

impressed him; he came to him and said,
saved my life.
I

One man in particular

"Uncle Dave, you have
I

was so blue and down and out

did not care to

life [sic] any longer.

But by seeing you at your age act out as

well as playing and singing... my spirits just rose and refreshed

my whole soul and body and has given me hope to go on with

life's duties."
like to be
testimony.

For someone who knew first hand what it was

this was
an impressive

"blue and down and out,"

It was also food for thought

music might not only

be profitable, but also therapeutic.

22

III

During the early 1920

's,

then. Uncle Dave Macon, at an age

a

when most men were getting ready to retire, embarked on

second

career.

There are

number of different stories about his

Some say that he

"first" performance,

and how it came about.

began by hiring out to local auctioneers to play for their sales

and attract crowds.

Others say a wealthy local farmer asked him

how much he would take to play for a party; miffed at the man's

arrogance and hoping to insult him. Uncle Dave named what he

thought was a ridiculous price.
accepted.

To his surprise,
I

the farmer ever played

"the

Uncle Dave himself said "the first time

and sang in public" was in 1921, at Morrison, Tennessee;

Methodist Church there needed a new door.

gave a show, then

passed the hat and collected the money, $17."

has

Another account

him playing for a Shriner's convention in Nashville, and

yet another playing for a sales meeting of the popular Sterchi

Brothers furniture chain.

A story told by Macon's long-time

partner Sid Harkreader describes Uncle Dave showing off for some
of

the patrons at Melton's barber shop in Nashville when an

'

agent for the Loew

theater chain saw him and exclaimed,

"I

think it's the greatest thing that ever was!"

About 1923, Uncle Dave decided he needed a partner in his

new endeavor.
He first hoped to interest one of his boys in it;
as
a

Glenn was

emerging
and
he

truly
in

talented

banjo
15

player

and

guitarist,

was

1923

about

years

old.

Unfortunately, he was painfully shy,

and could not be coaxed

23

into playing in public; to the end of his life, he remained a

"kitchen musician"

albeit a superb one.

The oldest son,

Archie, had a fine singing voice, but was establishing his own

career as a blacksmith.

A third son, Dorris, who would later

join his father on stage, was still too young and inexperienced.

Thus

Uncle Dave

turned to a young man

from

near Lebanon,

Tennessee, Sid Harkreader.

Sid was a tall, gangling youth who

was skilled on the fiddle and guitar,

singer.

and who was a capable

Furthermore,

Sid was ambitious;

though what people

would eventually call country music was still in its infancy,

Sid really planned on making a living at it.
In order to do

this, he knew he had to give the people what they wanted, and to

promote himself and his music.

He sensed the immense appeal of

Uncle Dave Macon, and was willing to apprentice himself to the older singer.
A deal was struck, part of which was that Uncle

Dave would furnish the car, and Sid would drive it.
In

1923,

Fiddlin'

John Carson,

millhand from north

Georgia, made the first Victrola record on which country music

was sung.
It was a hit,

and within months all the major record

companies were falling over themselves to find their own "hill

country" musicians.
By the summer of 1924, the Sterchi Brothers

furniture chain, popular throughout Tennessee, had become the

southern distributors for Vocalion records, one of the nation's

leading

companies.

The

chain's

Knoxville

manager,

Gus

Nennesteil, began looking around for local Tennessee performers

that might be suitable for Vocalion.
At a meeting at the Reed

House

in

Chattanooga,

he had heard Uncle Dave

and Sid and

24

decided they fit the bill.

He persuaded the Furniture Company

to pay the expenses for Uncle Dave and Sid to travel to New York

City to put some of their songs on record.

It was quite a trip.

Asked to keep track of his expenses.

Uncle Dave carried a little notebook and pencil and dutifully

wrote down everything.
When he was charged New York rates for a
"Robbed in barber shop

shave and a haircut, he wrote down:

$7.50."

When he was walking down the street to the studio,

carrying his banjo without even a case, he was accosted by a

gang of rough and tumble East end kids.
"Where you from, old
"Lot of darn
"Yes,"

man?"

they said.

"Tennessee," was the reply.

fools come from Tennessee, don't they?" another said.

said Uncle Dave,

here."

"but they don't run in packs like they do up

On the way home. Uncle Dave found some new friends, and,

having a good time with them, mistakenly got off the train in
Richmond, Virginia, leaving Sid to go on to Tennessee.
The next

day he finally got straggled in, not quite clear just what had

happened.

"You know,

hope

didn't insult anybody," he said.

"If it had been too bad,

"Don't worry. Uncle Dave," Sid said.

they would have arrested you."

They had done good work, though. Dave had recorded his first records.

On July

8,

1924, Uncle

The very first song he

committed to wax was "Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy," followed

by
"Hill

Billie Blues."

Both were among his most popular

pieces;

"Hill Billie Blues" was the first song to use the term

"hillbilly," what was

later applied for years to the entire

Others from that very first

genre of music we now call country.

25

session were his flood song, "All

Got Is Gone," a comedy song

about a burglar who hides under the bed called "The Old Maid's
Last Hope," and an imitation song called "The Fox Chase."
For

the next three days, Uncle Dave and Sid continued to play and
sing,

eventually running up a total of fourteen sides.

The

first song to actually be released by the company was another of

the Macon favorites:

"Chewing Gum."

Thus, about 1920, the year Uncle Dave turned fifty, things

began to change.

Trucks came on the scene, and a rival company

began to use them to take away much of the Macon freight hauling

business.

He

began to think about a trip he had made to

Arkansas in 1920, where he had entertained alm.ost constantly

with his banjo, and about how well his listeners had responded.

Then one day at Melton's Barber Shop in Nashville,

he was

showing off and dancing around his banjo when he attracted the
attention of a talent buyer for the Loew's Theater chain.
"I've

never seen anything like that," the buyer said.

sensation on stage."

"You'll be a

He was.

In January

1925

the Loews

people sent him to

Birmingham for his debut.

With him were two

leal

boys,

Sid

Harkreader (a fiddler and guitarist) and Dancing Bob Bradford (a

tap dancer and old-time flat foot buck dancer).

"Uncle Dave

Macon and his

marquee.

sons.

Direct from Billy Goat Hill"

read the
a

Uncle Dave was pulled on stage riding on

wagon

pulled by a goat, wearing a big straw hat, playing a little

dmffwi

M
\

1
'

'

m a ^Hl

Stt^^^ ffifi ::||

K!
:

_jiBi

'

iy

U= 'i

\^

MHj

tH^

26

open-back banjo.

What followed must have resembled a cross

;

between Hee Haw and The Beverly Hillbillies

dancing,

there were jokes,

rube stories, and songs like "Bully of the Town" and

"Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy" and one Macon had just written

called "Hill Billie Blues."

The good citizens of Birmingham

couldn't get enough; a two week run turned into three weeks,
then four, then five.
So many customers tried to get in that

the manager let people stand up against the back wall of the

theater and was arrested by the Fire Marshall for overcrowding.

By the time Uncle Dave moved on to similar runs in Memphis and

Nashville, he was the sensation of the season.

the larger Loews'

Soon he was on

circuit, doing shows in Boston, Florida, and

points in between.

Thus by the time George D. Hay decided to start a WSM Barn

Dance in December 1925, Uncle Dave was by far the best-known

entertainer in the area.

He was the only one of Hay's crop of

early Opry musicians

who had really

had

any

professional

experience; it was not surprising that when Hay made the formal

announcement about starting what would be the first scheduled

Opry show, on December 28,
1925,

the two featured stars were

old-time fiddler Uncle Jimmy Thompson and Uncle Dave Macon.

Ironically, during these early years (from 1925 to 1929), Macon

was not on the show all that much; much of the time he was on

tour or off making records.

He soon found he could make more

a

money by doing his own booking and setting up

series

of

"schoolhouse" shows around the South; he would choose a country

27

school, do a deal with the principal to split the proceeds, put

up window cards, do a free show at recess for the kids so they

would run home and tell their folks.

The results worked, and

even after the Opry started its own booking agency and began to

put Uncle Dave on package tours,

personal booking.

he still continued his own

Through the
record,

1920

's

and

1930

's

Uncle Dave continued to

Often his partners

for just about every major label.

were Sam and Kirk McGee, ace instrumentalists and singers from
nearby Franklin.
For one session he organized a group called

The Dixie Sacred Singers,

and recorded early hit versions of

"Maple on the Hill" and "Heavenly Sunlight."

Starting in 1935,
the definitive

he began working with The Delmore Brothers,

country harmony team, and recorded with them several wonderful

sides for RCA's Bluebird label:
"Over the Mountain," "One More

River to Cross," "From Jerusalem to Jericho."

his

Toward the end,

favorite partner in the studio was Smoky Mountain Glenn

Stagner, when whom he recorded "Wait Til the Clouds Roll By."

Though he often appeared (after 1930) with his son Dorris on

tours and on the Opry,
records with his son.
he never made any

issued commercial

There were no Top Ten charts in those

early days, but Uncle Dave's big hits included "Way Down the Old Plank Road" (1926),
"The Death of John Henry"
(1926),

"Rockabout

My Saro Jane"

(1927),

"Sail Away, Ladies"

(1927),

"Buddy Won't

You Roll Down the Line" (1928), and the story of his own career,
"From Earth to Heaven"
(1928).

Two of his best-remembered songs

28

from

the

radio were

"How

Beautiful

Heaven

Must

Be"

(his

unofficial theme song) and "Eleven Cent Cotton, Forty Cent Meat"
(one of his numerous protest songs).

The young Turks on the Opry usually got assigned to Uncle

Dave on tours; Judge Hay felt Uncle Dave could draw the crowds,
and that he could teach the youngsters about showmanship.

Those

who learned included The Delmore Brothers,

young Roy Acuff, a

younger Minnie Pearl, a youthful Bill Monroe, and the colorful

Curly Fox.
In 1940,
'

it was Uncle Dave and Roy Acuff who were

s

the stars of the Opry

first foray into Hollywood, the Republic

film Grand Ole Opry

though Uncle Dave's name was listed above

In 1939, when the Prince Albert portion

Acuff

's

in the credits.

of the Opry went on the NBC network

for nationwide hearing.

In 1946,

Uncle Dave became a regular member of that half hour.

when the BBC came over to record country music to introduce the
Opry to England, Uncle Dave was one of the first choices.
in

And

1950,

when Governor Gordon Browning came on-stage for a

'

special edition celebrating the Opry

25th anniversary. Uncle

Dave was on hand to sing "Chewing Gum."

By now he was being

recognized as one of the founders of the Opry, and one of its

most important links with its past.
Still,
for a man of his age.

Uncle Dave took to change

amazingly well.

As early as 1933 he told Judge Hay that he was

looking forward to being on television

and got his wish

shortly after WSM's television station went on the air in 1950.

He enjoyed the revolutionary banjo playing of bluegrass great

29

Earl Scruggs in the late 1940

'

-- though he once came to him

and said,

"Ernest

[for some reason he always called Scruggs

Ernest], you're a fine banjo player, but you ain't a bit funny."

He took as

his

protege a long,

lean droll-faced young Opry

member named David "Stringbean" Akeman, teaching him his style

and his songs and eventually willing him one of his own banjos.

(Stringbean did preserve the tradition, eventually carrying the

music to the Opry and to Hee Haw before his own tragic murder.)
Once Uncle Dave came up to Earl Scruggs and Stringbean and said,
"Boys, we're the only three banjo players on the Opry now.

We

can really make ourselves some money if we were to go on tour

together, and form the world's first Banjo Trio."

Scruggs and

Stringbean just stared at him.

By now Uncle Dave was nearing 80, and was slowing down on

some of his own banjo playing.

Most of the time he preferred to

use trailing or clawhammer techniques,

and many current Opry

members who recall Uncle Dave in person recall him using only
this rather simplified picking style.
as reflected on his records

But in his earlier days,

's.

from the 1920

Uncle Dave was a

veritable Tyrannosaurus of the banjo.

Scholars have identified

no fewer than sixteen different banjo styles on his records:

two finger style, three finger style, complex rolls, classical

styles from the 19th century, ragtime styles, blues, styles that

sound

amazingly

like

modern

bluegrass,

double-drop thumb,

combinations of up-picking and down-picking, and several that

haven't even been identified yet.
We have no records of him at

30

his true prime,

in his 30 's or 40' s,

and can only wonder what

his skill level might have been then. By the mid-1940 's, Uncle Dave was pretty much alone in the

world.

Matilda had passed in 1938, and all the sons were grown
Though he had a housekeeper

and most had families of their own.

for his place in Kittrell, he lived a good deal of the time in

the old Merchant's Hotel in downtown Nashville, just doors away

from where the old Broadway House had been.

he gave up running his own shows,

In his last years,

and often toured with other

"Now
I

artists.

In 1947, he wrote to a friend:

am still around

here,

all

OK,

coming 77 years of age and cannot decide at

I

present what is best for me to do.

have no woman housekeeper

and no house is anyways half kept without a darling woman to

boss it.
I

sometimes think
I

will talk some secondhand love to

a rich widow

know for a housekeeper and hang my old banjo on

the wall Saturday night."

He never did,

though,

and was still playing on the Grant

1,

Old Opry when his final illness struck him on March

1952.

After the curtain at the old Ryman came down, he sat still in
his old ladder back chair he performed in,
"Boys, you'll have to carry me off."

and said quietly,

A throat ailment caused an the next

emergency operation,
Rutherford Hospital.
150 a day,
22.

and he

spent

three weeks

in

Cards and letters poured in at the rate of

but he finally died at 6:25 in the morning on March

His funeral, held at the Methodist Church, attracted over

5,000 mourners.

31

The day of the funeral,

like everything else about Uncle

Dave Macon, entered into local legend.

Nobody had ever seen a

procession like the one that wound its way out Main Street to
the Coleman Cemetery, on the Woodbury Pike.

The great and near-

great were here

as well

as

local farmers and shopkeepers.

Car full and car full rolled past,

and the yarns about Uncle

Dave came and thick and fast, as everybody told their favorite

Uncle Dave story.

And it was said that the onlookers, standing

on the Main Street curb with their hats off, were puzzled at the

sight.

Car after car, going to a funeral, but full of people

laughing and smiling and looking for the life of them like they

were having a good time.

32

Acknowledgments

This essay is based on material

have been gathering for

My primary

the past 20 years for a book about Uncle Dave Macon.

sources include members of the Macon family:

Uncle Dave's sons

for

Archie, Harry, Eston,

and Dorris;

Edna and Ramsey Macon,

their work in the Macon genealogy; John and Wren Doubler; John

Doubler

and

Dave

Macon.

am

grateful

too and

for

the

many
their

musicians who performed with Uncle Dave

memories with me:

shared

Sid Harkreader, Sam and Kirk McGee, Alcyone

Bate Beasley, Smoky Mountain Glen Stagner, Jewell Haynes, Curly

Fox,

Bill Monroe, Blythe Poteet, Louis M. Grandpa Jones, Earl

Scruggs,

Walter Bailes,

Zeke

Clements,

and

others.

Other

sources include Mrs. Ruth Woods, Miss Mary Hall, Representative

John Bragg,

Emily

and George Boswell,

Bill

Knowlton,
I

Bill
owe

Harrison, Howdy Forrester, Roy Acuff, and Paul Ritscher.

special thanks to the Warren County historian James Dillon for

his research into the career of Captain John Macon, and to Susan

Newby and Maria Cartwright for their newspaper research into the

early years.

The list of recordings was based on research by

Ralph Rinzler, Bob Pinson, Tony Russell, and Norm Cohen.

A more

detailed discography may be found in the pamphlet "Uncle Dave

Macon:

A Bio-Discography

"

published (not now out of print) by

UCLA,
Los Angeles,

the John Edwards Memorial Foundation,

1970.

CA

CKW

33

UNCLE DAVE MACON

THE

RECORDINGS

July 1924. New York. Vocalion Record Company.

Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy Hill Billie Blues Old Maid's Last Hope (A Burglar Song) All I ve Got s Gone The Fox Chase Papa's Billy Goat The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane (w/ Sid Harkreader) She Was Always Chewing Gum Jonah and the Whale (w/ Sid Harkreader) I m Going Away to Leave You Love Love Somebody (w/ Sid Harkreader) Soldier's Joy (w/ Sid Harkreader) Bile Them Cabbage Down Down by the River
'
'

'

April 1925. New York City. Vocalion Record Company.

Run, Nigger, Run Old Dan Tucker Station Will Be Changed After a While Rooster Crow Medley Going Across the Sea Just From Tennessee Watermelon Smilin' on the Vine All-Go-Hungry Hash House From Jerusalem to Jericho I Tickled Nancy Arkansas Travellers (w/ Sid Harkreader) The Girl I Left Behind Me (w/ Sid Harkreader) Muskrat Medley Old Ship of Zion (w/ Sid Harkreader) Down in Arkansas (w/ Sid Harkreader) Down by the Old Mill Stream (w/ Sid Harkreader) I Don't Reckon It'll Happen Again Save My Mother's Picture from the Sale

April 1926. New York City. Vocalion Record Company

Rise When the Rooster Crows (w/ Sam McGee) Way Down the Old Plank Road (w/ Sam McGee) The Bible's True (w/ Sam McGee) He Won the Heart of My Sarah Jane (w/ Sam McGee) Late Last Night When My Willie Came Home (w/ Sam McGee) I've Got the Mourning Blues (w/ Sam McGee) Death of John Henry (Steel Driving Man) (w/ Sam McGee) On the Dixie Bee Line (In That Henry Ford of Mine) (w/ Sam McGee Whoop 'em Up Cindy (w/ Sam. McGee)

34

Only as Far as the Gate, Dear Ma (w/ Sam McGee) Just Tell Them That You Saw Me (w/ Sam McGee) Poor Sinners, Fare You Well (w/ Sam McGee) Old Ties (w/ Sam McGee)

September 1926. New York City. Vocalion Record Company.

We Are Up Against It Now Uncle Dave's Beloved Solo The Old Man's Drunk Again I Ain t Got Long to Stay Ain't It a Shame to Keep Your Honey Out in the Rain Stop That Knocking At My Door Sassy Sam Shout, Mourner, You Shall Be Free I Don't Care If I Never Wake Up In the Good Old Summer Time Something s Always Sure to Tickle Me Sourwood Mountain Medley Deliverance Will Come Wouldn't Give Me Sugar in My Coffee
' '

Kissin' on the Sly Hold On to the Sleigh In the Good Days of Long Ago My Girl s a High Born Lady The Cross-Eyed Butcher and the Cacklin' Hen In the Old Carolina State (Where the Sweet Magnolias Bloom) Never Make Love No More Arcade Blues Them Two Gals of Mine Diamond in the Rough Tossing the Baby So High Shoo' Fly, Don't Bother Me
'

Uncle Ned Braying Mule

May 1927. New York City. Vocalion Record Company. (FJD = Fruit Jar Drinkers, a band composed of Sam and Kirk McGee, Mazy Todd on fiddle, and Uncle Dave Macon.) (DSS = Dixie Sacred Singers, with same personnel.)
Bake That Chicken Pie (w/ FJD) Rockabout My Saro Jane (w/ FJD) Tell Her to Come Back Home (w/ FJD) Hold That Woodpile Down (w/ FJD) Carve That Possum (w/ FJD) Hop High, Ladies, The Cake's All Dough (w/ FJD) Sail Away, Ladies (w/ FJD) I'm a Coin' Away in the Morn (w/ FJD) Sleepy Lou (w/ FJD) The Gray Cat on a Tennessee Farm (w/ FJD) Walk, Tom Wilson, Walk (w/ FJD)

35

I se Gwine Back to Dixie (w/ FJD) Take Me Home, Poor Julia (w/ FJD) Go Along Mule (w/ FJD) Tom and Jerry (w/ FJD) Rabbit in the Pea Patch (w/ FJD) Jordan is a Hard Road to Travel (w/ FJD) Pickaninny Lullaby Song (w/ FJD)
'

Are You Washed in the Blood of the Lamb (DSS) The Maple on the Hill (DSS) Poor Old Dad (w/ The McGee Brothers) Walking in the Sunlight (DSS) Bear Me Away on Your Snowy Wings (DSS) The Mockingbird Song Medley Shall We Gather at the River (DSS) When the Roll is Called Up Yonder (DSS) In the Sweet Bye and Bye (DSS)
In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree Molly Married a Travelling Man When Reubin Comes to Town Got No Silver Nor Gold Blues Heartaching Blues Roe Rire Poor Gal You've Been a Friend to Me (w/ The McGee Brothers) Backwater Blues (w/ The McGee Brothers) More Like Your Dad Every Day I'll Never Go There Anymore (The Bowery)

June 1928. Indianapolis. Brunswick Recording Company.

Jesus, Lover of My Soul

July 1928. Chicago, Illinois. Brunswick Record Co. (uncredited ace. by Sam McGee, guitar or banjo-guitar) From Earth to Heaven The Coon that Had the Razor Buddy, Won't You Roll Down the Line Worthy of Estimation I'm the Child to Fight Over the Road I m Bound to Go The New Ford Car The Gal That Got Stuck on Everything She Said Comin Round the Mountain Governor Al Smith [for President]
' '

June 1929. Chicago, Illinois. Brunswick Recording Co.

Darling Zelma Lee (w/ Sid Harkreader) Put Me in My Little Bed (w/ Sid Harkreader) The Life and Death of Jesse James (w/ Sid Harkreader) Man That Rode the Mule Around the World (w/ Sid Harkreader) Tennessee Jubilee (w/ Sid Harkreader) New Coon in Town (w/ Sid Harkreader)

36

For Goodness Sakes Don't Say I Told You (w/ Sid Harkreader) We Need a Change in the Business All Around (w/ Sid Harkreader) Susie Lee Mister Johnson (w/ Sid Harkreader) Farm Relief Uncle Dave's Travels, Part 3 (In and Around Nashville) Since Baby s Learned to Talk Uncle Dave's Travels, Part 4 (Visit at the Old Maid's) Over the Mountain (w/ Sid Harkreader) Hush Little Baby Don't You Cry Uncle Dave's Travels, Part I (Misery in Arkansas) Uncle Dave's Travels, Part II (Around Louisville)
'

December 1930. Jackson, Mississippi. Okeh Phonograph Co. (Uncredited accompaniment by Sam McGee, banjo-guitar and banjo)

Tennessee Red Fox Chase Wreck of the Tennessee Gravy Train Oh Babe, You Done Me Wrong She s Got the Money Too Oh Lovin' Babe Mysteries of the World Come on Buddy, Don't You Want to Go Go On, Nora Lee
'

August 1934. Richmond, Indiana. Starr Piano Co, (Gennett Records)

Thank God for Everything (w/ The McGee Brothers) When the Train Comes Along (w/ The McGee Brothers) The Tennessee Tornado (w/ Sam McGee) Don't Get Weary Children (w/ The McGee Brothers) He's Up with the Angels Now (w/ The McGee Brothers)

January 1935. New Orleans, LA. Victor (Bluebird) records. (Uncredited ace. by Delmore Brothers on first four sides.)
Over the Mountain When the Harvest Days Are Over One More River to Cross Just One Way to the Pearly Gates I 11 Tickle Nancy I 11 Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy
' '

August 1937. Charlotte, North Carolina. Victor (Bluebird) records

All in Down and Out Blues Honest Confession Is Good for the Soul Fame Apart From God s Approval The Bum Hotel From Jerusalem to Jericho Two-In-One Chewing Bum Travel in' Down the Road
'

37

January 1938. Charlotte, North Carolina. Victor (Bluebird) records (Uncredited ace. by Smoky Mountain Glen Stagner. Country Ham and Red Gravy Summertime on the Beeno Line He Won the Heart of Sarah Jane Peek-a-Boo Working for My Lord She s Got the Money Too Wait Til the Clouds Roll By Things I Don't Like to See They re After Me My Daughter Wished to Marry Beautiful Love
'
'

(No accompaniment on following sides, except for an unidentified fiddler on "Johnny Grey.")

Give Me Back My Five Dollars Railroadin' and Gamblin' Cumberland Mountain Deer Race Johnny Grey The Gayest Old Dude That s Out
'

February 1945. Nashville, Tennessee. Private recordings. (Accompanied by Dorr is Macon.

Come Dearest the Daylight Is Dawning/Nobody's Darling Don t You Look for Trouble I'm Free, I've Broken the Chains Laugh Your Blues Away Travellin' on My Mind I'm Drifting Farther from You
'

May 1950. Kittrell, Tennessee. Field recordings by Charles Faulkner Bryan and George W. Boswell.

Cumberland Mountain Deer Race Rabbit in the Pea Patch Bully of the Town Mountain Dew Old Maid's Love Song Rock of Ages Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy Death of John Henry That s Where My Money Goes Long John Green The Lady in the Car Cotton-Eyed Joe Something's Sure to Tickle Me Chewing Gum All in Down and Out Blues
'

38

Hungry Hash House Whoa Mule No One to Welcome Me Home Unidentified Banjo Solo Polly Put the Kettle On Kissing on the Sly

DATE DUE
JY
9 '10

Demco,

Inc.

3b-233