Clayton McMichen
Clayton "Mac" McMichen (born January 26, 1900 in Allatoona , Georgia , † January 4, 1970 ) was an American old-time and later country musician . McMichen made numerous records during his career and is considered a forerunner of western swing .
McMichen began his career as a professional musician in the early 1920s as a traditional old-time fiddler, even if influences of jazz were already evident back then . Between 1926 and 1931 he gained fame as a member of the band Gid Tanner and his Skillet Lickers , but turned away from the old musical realities of the other members and developed a more urban style with his own band.
Life
Childhood and youth
According to Clayton McMichen, his family was originally from Scotland and likely emigrated to the United States in the early 19th century, where they settled in Paulding County , Georgia. Clayton McMichen was born in 1900 in the small town of Allatoona, Georgia, a small community about 40 miles northeast of Atlanta .
McMichen's father, Mitchell, was a professional violinist and played in town in a hotel; Contrary to the rural environment in which the McMichens lived, his repertoire mainly included Viennese waltzes. In the beginning, however, the young McMichen did not learn to play fiddle from his father, who hid his violin from him and forbade him to play on it. Rather, at the age of eleven, McMichen was influenced by a black musician whom the family called "Uncle". Through him McMichen was introduced to the fiddle and learned his first piece, the Traditional Sally Goodin ' .
McMichen then secretly practiced his father's violin while he went to work. One day he heard McMichen play and was so impressed that he gave him a fiddle of his own. From then on it was his father and uncles who taught him to play. Local barn dances , which the community met and where his father played from time to time, also had a major impact on McMichen. In 1913 the McMichen family moved to Atlanta, where 13-year-old McMichen took a job as an auto mechanic. In 1922 he won second place at the Atlanta Fiddlers' Conventions , an annual fiddle competition. It is quite possible that McMichen came across many musicians here with whom he would later work.
1922–1925: beginnings
In the same year, McMichen first appeared on the radio. Six months after the station WSB went on the air in Atlanta, McMichen appeared together with the Home Town Boys , at that time consisting of the Whitten Brothers (Charles and Mike Whitten ) and the Hawkins Brothers (Boss and Ted Hawkins ), for the first time on the program the radio station. It was September 18th and McMichen had chosen jazz and pop numbers like Alabama Jubilee , Dapper Dan and The Sunshine of Your Smile for his performance - traditional breakdowns were not in sight. It was similar two days later, when McMichen and the Home Town Boys - again on WSB - played Ring Waltz , Sweet Bunch of Daisies and the famous St. Louis Blues . Already in this early phase it became apparent how far McMichen's musical taste differed from that of his contemporaries.
The cast of the Home Town Boys varied greatly. That same year, singer and guitarist Riley Puckett joined McMichen and often performed with them on WSB. Other members were Lowe Stokes and later also Bob and Robert "Punk" Stephens. The band's radio appearances were well received by the listeners and they kept getting encouragement from the audience.
At a Fiddlers Convention in Macon, Georgia, in August 1923, the Home Town Boys took the front seats. While Riley Puckett took first and Mike Whitten second place in the guitar competition, Ted Hawkins "top banjoist" and Charles Whitten took third place in the fiddle competition, McMichen could play his way to first place. At this event, McMichen was also nicknamed The North-Georgia Wildcat .
McMichen and the Home Town Boys became one of the most popular groups on WSB between 1922 and 1926 and performed regularly there, although the number of their appearances decreased over time. On July 7, 1925, the Home Town Boys made their first recordings with Alabama Jubilee , Bully of the Town , Silver Bell and Sweet Bunch of Daisies for the OKeh Records label in the Columbia Studio in Atlanta . The cast for this session consisted of Clayton McMichen (fiddle), Lowe Stokes (fiddle), Robert "Punk" Stevens, Sr. (banjo), and Robert Stevens, Jr. ( clarinet ). The use of a clarinet re-established a reference to jazz and other popular music that McMichen preferred. Stokes was not a regular member of the band, but only played guitar on these songs as he was a good friend of McMichen's and had lived with him for a while.
McMichen's first OKeh records didn't sell well and it remained his only one with the label. The Home Town Boys then played together less often, mainly due to Robert Stephen's death. The band was involved in a car accident on the way to a show; while the members were all able to get out of the car, it looked like no one was seriously injured. But at the same moment Stephens fell to the ground and died on the spot - his neck was broken. Stephens' father Robert Sr. never got over the loss.
1926–1930: McMichen and the Skillet Lickers
In April 1926, Frank Walker , head of Columbia Records ' Old-Time Tunes department, put together a new string band that, in addition to McMichen, included the musicians Riley Puckett (guitar), Gid Tanner (fiddle), Fate Norris (banjo) and McMichen's brother-in-law Bert Layne (Fiddle) as members. It seems all the more paradoxical that this group became known in the next few years primarily for their traditional fiddle pieces, which McMichen disliked and repeatedly led to disputes. The first single Bully of the Town / Pass Around the Bottle became one of the best-selling records of the decade, followed by other hits. It was all the worse for McMichen that his name was not on the records, because Frank Walker named his new “supergroup” Gid Tanner and his Skillet Lickers (with the addition “with Riley Puckett” on the record labels). McMichen wrote in 1958 to the music researcher John Edwards: “ I finally raised so much hell about it that Frank B. Walker put my name on all the records but the damage had already been done and Gid was starting to be known as the greatest old time fiddler in the country. " From now on, the plates were under the name of Skillet Lickers with Riley Puckett & Clayton McMichen published.
At the same time as the beginning of the Skillet Lickers, McMichen began recording for Columbia as the leader of his own group, the Melody Men . The line-up varied, but often consisted of three fiddles - mostly Bert Layne, Lowe Stokes and McMichen -, the clarinetist "Stranger" Melone and Riley Puckett on guitar. McMichen eventually managed to convince Frank Walker to record "hillbilly versions" of pop songs, although Walker remained skeptical. He could have found enough pop bands, he didn't need rural fiddlers for that. But already the first single under the name Clayton McMichen & His Melody Men , Let Me Call You Sweetheart / Sweet Bunch of Daisies , sold over 100,000 copies, which was an enormous number for the time. McMichen could not reach the sales of the Skillet Lickers, some of which exceeded 200,000 copies.
By 1931 McMichen was under contract for Columbia and was able to achieve more hits. Even so, Frank Walker insisted that McMichen continue to record old-time songs. Under the pseudonyms "Bob Nichols" and "Oscar Ford" and under the band names McMichen-Layne String Orchestra (McMichen, Bert Layne, Riley Puckett) and Georgia Organ Grinders (McMichen, Bert Layne, Lowe Stokes, Fate Norris, Melvin Dupree, Dan Hornsby), he also released numerous records.
1930–1936: Georgia Wildcats touring
In 1929 McMichen met guitarist Hoyt "Slim" Bryant know. In Bryant he had found his perfect musical partner, as Bryant also played jazz, mastered new chord techniques and was also familiar with traditional old-time music. On December 7, 1930, McMichen held the first session for Columbia with his new band, the Georgia Wildcats . The name was based on the nickname McMichen got at the 1923 Fiddlers' Convention in Macon, Georgia.
McMichen performed with the Home Town Boys on WSB until 1931, but left the radio station afterwards because the station's management did not pay the old-time musicians who performed there: “We kept playing up there [WSB], goin 'up there, and we got tired of playing for nothin'. We'd quit and then go back. ”McMichen and Bryant therefore moved to WLW in Cincinnati , Ohio , and to WCKY in Covington , Kentucky , in early 1931 . In October of the same year Columbia arranged a last session of the Skillet Lickers, but McMichen was only present because the label paid him above-average money for his sessions. As a husband and father, he took every opportunity to earn money and therefore accepted.
McMichen's days with the Skillet Lickers in 1931 were finally numbered. He never wanted to play with these musicians again, as he later confirmed in an interview with Norm Cohen: “Don't ask my any more questions about that bunch of nothing down there in Atlanta. They were all a bunch of stab-you-in-the-back no-goods… and the more I can forget them, and the longer I can keep them forgotten, the better. ”Together with Slim Bryant (guitar), Bert Layne (Fiddle), Pat Berryman (banjo) and Johnny Barfield (guitar), McMichen toured the southern United States as Clayton McMichen and his Georgia Wildcats . In 1931 the group could be heard on WLW and WCKY, from 1932 on KDKA in Pittsburgh and on WTAM in Cleveland . In the summer of 1932, the Georgia Wildcats were invited to a session in New Jersey by Jimmie Rodgers , now superstar of old-time music, on which Rodgers recorded McMichen's song Peach Pickin 'Time in Georgia and Bryant's composition Mother, Queen of My Heart .
While McMichen was in New York City , he played a few concerts and through Bob Miller made contact with the record company Crown Records , for which he recorded the first pieces shortly afterwards. The line-up of the Georgia Wildcats differed from the initial one because Berryman and Barfield and Bert Layne had dropped out. Odie McWinders - already there at the Rodgers session in August - and Bob Miller were brought in. After another session for Crown, McMichen and the Wildcats left New York again and moved on to Louisville , where they played on WHAS. A total of 24 songs had been recorded for Crown, but not all of them appeared on record.
In October 1932 McMichen went to Chicago to follow an engagement in the National Barn Dance on WLS, at that time the most successful barn dance show in the country: “Then in October Mac went to WLS Chicago with the idea that he would bring us up in the spring after he got established, ”Slim Bryant recalled in an interview with Richard Matterson. In the spring, after McMichen gained greater popularity with Barn Dance audiences, he caught up with the Georgia Wildcats, who at the time were still playing on WHAS in Louisville. The group consisted of McMichen and Bryant from Bert Layne and Jack Dunnigan. In 1933 the world exhibition in Chicago was a guest , at which McMichen and the Wildcats appeared and for this purpose also moderated a radio show from an airplane, which was broadcast on WLS.
After the World's Fair drew to a close in the fall of 1933, the offers became less, so that McMichen and Bryant returned to Louisville after a short stop at WGY in Schenectady . The Georgia Wildcats were expanded in 1935 to include bassist Raymond "Loppy" Bryant, Slim Bryant's brother, and Dave Durham ( trumpet / saxophone ). Old members Pat Berryman and Jack Dunnigan also played in the group.
The next few years were also characterized by appearances on various broadcasters, including KMOX in St. Louis , WCKY in Covington and WLW in Cincinnati. In the fall of 1936, McMichen was hired to lead the Grand Ole Opry from Nashville , one of the most famous barn dance shows. McMichen and the Wildcats - without Slim Bryant at the time - played in the Opry until the spring of 1937, but left the show because management paid too little and McMichen had more lucrative offers in prospect. It was around this time that young guitarist Merle Travis also joined the Georgia Wildcats.
1937-1939: Decca Sessions
In 1937 McMichen got a contract with Decca Records , a New York City-based label that had gained significantly in relevance on the US record market in previous years. On July 27, 1937, McMichen and the Georgia Wildcats played their first session for Decca. A total of ten pieces were created that day, including In the Pines , Bile Dem Cabbage Down and Sweet Bunch of Daisies . The latter had been McMichen's first success at Columbia and was used by him on his radio shows in Louisville as a theme song. The style of the Wildcats had developed strongly towards Western Swing in recent years, but the Wildcats still played in a traditional string band formation. Other leading western swing musicians of the time, such as Bob Wills , Milton Brown and Cliff Bruner , had expanded their bands into orchestras that also used drums , wind instruments and piano .
McMichen and the Wildcats returned to Decca Studios for a second session in the summer of 1937. In 1939 McMichen held the last session for Decca, during which he only recorded medleys. A total of 18 different songs were recorded in a more or less short duration - including numerous old-time pieces ( Old Joe Clark , Shortenin 'Bread , Pretty Little Widder ).
1940–1970: Late career in Louisville and death
Between 1939 and 1945, McMichen continued to travel and appear often in staged Fiddlers' contests , mostly with Natchee the Indian and later with Sleepy Marlin. These contests were organized by Larry Sunbroke and were very popular with the audience.
McMichen settled in Louisville for good in 1945 after traveling the United States for 14 years. He converted his band into a Dixieland jazz group, with whom he could be heard daily on WAVE. Shortly after forming the Georgia Wildcat Modern Dance Orchestra , Slim Bryant, Jack Dunigan, and several others split from McMichen to advance their own careers. McMichen's new band consisted of Orville Furrow ( saxophone / clarinet ), Eddie Reinhart ( piano ), Paul Swain (saxophone / clarinet / flute ), Gene Edwards (saxophone / clarinet), Dave Durham (trumpet / fiddle), Bill Swain (bass) and Jimmie Pearson (drums). Together with his band, McMichen performed in dance halls in Kentucky and Indiana . He remained a respected musician, had his own television show, and also played in local bars. He himself also owned a bar that Pappy McMichen on Spring Street in Louisville. In 1955 McMichen decided to turn his back on music and withdrew from the music business for the time being, but remained connected to music.
In the 1960s, McMichen's recordings, especially his works from the 1920s, were rediscovered and McMichen himself was again in the limelight. A young audience, inspired by new folk musicians like Bob Dylan , turned to the old artists and started the folk revival. In addition to appearances at numerous folk festivals, such as Bill Monroe's Orange Blossom Bluegrass Festival , McMichen has also been interviewed a number of times and articles about him have appeared in the trade press. In these conversations with music journalists, he repeatedly expressed disapproval of the skillet lickers and described them as backwoodsmen who could not have played. He didn't even mention Fiddler Lowe Stokes about the Skillet Lickers.
Discography
| year | title | # | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| OKeh Records | |||
| 1925 | Dance in the Light of the Moon / Alabama Jubilee | 45022 | A-side of the Emmett-Aiken String Band |
| Ballin 'the Jack and the Nigger Blues / Bully of the Town | 45034 | A-side by Claude Watson & L. McCreighton | |
| Columbia Records as Melody Men | |||
| 1927 | Let Me Call You Sweetheart / Sweet Bunch of Daisies | 15111-D | |
| House of David Blues / Down Yonder | 15130-D | ||
| Fiddlin 'Medley / St. Louis Blues | 15190-D | ||
| Missouri Waltz / Aloha Oe | 15202-D | ||
| Fifty Years Ago / My Carolina Home | 15224-D | ||
| When You and I Were Young, Maggie / Silver Threads Among the Gold | 15247-D | ||
| Original Arkansas Traveler # 1 / Original Arkansas Traveler # 2 | 15253-D | with Dan Hornsby | |
| ? / Corn Licker Still in Georgia # 4 | 15258-D | ||
| Home Sweet Home / Where the River Shannon Flows | 15288-D | ||
| Ain't She Sweet / Darling Nellie Gray | 15310-D | ||
| Blind Child's Prayer # 1 / Blind Child's Prayer # 2 | 15333-D | ||
| Lonesome Mama Blues / Wabash Blues | 15340-D | ||
| ? / Daisies Won't Tell | 15356-D | ||
| Corn Licker Still in Georgia # 5 / Corn Licker Still in Georgia # 6 | 15366-D | ||
| When You're Far From the One Who Loves You / Sailing on the Bay of Tripoli | 15391-D | ||
| Corn Licker Still in Georgia # 7 / Corn Licker Still in Georgia # 8 | 15432-D | ||
| Kickapoo Medicine Show # 1 / Kickapoo Medicine Show # 2 | 15482-D | ||
| A Night in a Blind Tiger / A Night In a Blind Tiger | 15503-D | ||
| Corn Licker Still in Georgia # 9 / Corn Licker Still in Georgia # 10 | 15531-D | ||
| Honolulu Moon / When Clouds Have Wanished | 15540-D | ||
| 1930 | Taking the Census # 1 / Taking the Census # 2 | 15549-D | |
| Jeremiah Hopkins Store # 1 / Jeremiah Hopkins Store # 2 | 15598-D | ||
| Corn Licker Still in Georgia # 11 / Corn Licker Still in Georgia # 12 | 15618-D | ||
| ? / Prohibition Yes or No? # 2 | 15632-D | ||
| Fiddler's Convention in Georgia # 3 / Fiddler's Convention in Georgia # 4 | 15667-D | ||
| Bee Hunt on the Hill For Sartin Creek # 1 / Bee Hunt on the Hill For Sartin Creek # 2 | 15700-D | ||
| Corn Licker Still in Georgia # 13 / Corn Licker Still in Georgia # 14 | 15703-D | ||
| When the Bloom Is on the Sage / Yum Yum Blues | 15723-D | ||
| Wild Cat Rag / Sweet Floreine | 15775-D | ||
| Crown Records | |||
| Singing an Old Hymn / Wreck of the Old 97 | 3384 | B-side by Slim Bryant | |
| Hog Trough Reel / Georgia Wildcat Breakdown | 3385 | ||
| Back in Tennessee / Way Down in Caroline | 3386 | A-side by Slim Bryant | |
| Arkansas Traveler / Ida Red | 3397 | ||
| I Don't Love Nobody / Old Joe Clark | 3416 | ||
| Yum Yum Blues / Four Cent Cotton | 3418 | A-side by Slim Bryant; B-side by Bud Thompson | |
| Red Wing / When the Bloom Is on the Sage | 3419 | A-side as Joe & Bob Nichols | |
| Counting Cross Ties / Bummin 'on the IC Line | 3432 | B-side by Bud Thompson | |
| Blue Hills of Virginia / Little Log Cabin in the Lane | 3447 | as Joe & Bob Nichols (possibly not Clayton McMichen [!]) | |
| Decca Records | |||
| Sweet Bunch of Daisies / Frankie and Johnnie | 5418 | ||
| I Want My Rib / Yum Yum Blues | 5424 | ||
| Bile Dem Cabbage Down / Farewell Blues | 5436 | ||
| Under Old Kentucky Moon / In the Pines | 5448 | ||
| Georgianna Moon / Chicken Don't Roost Too High | 5491 | ||
| I'm Free a Little Bird As Can Be / Anna from Indiana | 5574 | ||
| Is There Still Room for Me / Alexander's Ragtime Band | 5577 | ||
| I Gotta Ketchup My Setting / Only a Faded Rose | 5592 | ||
| Please Don't Sell My Pappy / Mary Lou | 5601 | ||
| St. Louis Woman / I'm Gonna Learn to Swing | 5614 | ||
| Whispering / Trail of Lonesome Pine | 5634 | ||
| Wang Wang Blues / Downheated Blues | 5646 | ||
| Put Your Arms Around Me Honey / Just an Old Chimney Shack | 5670 | ||
| What Good Will It Do / All Thru the Night | 5699 | ||
| Free As a Little Bird # 2 / My Gal's a Lulu | 5701 | ||
| I Cannot Tell a Lie / I Whonder Who's Kissin 'Her | 5705 | ||
| Dream Trail / Jesse James | 5710 | ||
| Don't Trouble Me / I'm Riding Trail Back Home | 5714 | ||
| Lil Darling I'll Be Yours / Rose of Shenadoah Vall | 5721 | ||
| Misery on My Mind / Couldn't Tell By the Look | 5727 | ||
| Just Tell Them You Saw Me / Lily that Bloomed for Me | 5765 | ||
| Put On Your Old Gray Bonnet / Old Fashioned Locket | 5780 | ||
| Don't Sell Papy No More Rum / Pur Your Arms Around Me, Honey | 6091 | ||
| Continental Records | |||
| Hills of Arkansas / Free Wheelin 'Hobo | 3016 | A-side of Bob's Boys | |
Web links
- Clayton McMichen on Hillbilly-Music.com (English)
- Clayton and his Georgia Wildcats or his Melody Men on Hillbilly-Music.com (English)
- Picture collection
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wayne W. Daniel: Pickin 'on Peachtree . P. 105.
- ^ Wayne W. Daniel: Pickin 'on Peachtree , p. 106.
- ^ Tony Russell: Country Music Originals , p. 39.
- ^ Tony Russell: Country Music Originals . P. 39.
- ↑ a b Richard L. Matterson, Jr:. Mac and the Skillet Lickers: Part 5 . Bluegrass Music and Artwork blog
- ^ Richard L. Matterson, Jr .: Mac and Slim: On the Road Again . Bluegrass Music and Artwork blog
- ^ Tony Russell: Country Music Originals , p. 42.
- ^ Richard L. Matterson, Jr .: Mac and Slim: To the Windy City . Bluegrass Music and Artwork blog
- ^ Richard L. Matterson, Jr .: Mac and Slim Split - The Grand Ole Opry 1936 . Bluegrass Music and Artwork blog
- ^ All Music
- ^ Richard L Matterson, Jr .: Mac and Slim: Decca 1937. Bluegrass Music and Artwork blog
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | McMichen, Clayton |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | McMichen, Mac (nickname) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American country singer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 26, 1900 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Allatoona , Georgia |
| DATE OF DEATH | 4th January 1970 |