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Blues caballero

Blues Guitar Mac, swayed by Delta and New Orleans sounds, comes to Vacaville

By Richard Bammer/Features Writer

Friday, May 07, 2004 - He was born where the blues began, the rural South, in Cotton Plant, Ark., barely a whistle-stop but not too far from Brinkley, the home of "The Godfather of Rhythm and Blues," Louis Jordan.

Guitar Mac, a blues guitarist, singer and songwriter, said that, as a child, he learned the traditional 12-bar form from Johnny C. Newborn, the "most famous musician in (nearby) Memphis" at the time.

"I was a kid and blues was all I'd hear around," said Mac, whose real name is H.L. MacKnally. "He'd play piano, harmonica and guitar. He taught me those licks."

With some considerable updating and a lengthy song list, Mac will pick and strum some of those same blues phrases and chords Saturday in Vacaville, when he and his backing unit, His Blues Express, perform free at the newly opened 5-Fifty-5 Down Lounge at the Fire Falls restaurant on Main Street.

A Sacramento resident, Mac, 57, brings not only a passion for blues but also a considerable resume to his stage act. Playing electric six-string and acoustic guitars, he has released singles and five albums during a 25-year career. He has toured the United States, Europe and Japan, opening for the likes of John Lee Hooker, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown and Taj Mahal. Mac has performed at the House of Blues in Las Vegas, the Monterey Blues Festival, the California State Fair in 1993 and 2000 and the North Sea Jazz Festival in Holland. In 1992, he toured with the acclaimed San Francisco Blues Festival, when director Tom Mazzolini took several noted Bay Area blues musicians to France, England, Germany, Italy, Belgium and Monte Carlo.

His road to full-time work as a musician has not always been smooth. After moving to Northern California in 1968, he assembled vehicles for Ford Motor Co. and General Motors in Bay Area plants. Then he started to drive a taxi, always playing guitar in his off time. Mac eventually became fairly proficient and gained some notice for his talent.

"In 1980, I thought I might as well do this thing professionally," Mac said in his clipped, fast-flowing conversational style. "I just started to play. There's no money in it - it's hard to make money playing the blues. You've got to love it."

GUITAR MAC AND HIS BLUES EXPRESS

9 p.m. Saturday 5-Fifty-5 Down Lounge

(At Fire Falls restaurant) 555 Main St.

Vacaville

Free 447-3700

fire-falls.com

He's loved it enough to release a 45 rpm with an original, "Jelly Roll," and a cover of Willie Dixon's "Built For Comfort." His CD releases include "Boiling Point" (1995), released on Video Uptown Records, a Fresno label; "Sizzle" (1996), released on his own Mac Sound label; "Boiling Point 2" (1998) on Video Uptown; "Golden Soniferous" (2000) and "River City Shuffle" (2001), the latter two on Mac Sound.

An amiable, somewhat stocky man, Mac is given to wearing bright Errol Flynn dueling shirts and hats with a single wispy feather. Because of his dress code, he's been dubbed "The Caballero of the Blues." Using a red rectangular electric guitar (not unlike Bo Diddley's) and a dobro, Mac said he plays "a kind of mixture of blues." He frames his style mostly by the spare, raw, African-derived rhythms and brittle guitar notes that emerged less than an hour's drive from his birthplace, the Mississippi Delta region, in the 1920s and '30s.

"It's closer to the Delta (style), but it's more like a New Orleans style, a kind of rhythm and roll kind of thing, you know?" he said.

In his shows and concerts, Mac plays tried-and-true blues classics and originals. He covers Jordan's "Caldonia," Tampa Red's "Don't You Lie To Me," Little Willie Littlefield's "Kansas City," Jimmy McCracklin's "Stepping Up in Class," Hacksaw Harney's "Crosscut Saw," Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup's "That's All Right Mama," Jazz Gillum's "Look on Yonder Wall" and Robert Johnson's "Dust My Broom."

Besides "Jelly Roll," his own compositions include "Taxi Blues," "All Night and Day," and "Telephone Booth."

When not performing Mac does his best to ensure the blues idiom receives its due. A radio deejay, he can be heard on Sacramento cable 88.7 FM radio.

In an age of hip-hop, gangsta rap, boy and girl bands, does the blues still have relevance to American popular music? Are its periodic revivals, such as the ones in the 1960s and 1980s, a thing of the past?

"There's a lot of blues out there," he said. "It's pretty popular. You hear it on the car commercials. Even the country singers - they're still doing a blues vein. The blues is here and here to stay because some of the younger people are dancing to the blues."

".......Mac quickly proved that the Dobro is not just there for looks.  His use of the slide on this older guitar gave the music a truly authentic blues feeling and was very impressive.  While the 'Blues Man' is billed as a guitar virtuoso, an equally impressive attribute was his voice.  Mac is versatile.  He can sing the slow gospel like songs with an energetic fire.  He can also sing in a more melodious fashion that is suited to a faster rock and roll style......."  Ron Schaffer The Orion, Chico, CA.   "......... A gifted blues man . . . Guitar Mac is one of the best.  He is a master of the Delta Blues, especially on a slide guitar.  His singing and song writting skills encompass and reflect the heart and soul the country style of blues that he grew up with.  In addition to his skills as a musician, Guitar Mac has established himself as the Best Blues Deejay in northern California."  Ron Balestrieri Sacramento Valley Acoustic Music Newspaper Sacramento, CA.

"....... He (Guitar Mac) is a master of the blues song that defies meaning, or at least verbal defination......"  Stephen Magagnini San Francisco Chronicle   " ......the black music scholar does not run up and down the fret board as fast as he can, as is the wont of his rock 'n roll stepchildren; each note is picked out as a deliberate pace, each note tells a story that Van Halen or Stevie Ray Vaughn couldn't learn in a lifetime.  his attack is dagger sharp and stinging.  Mac's vocals again match up well with the best blues shouters ..... "  Nick Baxter, Jr. Metro, San Jose, CA.