Uncle Dave Macon
David Harrison Macon (October 7, 1870 – March 22, 1952), known professionally as Uncle Dave Macon, was an American old-time banjo player, singer, songwriter, and comedian. Known as "The Dixie Dewdrop", Macon was known for his chin whiskers, plug hat, gold teeth, and gates-ajar collar; he gained regional fame as a vaudeville performer in the early 1920s before becoming the first star of the Grand Ole Opry in the latter half of the decade.
Uncle Dave Macon
David Harrison Macon
"Dixie Dewdrop"
October 7, 1870
Smartt Station, Tennessee, US
March 22, 1952 (aged 81)
Murfreesboro, Tennessee US
- Musician
- singer
- songwriter
- comedian
Banjo, vocals
1880s–1952
Macon's music is considered the ultimate bridge between 19th-century American folk and vaudeville music and the phonograph and radio-based music of the early 20th-century. Music historian Charles Wolfe wrote, "If people call yodelling Jimmie Rodgers 'the father of country music,' then Uncle Dave must certainly be 'the grandfather of country music'."[1] Macon's polished stage presence and lively personality have made him one of the most enduring figures of early country music.[2]
Early life and family[edit]
Macon was born in Smartt Station (about five miles south of McMinnville), Tennessee, the son of Confederate Captain John Macon and his wife Martha Ramsey. He was the great-great nephew of Nathaniel Macon.[3] In 1884, when David Macon was 13 years old, his family moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to run the Old Broadway Hotel, which they had purchased. The hotel became a center for Macon and his growing musical interests, and was frequented by artists and troupers traveling along vaudeville circuit and circus acts.[2] In 1885, he learned to play the banjo from a circus comedian called Joel Davidson.[4] He attended Hume-Fogg High School in Nashville.[2] Macon's father was murdered outside the hotel in 1886.[5][6] His widowed mother sold the hotel and the family moved to Readyville, Tennessee,[7] where his mother ran a stagecoach inn. Macon began entertaining passengers at the rest stop, playing a banjo on a homemade stage.[2]
In 1889, Macon married Matilda Richardson and moved to a farm near Kittrell, Tennessee, where they raised six sons. Around 1900, Macon opened a freight line between Murfreesboro and Woodbury, Tennessee. It was called The Macon Midway Mule and Mitchell Wagon Transportation Company. Often, when Macon was driving along with his mules, hauling freight and produce, he would entertain people by singing and playing the banjo at various stops along the way. In time, his sons became part of the company as they grew up. But the arrival of an automobile-based competitor threatened his mule company, and he was forced to close down in 1920.[4]
His brother, E. L. Macon, was a businessman who purchased the Brevard-Macon House in 1926.[8]
Repertoire and style[edit]
While Uncle Dave Macon recorded over 170 songs between 1924 and 1938, in his day he was most notable for his polished and lively stage presence. Bandmate Kirk McGee later described Macon's personality as a never-ending performance— "All day long, from morning till midnight, it was a show."[23] While playing, Macon would often kick and stomp, and shout sporadically, taxing the skills of WSM's early volume-control engineers. His performance style can be discerned to some extent from his early recordings, in which he whoops and hollers amidst relatively aggressive vocal deliveries.[23]
Macon was famous for his outrageous and funny performances, whether playing on the Vaudeville stage, at school and community socials, or at the Grand Ole Opry. Macon peppered his performances with jokes and comedic monologues, and often engaged in witty repartee with sidemen such as Sam McGee and Sid Harkreader. Other country entertainers marveled at Uncle Dave's skill as a performer. Grand Ole Opry star Roy Acuff said of Macon, "There was never a person that I have come in contact with in the entertainment world that was more individual than Uncle Dave Macon. He was a self-made entertainer who seemed to copy nobody."[24]
Macon played an open-backed Gibson banjo on most of his recordings, and while contemporary musicians didn't consider him a particularly skillful banjo player, modern musicologists have identified no less than 19 picking styles on Macon's recordings.[2][23] Macon's favorite tunes included "A Soldier's Joy", "Bully of the Town", "The Arkansas Traveler", and "Sail Away, Ladies".[2][25] Macon claimed to have learned the song "Rock About My Saro Jane" from black stevedores working along the Cumberland River in the 1880s.[2] The song "Buddy Won't You Roll Down the Line" was inspired by the Coal Creek War, an East Tennessee labor uprising in the 1890s.[26] In the song "From Earth to Heaven", Macon describes his days hauling goods between Woodbury and Murfreesboro for his shipping company.[25] "Wreck of the Tennessee Gravy Train", recorded in 1930, served as political commentary on a financial scandal involving Tennessee Governor Henry Hollis Horton and the owner of the newspaper The Tennessean.[27] Macon's favorite hymn was "How Beautiful Heaven Must Be", which is inscribed on his monument near Woodbury.[2]