Grand Ole Opry

Uncle Dave Macon’s Banjo For Sale

Happy Easter, everyone! Since I started my new job last month, I have lost five pounds from the continual walking. However, I am sure that I will gain it back this week by OD-ing on Peeps, jelly beans and Cadbury Eggs.

Anyway, one of my YouTube subscriptions is with Elderly Instruments in Lansing, Michigan. Every few days they send me a short video highlighting one of the instruments they have for sale. Usually it is a guitar, either acoustic or electric, or an occasional mandolin. Last week, they sent a video entitled “We’ve got a piece of Grand Ole Opry history.”

It turns out that Elderly has for sale a Gibson open-back banjo custom made for Uncle Dave Macon. Unless you are completely unaware, Uncle Dave was one of the original stars of the Grand Ole Opry. He was a complete entertainer, telling jokes and stories along with humorous folk and early country songs. His frailing/clawhammer style of banjo playing was pre-Scruggs, and he used the banjo more like a prop than a skilled instrument. As country music matured, his style of entertainment faded from the stage. However, stalwart bluegrass and old-time music fans still hold Uncle Dave in high regard, and there is an annual music festival in Tennessee called Uncle Dave Macon Days.

After Uncle Dave’s passing, the banjo was sold to another Opry star known for his frailing banjo style – Grandpa Jones. While Grandpa was better known for working with a resonator banjo, it is wonderful to imagine that two of the greatest Opry stars owned and play this particular instrument. Of course, I had to go to Elderly’s website to see the price tag. Wow! $50,000! It is being sold in as-is fair condition, with one rim hook missing and a hole in the rim that Elderly assumes was meant for mounting an armrest.

Gibson Style 1 Custom Uncle Dave Macon Banjo (c.1935)

Is that a way-too-high price? Perhaps, but considering that the Fender Stratocaster that David Gilmour of Pink Floyd used on “Comfortably Numb” sold at a recent auction for $14.5 million, celebrity-owned musical instruments can command high prices. However, modern music memorabilia collectors are not as interested in Opry legends such as Uncle Dave Macon or Grandpa Jones.

I am sure that Elderly is totally open to negotiate the price, and are keeping the banjo in its current condition figuring that the potential buyer is looking at it as a museum piece rather than a player instrument. I hope that it finds a good home, particularly a museum that will display it for the historical value it has. In the meantime, here are some Uncle Dave Macon and Grandpa Jones clips.

Chew on it and comment.

Flaco Jimenez/Jeannie Seely RIP

Two musical dignitaries from different genres passed away this wee. It is sad that we are losing those that kept roots music alive during the past decades.

Flaco Jimenez, who passed away on July 31 at the age of 86, was the ultimate in Tex-Mex accordion playing. He could adapt his sound to just about any form of roots music, be it country, alt-country, or even the blues. Born in San Antonio, Texas, he learned button accordion from his father, who learned it from his father, who learned it from German immigrants. He played in a number of local Tex-Mex bands during his teens and 20s, soon being noticed for his style by performers Ry Cooder and Doug Sahm. By the 1980s, he would become an in-demand session musician, recording with Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Dwight Yoakam, and the Mavericks.

He would play with a number of Tex-Mex bands, his most famous being Los Super Seven with Sahm, Joe Ely and Freddy Fender. With Sahm and Fender he also formed the Texas Tornados. He won a total of six Grammy awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015. He also received the Americana Music Association Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016.

While I never got to see him perform, hearing his amazing accordion work on so many recordings that I hold dear, I can honestly say that his presence will truly be missed.

Jeannie Seely passed away August 1 in Hermitage, Tennessee at the age of 85. Her career as far as hit recordings spanned from the mid 1960s to about 1980, but she is best known for her reign as having the most appearances on the Grand Ole Opry. She was much more than a regular member on the show (her membership lasted 57 years) – she was a true matron, especially after the death of Minnie Pearl.

Born and raised in Titusville, Pennsylvania, she took a strong interest in country music at an early age, appearing on local radio and television in her teens. Once she graduated from high school, she work in a band briefly before moving to California to work as a secretary at Liberty Records. There she started writing songs for other artists. She soon moved to Nashville, signed to Monument Records, and had a hit with “Don’t Touch Me” in 1966.

After a number of solo hits, Seely teamed up with Jack Greene to record some hit duets, including “Wish I Didn’t Have to Miss You” from 1969 and “Lucky Ladies” from 1974. After a hiatus an automobile accident in 1977, she returned to performing, including an appearance in the Willie Nelson film Honeysuckle Rose. She also become the first female to host the Grand Ole Opry.

Seely’s recording schedule declined by the 1990s, with her last release coming in 2020 entitled American Classic. She would often host programs on the SiriusXM channel Willie’s Roadhouse. During her time at the Opry, she challenged many of the conservative standards by wearing contemporary clothing such as go-go boots and miniskirts. Her demeanor as wella s her music influenced many budding female artists such as Barbara Mandrell and Lorrie Morgan. She was married to country singer/songwriter Hank Cochran for 10 years, divorcing in 1979. During the Nashville flood of 2010, her home was destroyed along with almost all of her possessions. She soldiered on, and gained the moniker Miss Country Soul.

Again, a performer that I never saw live, but would listen to her on the Opry every Saturday night that I had a chance. She loved to motivate the audiences, and was singing from the heart until the end.

Chew on it and comment.