Uncle Dave Macon - Professional Career

Professional Career

Although Macon had performed as an amateur for years, and was well known for his showmanship, Macon's first professional performance came in 1921 at a schoolhouse in Morrison, Tennessee as part of a Methodist church benefit show. In 1923, during a performance for the shriners in Nashville, he was spotted by Marcus Loew of Loews Theatres who offered Macon fifteen dollars if he was to perform at a theater in Alabama. Macon accepted and went to Alabama. After the show he was confronted by the manager of Loews Theatres in Birmingham who wanted to hire him to perform in Birmingham. Macon's salary was going to be several hundred dollars a week. This led to many offers from other theaters in the Loew's Vaudeville circuit. Thus, at age fifty, Macon became successful as an entertainer and his popularity increased. As a result a rival vaudeville circuit, the Keith-Albee-Orpheum Corporation, tried to lure him away from the Loew's circuit but to no avail.

In 1923 he began a tour in the south-eastern United States together with fiddler Sid Harkreader and five other acts. By this time, the distributors of Vocalion Records, the Sterchi Brothers Furniture Company, had begun to notice Macon and they realised his potential as a successful recording artist. On July 8, 1924, Macon and Harkreader cut their first recordings for Vocalion in New York. In this first session which was extended over several days they recorded eighteen songs altogether. In 1925, Macon and Harkreader added a buck dancer to their act, "Dancing Bob" Bradford. Their continuing tours for the Loew's circuit included comedy, buck-dancing and old time music. In late 1925, Macon met the blacksmith and guitarist Sam McGee who was to become Macon's regular recording and performance partner. On November 6, 1925, Macon and Harkreader performed at the Ryman Auditorium—the future home of the Grand Ole Opry— for the benefit of the Nashville police force. The successful show took place only three weeks before WSM Grand Ole Opry was founded.

Macon was one of the first performers at the newly founded WSM radio station. It is not known exactly when he was hired but on December 26, 1925, Macon and fiddler Uncle Jimmy Thompson appeared together on the WSM Saturday night program. Macon's career at WSM lasted twenty-six years, but because he was constantly touring, he wasn't a regular performer during the first few years of WSM's Grand Ole Opry. In early 1927, Macon formed the Fruit Jar Drinkers, consisting of Macon, Sam McGee, Kirk McGee and Mazy Todd. The Fruit Jar Drinkers recorded for the first time on May 7, 1927. Although the group's repertoire mainly consisted of traditional songs and fiddle numbers, they would occasionally record sacred songs and when that occurred, Macon would temporarily alter the group's name to the Dixie Sacred Singers.

In December 1930, Macon recorded for Okeh Records and later in 1934 for Gennett Records. On January 22, 1935, he began recording for Bluebird Records with the Delmore Brothers and a few years later in 1938 he recorded with Glenn "Smoky Mountain" Stagner. Between 1930 and 1952, Macon was often accompanied by his son Dorris who played the guitar. In 1940 Macon— together with Opry founder George D. Hay, rising Opry star Roy Acuff, and Dorris Macon— received an invitation from Hollywood to take part in the Republic Pictures movie Grand Ole Opry. The film contains rare footage of Macon performing, including a memorable duet of "Take Me Back to My Carolina Home" with Dorris in which the 69-year old Macon jumps out of his seat and dances throughout the second half of the song. Although Macon toured with Bill Monroe in the late 1940s, he was neither impressed by the new bluegrass style nor by the banjo picking of Monroe's bandmate Earl Scruggs.