Mac Arnold | |
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| Background information | |
| Born | June 30, 1942 Ware Place, South Carolina, United States [1] |
| Genres | Blues |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Instrument(s) | Bass guitar, gas-can guitar |
| Years active | 1965–1990s, 2006-today |
| Labels | Plantation One Productions |
| Members | Mac Arnold |
| Website | www |
Mac Arnold (born June 30, 1942), is an American blues musician from South Carolina.
Mac Arnold was born in Ware Place, South Carolina, one of 13 children born and raised on his father's farm. [2]
Arnold's musical journey began in the 1950s when he and his brother Leroy fashioned a guitar from a steel gas can, broomsticks, wood, nails, and screen wire:
Arnold, 72, laughs as he talks about how gas can guitars came about. One of those homemade guitars, the one most see him playing on stage, was leaning on a wall recently near his kitchen table in his Pelzer home.
Arnold's brother, Leroy, found a way to turn a gas can into a guitar when their father, Jodie Arnold, went to Florida to pick oranges.
"Dad wouldn't let him buy one (a guitar)," Mac Arnold said. "So when he was about 15 years old, he figured out how to make one on his own. We used to tie wire to the rafters in the barn, and we knew that made sound because of the tin roof. You could hear it vibrate through the barn." [3]
Arnold has since become famous for the gas-can guitar and has taught many other people how to make them. [4] [5]
His early career included working with a young James Brown in the band, J. Floyd & the Shamrocks. [6] [7] Arnold moved to Chicago in 1965, where he worked with A.C. Reed prior to joining Muddy Waters' band in 1966. [8] Arnold appears on the November 1966 live recording released in 2009 as Muddy Waters - Authorized Bootleg. [9] [10] He formed the Soul Invaders in 1967, [11] finding work backing up B.B. King, The Temptations, Little Milton and many others. [3]
Mac's studio work in the 1960s includes playing bass on several notable blues albums, including Otis Spann's The Blues Is Where It's At [12] and John Lee Hooker's Live At Cafe Au Go Go. [13] He performed in various session work after moving to California in the 1970s.
His TV work also included a four-year gig as part of the set band on Soul Train . [11] [14]
By the 1990s, Arnold had grown weary of the road life and returned home to Pelzer, South Carolina and virtual retirement from the spotlight [15] until 2006, when he was convinced to front his own band, Plate Full O' Blues. [6] Arnold's return to the stage was the subject of a 2-part musical-history documentary, Stan Woodward's final film, Nothing to Prove: Mac Arnold's Return to the Blues. [16] [17] [18] [19]
In 2013, Arnold opened his own restaurant in Greenville, South Carolina's historic West End, [20] where he hosted his popular yearly music event, The Cornbread and Collard Greens Blues Festival. [21] [22] [23] Despite much local success in the food business, he decided to close the restaurant in August 2017 [24] to once again concentrate on music, especially after his nomination into the Alabama Blues Hall of Fame. [25] [26]
On September 23, 2017, Mac Arnold was inducted into the Alabama Blues Hall of Fame at the historic Dr. John R. Drish House in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. [27] [28]
Arnold and the band support the preservation of music education in public schools through the, "I Can Do Anything Foundation", an organization that was started following the release of a song by the same name, written by Mac Arnold and Max Hightower and performed by Plate full O' Blues. [37]
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With Otis Spann
McKinley Morganfield, known professionally as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer and musician who was an important figure in the post-World War II blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of modern Chicago blues". His style of playing has been described as "raining down Delta beatitude".
Muddy Waters (1913–1983) was an American blues artist who is considered a pioneer of the electric Chicago blues and a major influence on the development of blues and rock music. He popularized several early Delta blues songs, such as "Rollin' and Tumblin'", "Walkin' Blues", and "Baby, Please Don't Go", and recorded songs that went on to become blues standards, including "Hoochie Coochie Man", "Mannish Boy", and "Got My Mojo Working". During his recording career from 1941 to 1981, he recorded primarily for two record companies, Aristocrat/Chess and Blue Sky; they issued 62 singles and 13 studio albums.
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The Blues Is Where It's At is an album by blues pianist/vocalist Otis Spann recorded in 1966 and originally released by the BluesWay label.
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