David Harrison Macon, better known as "Uncle Dave Macon", a.k.a. "The Dixie Dewdrop", was born October 7, 1870.  In honor of his birth month, this month's tab is a 2-part arrangement of an old tune called "Cumberland Mountain Deer Chase" that he made famous as the first real star of the Grand Ole Opry in the 1920's and 1930's.   He was born into a well-to-do family in central Tennessee, and began learning folk songs from the area by the time he was nine.   His family suffered financial reversals following the Civil War, and moved to Nashville where they ran a hotel.  The hotel became the headquarters for the many vaudeville performers who came through town, and the teenaged Macon watched them as they rehearsed in the basement.  He became especially fascinated with the various "trick" banjo players then in vogue, who used their instruments as acrobatic dancing and juggling props as much as for making music.  He had soon talked his parents into buying him a banjo, and started perfecting his skill as a musician, story teller, and entertainer.  Unable to make a steady living as a musician as a young adult, he started running a freight line consisting of mule-drawn wagons to haul goods between Murfressboro and Nashville.  In the late 1920s, a rival company using trucks essentially drove him out of business, and he retired at the age of 52.  He continued to entertain the locals with his singing, playing, and story-telling, and never went anywhere without his banjo.  One day while on a trip back to Nashville, he was entertaining some customers in a barber shop, one of whom turned out to be a talent scout for a local vaudeville promoter, who immediately offered Macon a job on the vaudeville circuit.  He was paired with fiddler Sid Harkreader, and became an immediate hit in cities from Birmingham to Boston.  By 1924 he had a national reputation, and started making records for Vocalion.  He cut several best-sellers, including "Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy", "Chewing Gum", and "Hill Billie Blues".  He joined the WSM Barn Dance in 1925, and continued touring the country and making records.  He worked with other such notables as Sam McGee, the Delmore Brothers, Roy Acuff, and Bill Monroe.   He first recorded "Cumberland Mountain Deer Chase" (which he usually referred to as "Cumberland Mountain Deer Race") in 1932.  He had originally learned the song in the 1880s from the black stevedores who worked along the Cumberland River near his childhood home.  He continued touring and performing at the Opry right into his eighties, and did his last show just months before he died in 1952 at the age of 82.

"Cumberland Mountain Deer Chase" has been performed and recorded by many folk musicians over the years, including Doc Watson, Bill Monroe, Red Clay Ramblers, and the Journeymen.  It was also recorded by the trio I play with (Half Way Home) on our debut CD entitled "Are We There Yet?".  You can download a short clip of that particular cut from this page:   http://tullglazener.com/Half_Way_Home.htm .  The 2-part arrangement presented here is based on this recording.

Enjoy!
--Tull