Uncle Dave Macon (1870-1952) was one of the most important figures in twentieth-century American music. A charismatic and highly energetic performer, he drew huge, enthusiastic crowds to his concerts, was one of the first successful country music recording artists, and was the Grand Ole Opry’s biggest draw from its inception in 1925 through much of the 1930s. Even more important, Macon—often referred to as “the Dixie Dewdrop” by his adoring fans— served as a bridge that carried nineteenth-century songs and banjo-playing styles into the twentieth; he also would become a model whose musical approaches and repertoire have been enthusiastically emulated in both the folk- and old-time music revivals.
Although many popular-music biographies tend to get bogged down in a morass of names, dates, and places, Michael D. Doubler has given us a rich and highly nuanced portrait of the complex, highly gifted man who helped put country music on the map. As Macon’s great-grandson, Doubler was able to draw on family archives and reminiscences that might otherwise be unavailable, and his excellent writing skills have allowed him to weave this material together into a compelling and entertaining narrative.
David Macon’s grandparents brought the family to central Tennessee in the 1840s, setting up a farm and several mercantile businesses. Hard times after the Civil War nearly bankrupted the family; in 1883 they sold their original holdings and with their last stake bought a hotel in Nashville. David was just entering his teens and found in the Nashville of that era a source of endless musical inspiration: minstrel shows, medicine shows, carnivals, musical theater, and vaudeville. In 1885, a performance by banjoist Joel Davidson—enhanced by the kind of acrobatic twirling and flipping of the instrument that would later serve as Macon’s trademark—inspired him to beg for an instrument and start avidly practicing on it.
The Macons then moved to Murfreesboro, where they opened a rooming house and farmed the adjoining land. Macon became skilled in farm work, particularly the handling of livestock, and by his late twenties had married and founded his own mule-drawn freight hauling business. For the next twenty years, Macon ran his freight business, but he also often entertained his neighbors with impromptu banjo performances. As he approached destinations with his freight wagon, he often sat on the front seat, picked the banjo, and sang at the top of his lungs. All this time, however, he was dreaming of becoming a professional musician; he was also avidly learning songs and tunes from people he encountered from all races and walks of life. He was also beginning to write his own songs.
Changing technology provided an opening. In 1920 when Macon was fifty, his main rival in the local freight business jettisoned draught animals and bought a fleet of trucks; Macon declared that he’d rather go into a new line of work than put his trust in a machine. He adopted the sobriquet “Uncle Dave,” teamed up with a young fiddle player named Sid Harkreader, and the two began performing together around the region. In 1924, they were asked by Vocalion to record several “sides” at the company’s studios in New York; between then and 1938, Macon would conduct roughly a dozen such sessions for Vocalion and several other companies (among his many collaborators were such early country notables as Sam and Kirk McGee and the Delmore Brothers). In 1925, new Nashville station WSM founded a weekly live musical revue called the Grand Ol’ Opry, and Macon was soon ensconced as its main draw. Via the airwaves, touring shows organized by the station, and through his popular recordings, Macon was soon on his way to national prominence. He was featured in advertising and even appeared in a Hollywood picture.
Musical tastes and technology evolve, and by the 1940s, Macon, now in his seventies, frequently toured as opener for the highly polished instrumental and vocal groups that were beginning to dominate country music, led by such luminaries as Roy Acuff, Ernest Tubb, and Bill Monroe. And in his last few years Macon would share the stage with Hank Williams, tour as an opener for bands experimenting with electric instruments, and participate in a live television show. On March 1, 1952, he had to be carried home after what proved to be his last performance at the Opry, and passed away shortly thereafter.
Despite his cornpone stage persona, Macon was no country bumpkin. Although his family experienced some hard times, they were basically merchants and large-scale farmers and not simple country people. He himself built a thriving business and knew how to handle himself among agents and lawyers. Although his speech was homespun, when he went on stage he always dressed like a man of means replete with vest over fancy embroidered shirt, dress pants, watch chain, and high top shoes.
As Doubler tells us, Macon had many sides to his personality. Although he could be expansive and inclusive, Macon was prone to bouts of isolation and depression, and struggled mightily with alcoholism for periods of his life—particularly before he took up music as a full-time career. Despite this revelation, Doubler often glosses over the problematic aspects of Macon’s character; we are often regaled with tales of his generosity and warmth, and only in an epilog is it revealed that he was often highly possessive of the limelight, and not infrequently made cutting remarks behind the backs of his fellow musicians (one of my favorites: asked his opinion of bluegrass banjo pioneer Earl Scruggs, Macon remarked that he was “pretty good on the banjo [but] he ain’t a damn bit funny,” 201).
If there is one area where Doubler falls a little short, it’s in musical analysis. To musicians with a strong interest in the banjo or vintage American music, those passages that focus on relationships among musical genres or on the distinctive features of Macon’s banjo style might seem a bit perfunctory and sometimes not entirely on the mark. Still, this aspect of things is hardly central to the narrative, and would hardly be noticed by most readers.
As a project,
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[Review length: 1055 words • Review posted on April 22, 2019]