Mack Banks

Mack Elmore Banks (born September 17, 1934 in Jasper , Alabama ) is an American country and rockabilly musician .

Life

Childhood and youth

Shortly after Mack Banks was born, the family moved to Columbus , Mississippi . When Banks was in third grade, the family eventually moved to Artesia, where Banks continued his childhood. His mother played the piano and sang in church. Banks was the only one of ten children who inherited their mother's talent and he started playing guitar at eleven and wrote his first song two years later. In his youth, Banks played in various local bands, including a year in the bluegrass group Carl Sauceman and the Green Valley Boys , who just had a hit with Wrap My Body In Old Glory .

Career

In 1951, Banks left the band and formed his own group with which he had his own radio show on WCBI in Columbus. When Elvis Presley achieved national popularity with his rockabilly songs in 1955, Banks also changed the genre. He made demo recordings of the tracks Be-Boppin 'Daddy and You're So Dumb with his band . Through the mediation of Robin Mathis, the two tracks were released as a single on the Fame label in 1956 via Stardays Package Deal, but only sold well regionally. However, Banks was regularly on stage with rising stars like Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins who were giving concerts in the area. Perkins arranged a meeting between him and Sam Phillips , the owner of Sun Records , but this never happened due to Phillips' lack of time.

Banks continued to record in the following period, but did not make the big break. He founded his own label and performed on weekends at the Western Supper Club , which burned down in 1994. In the 1980s, he released a total of five albums that contained humorous titles. These albums were particularly well received by the trucker scene. In the 1990s he played an album on MEB Records.

Mack Banks still performs today, including once a month on the Sparta Opry , a local country show. In 2005 he published the blues album Sad Times In New Orleans , which deals musically with the storm catastrophe in New Orleans.

Discography

Singles

year	title	Record company
1956	Be-Boppin 'Daddy / You're So Dumb	Fame 45-580
195?	Beer Drinking Blues / Don't Do It Darling	Vee-Eight 1026
195?	Sloppy Drunk / I Thought I Heard You Calling My Name	Vee-eight 131
	Roberta / Dynamite	Vee-Eight 132
	They Raided The Joint / Working Man Speaks	Vee-Eight 133
	Tapping That Thing / Yo Yo	Q
	Police and Preachers /?	Mable

Albums

• 2005: Sad Times in New Orleans

Web links

• Web presence of the artist
• biography
• Discography with audio samples