Uncle Dave Macon with the Fruit Jar Drinkers – Go Long Mule / County CD-3505

Description

County CD 3505 / Old-Time music icon, Uncle Dave Macon plays old-time banjo and sings. Compiled from original 78 rpm records recorded 1926-1934, many of the 18 songs presented here are from Uncle Dave’s classic recordings with the Fruit Jar Drinkers (Maizi Todd & Sam & Kirk McGee) –some of the finest string band recordings of the “golden age” of old-time music. A wonderful collection with notes by Bill Knowlton.

Born just five years after the Civil War in the beautifully named Smart Station, Tennessee, the Country Music Hall of Famer David Harrison Macon didn’t even have a stage career until he was nearly 50 years old. A born showman, he soon became the Grand Ol’ Opry‘s first bona-fide star, amusing audiences with antics like clogdancing, high kicking, and throwing his banjo into the air and passing it between his legs while continuing to play. Go Long Mule is vintage Dixie Dewdrop, showcasing his old-time clawhammer banjo on string band ensemble numbers like “Rock About Saro Jane” and “She’s Got the Money, Too.” One of country music’s first and most influential stars, Macon continued to play the Grand Ol’ Opry until just three weeks before his death at the age of 81.

Track Listing:

• Over the Road I’m Bound to Go
• I’m Goin’ Away in the Morn
• Go Long Mule
• Oh Baby, You Done me Wrong
• Jordan am a Hard Road to Travel
• Grey Cat on the Tennessee Farm
• Over the Mountain
• Hold the Woodpile Down
• Backwater Blues
• Don’t Get Weary Children
• She’s Got the Money Too
• Way Down the Old Plank Road
• Carve that Possum
• Old Ties
• Tom and Jerry
• Rock About Saro Jane
• Rabbit in the Pea Patch
• Sail Away Ladies