Mac Strength

 

It's very easy to complain about a situation that bothers you, but it's another thing altogether to do something constructive, productive, and positive to change whatever it is that's "not right." Those people who take it upon themselves to be catalysts or leaders in situations where both hard work (often thankless) and imagination are in demand are to be admired, commended, and hopefully emulated by others.

Guitar Mac has become known as the very vocal and highly visible leader in the movement to promote and preserve blues music in the Sacramento area of California.

A relatively young man by blues standards, Mac has a unique understanding and appreciation of the blues that few of today's younger blues artists can lay claim to. Mac was born and raised in blues country—rural Arkansas—at a time during the 1950s when blues music was at its peak as a pastime and a form of entertainment.

Having experienced firsthand the country juke joints and the hard life that made those establishments an essential outlet for Black Americans in the South, Mac also witnessed the entire 1960s—the "decade of change" that ushered in civil rights, soul music, Black Power, and a complete change in Black America's attitude toward blues music.

Now, in the 1990s, things seem to have come full circle, with today's African Americans wanting to study and even embrace the music they had dismissed and rejected just ten years earlier.

Guitar Mac has worked diligently over the last 20 years to build his own career, but one can quickly come to realize that he has been working even harder for the greater good—the "big picture": the future of the blues.

His love for the blues transcends any ego-related career promotion. His work with children in schools, his concert and festival organizing, and especially his blues radio shows all demonstrate his desire and dedication to ensuring that blues music is understood, accepted, and ultimately revered as the single most important musical form in American history.

Given the successes he has already achieved, along with the fact that he has become one of the most recognized and easily identifiable figures on the California blues scene—thanks in part to some great-looking hats—Guitar Mac's Blues Crusade provides a perfect example for others to follow.

If we had 100 Guitar Macs in America today, or even a dozen more, imagine what could be accomplished!

And therein lies the great moral and truth of this entire story: Guitar Mac didn't wait for someone else to lead him. He took it upon himself to get things done and bring about change.

The blues world is a better place today because of his personal crusade.

### An Interview with Guitar Mac

AG: Where were you born?

GM: Cotton Plant, Arkansas.

AG: I take it that's in the middle of the cotton-growing area?

GM: Yeah, that's right. That's right. Actually, in the town, there was a flour mill and a few other stores and stuff like that.

AG: What was it close to?

GM: I would say Brinkley, Arkansas.

AG: And what year was that?

GM: 1946.

AG: Do you have a large family?

GM: A pretty large family. Well, actually, I've got one brother and three sisters. There are five of us.

AG: Were your parents involved in music at all?

GM: They went to church. My mom went to church, and I had a stepfather. You know, my dad, I didn't really know him too well. He was a railroad man, so he was always on the go.

You know, it was my mom. Everybody was always in church, even my brother and sisters. Right now, you can call them on Sunday and ask, "Where are you going?" They're going to church!

AG: Are your first memories of music basically church-related?

GM: Pretty much church. Then, of course, there was radio in Arkansas. Pretty much what we listened to back then was whatever was being played on the radio.

There were those big radio stations, like WLAC out of Nashville, Randy's Record Shop, and WDIA out of Memphis, with Nat D. Williams and Rufus Thomas.

AG: So there was lots of gospel, blues, and R&B on the radio?

GM: Right. Lots of blues, gospel, and R&B.

I used to listen to people like... Well, actually, there was a gentleman who came by our house all the time.

We used to have things like fish fries on the weekends. Our stepfather used to have them. He didn't play guitar or anything like that, but this other guy, whom we used to call Mr. Hosea, would come by.

He was the first guy I ever saw playing slide guitar when I was a kid. He used to sit in the backyard and play slide guitar.

AG: So his first name was Hosea?

GM: Hosea Orlando. That's what we used to call him, Mr. Hosea.

AG: How old were you when you first saw him playing guitar?

GM: I guess I must have been somewhere between ten and fifteen years old, something like that.

AG: And he would have already been an adult man at the time?

GM: Yeah, he was already an adult man.

That was around Madison, Arkansas, around Madison and Forrest City, Arkansas, because that's where we were living back then.

See, I was born in Cotton Plant, Arkansas, but we were raised around Madison, Arkansas.

AG: When did you first start getting the idea of going into music yourself?

GM: Well, I first got the idea of getting into music when I was a kid.

Actually, you know, we used to go chop cotton, pick cotton, chop soybeans, and all that kind of stuff.

I had a friend named Johnny C. Newborn. Well, actually, he was a neighbor. Right now, he lives in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.

He taught me a couple of licks on the guitar and a couple of licks on the harmonica. He could play piano, too.

He was just one of those guys who could play, and he used to laugh all the time.

He would say, "Well, heck, piano is really easy to play because you sit there and look at it!"

So he taught me a couple of licks on the guitar and harmonica, and I just went from there.

And he was a distant relative of Phineas Newborn.