Album Notes

No Tennessee folk singer has done more for the traditional American Music than Uncle Dave Macon. Coming from a Middle Tennessee heritage that included traditional American ballads, Civil War songs, church songs, blues vaudeville and medicine show music, Uncle Dave Macon began his career about 1920, when he was fifty years old. He was one of the first authentic Southern folk musicians to record commercially and he helped found Nashville's famous Grand Ole Opry. During his 30-year career he became one of the most beloved influential entertainers in the South, and was one of the first members of the Country Music's Hall of Fame.

The recordings in this album are informal, amateur recordings made on a portable tape recorder by Charles Faulkner Bryan, a pioneer folklorist and one of the early supporters of the Tennessee Folklore Society. They were made in Uncle Dave's own front room at his home in Kittrell, Tennessee, halfway between Murfreesboro and Woodbury. They were made circa May 1950, a little over a year before Uncle Dave's death. In them Uncle Dave is completely at ease, and completely himself. So here, then is Uncle Dave Macon at his most relaxed and authentic, sitting before his own fireplace on a warm spring Sunday afternoon.