Tyree's Guide To Macon Love
Fans of hillbilly music and olden days in general will be trekking to Murfreesboro, Tennessee, July 9-11 for the 27th Annual Uncle Dave Macon Days.
Dave Harrison “Uncle Dave” Macon (1870-1952) didn’t perform professionally until he was almost 50; but he was one of the first superstars of the Grand Ole Opry, thanks to his talent and rollicking showmanship.
The Opry’s “solemn old judge” George Hay dubbed Macon “The Dixie Dewdrop.” With a macho nickname like that, he should have been touring on a double bill with The San Francisco Hairstylist.
Let’s put Uncle Dave in perspective. Not only was he a professional performer before Hank Williams Sr. was even born, but he was making country music in the days before the earth cooled enough to make the mining of rhinestones feasible, and when “downloading” was something done in a building with a crescent moon.
Although Uncle Dave was posthumously elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1966, he is still underappreciated in many ways. It’s a travesty that Country Music Television’s list of the greatest love songs of all time omitted sentimental ballads such as “Carve That Possum,” “Visit At The Old Maid’s,” “The Cross-Eyed Butcher and the Cackling Hen,” and “Keep My Skillet Good And Greasy.”
To add insult to injury, Percy Sledge drew widespread music industry acclaim when he remade “Carve That Possum” as “When A Man Loves A Marsupial.”
In some ways Uncle Dave’s music was timeless; but a few of the songs would be politically incorrect, and songs like “The Gayest Dude Who’s Out” would take on a new meaning in the military’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” era.
Furthermore, I’d hate to see Dave’s gospel classics updated to “Don’t Get Weary, Children (But Do Take Your Ritalin),” and “Just One Way To The Pearly Gates (And One Way To The Pits Of Hell -- By Opposing The Iraq War, You Commie Pinko Traitor).”
Uncle Dave remains a major influence on today’s country performers, not necessarily because of his song topics or instrumentation, but because most of them look like 80-year-old men in their DUI mug shots.
Uncle Dave Macon Days will be held in Murfreesboro’s Cannonsburgh Village, an authentic recreation of a pioneer settlement. Cannonsburgh has become a tourist draw thanks to upbeat marketing campaigns such as “Colonial Williamsburg: Say, Isn’t That The Birthplace of Carbs?”
The event is tailor-made for folks who yearn for the days of blacksmith shops, one-room schoolhouses, milk cans, hand-cranked phones, well buckets, and peddler wagons. Of course the people who go overboard about the Good Old Days probably also over-romanticize Custer’s Last Stand as “Free Haircut Day.”
Yes, people are so nostalgic for simpler times that they’ll travel hundreds of miles, employing global positioning satellites and cell phones to reach the rustic village in their air-conditioned cars.
Uncle Dave Macon Days includes the national championships in old-time banjo, old-time buckdancing, and old-time clogging (as opposed to “new-time clogging,” which, I assume, involves rollerblades and Michael Jackson’s moonwalk).
It’s heartwarming to see our heritage of music and dance preserved for a generation that thinks a “buckdance” involves dollar bills and a G-string.
If you enjoy gospel singing, arts and crafts, historic photos, and free admission, make plans for Uncle Dave Macon Days. Family fun is guaranteed for all -- unless you’re a family of possums…
Originally published the week of June 27, 2004.
Dave Harrison “Uncle Dave” Macon (1870-1952) didn’t perform professionally until he was almost 50; but he was one of the first superstars of the Grand Ole Opry, thanks to his talent and rollicking showmanship.
The Opry’s “solemn old judge” George Hay dubbed Macon “The Dixie Dewdrop.” With a macho nickname like that, he should have been touring on a double bill with The San Francisco Hairstylist.
Let’s put Uncle Dave in perspective. Not only was he a professional performer before Hank Williams Sr. was even born, but he was making country music in the days before the earth cooled enough to make the mining of rhinestones feasible, and when “downloading” was something done in a building with a crescent moon.
Although Uncle Dave was posthumously elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1966, he is still underappreciated in many ways. It’s a travesty that Country Music Television’s list of the greatest love songs of all time omitted sentimental ballads such as “Carve That Possum,” “Visit At The Old Maid’s,” “The Cross-Eyed Butcher and the Cackling Hen,” and “Keep My Skillet Good And Greasy.”
To add insult to injury, Percy Sledge drew widespread music industry acclaim when he remade “Carve That Possum” as “When A Man Loves A Marsupial.”
In some ways Uncle Dave’s music was timeless; but a few of the songs would be politically incorrect, and songs like “The Gayest Dude Who’s Out” would take on a new meaning in the military’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” era.
Furthermore, I’d hate to see Dave’s gospel classics updated to “Don’t Get Weary, Children (But Do Take Your Ritalin),” and “Just One Way To The Pearly Gates (And One Way To The Pits Of Hell -- By Opposing The Iraq War, You Commie Pinko Traitor).”
Uncle Dave remains a major influence on today’s country performers, not necessarily because of his song topics or instrumentation, but because most of them look like 80-year-old men in their DUI mug shots.
Uncle Dave Macon Days will be held in Murfreesboro’s Cannonsburgh Village, an authentic recreation of a pioneer settlement. Cannonsburgh has become a tourist draw thanks to upbeat marketing campaigns such as “Colonial Williamsburg: Say, Isn’t That The Birthplace of Carbs?”
The event is tailor-made for folks who yearn for the days of blacksmith shops, one-room schoolhouses, milk cans, hand-cranked phones, well buckets, and peddler wagons. Of course the people who go overboard about the Good Old Days probably also over-romanticize Custer’s Last Stand as “Free Haircut Day.”
Yes, people are so nostalgic for simpler times that they’ll travel hundreds of miles, employing global positioning satellites and cell phones to reach the rustic village in their air-conditioned cars.
Uncle Dave Macon Days includes the national championships in old-time banjo, old-time buckdancing, and old-time clogging (as opposed to “new-time clogging,” which, I assume, involves rollerblades and Michael Jackson’s moonwalk).
It’s heartwarming to see our heritage of music and dance preserved for a generation that thinks a “buckdance” involves dollar bills and a G-string.
If you enjoy gospel singing, arts and crafts, historic photos, and free admission, make plans for Uncle Dave Macon Days. Family fun is guaranteed for all -- unless you’re a family of possums…
Originally published the week of June 27, 2004.
posted by Danny Tyree at 7:53 PM
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