Sam and Kirk McGee Biographies
Sam Meets Uncle Dave
In 1924 Uncle Dave met Sam McGee when Macon and Sid Harkreader were playing a show near Franklin, Tennessee. Sam was a blacksmith and had been playing the guitar and banjo for many years. Sam invited Macon home after the show and after hearing Sam pick “Missouri Waltz” Uncle Dave invited him to play a few dates with him in place of Harkreader. In 1925 Sam played with Harkreader and Macon on the Loews’s Bijou Theater in Birmingham appearing on stage in a rural outfit. He sat on a plaster of Paris tree stump and played solos while Bob Bradford did his buck-and-wing dance.
Kirk joined the acted and they were billed as ‘Uncle Dave Macon and hid Sons from Billygoat Hill, with Sam dressed as a rustic clown and all three playing their backwoods image. “I never did learn much about playing from him,” said Sam. But I did learn about handling an audience.”
Although Uncle Dave was a consummate showman he wasn’t the best banjo picker in the world but he still won many contests. In 1926 both Sam and Uncle Dave signed up to play in a banjo contest in Birmingham. Uncle Dave made a deal with Same that they would split the money if one of them won. Sam figured that since Uncle Dave was famous he’d easily win first. When they had the contest the performers played behind a curtain so no one could see them and Sam won first prize while Uncle Dave didn’t get in the top three. Uncle Dave said, “Don’t tell that one on me.”
Sam never told that story on his mentor, Uncle Dave until the Dixie Dewdrop passed away many years later. Sam McGee eventually became known as “Grand Dad of the Country Guitar Pickers” and is considered one of the best all-time guitar pickers in Country Music.
The McGee Brothers Early Days
Sam Fleming McGee was born May 1, 1894, near Franklin, Tennessee, Williamson County, 20 miles south of Nashville. Kirk was born Nov. 4, 1898. Their first teacher was their father who knew three of four hundred old fiddler tunes. “He seemed to play more slowly than they do now,” said Kirk “every note was sharp and clear.” As a boy Sam would stay up listening to the marathon picking sessions at his house. “Time didn’t mean as much to them as it does to so many now. They’d stay up till two or three in the morning playing waltzs breakdowns and two-steps. I’d be there taking it all in until they made me go to bed.”
Sam first learned banjo and accompanied an old fiddler name Willie Williams while Kirk learned banjo licks from Felix Bennet. By the time they were teens they were playing for square dances. One of Sam’s first mentors was Tom Hood who convinced him to “get away from the banjo and get me a guitar.” Around 1910 Sam developed an alternating bass style similar to what Travis and Atkins would later make famous from Jim Sapp and Amos Johnson, two African American pickers. He would play the melody on the treble strings with his fingers while playing rhythm with his thumb. The use of alternating bass and playing the melody on the treble strings had more in common with black blues than local string band playing, where a guitar kept time with bass runs while backing the fiddle. By 1920 Kirk was playing guitar and fiddle.
McGees Start Recording
In April 1926 Sam McGee traveled to New York City with Uncle Dave Macon and Sid Harkreader where Sam played guitar and recorded his first sides backing Uncle Dave. Sam also recorded five songs: two guitar solos: “Buck Dancer’s Choice” and “Franklin Blues;” and three vocals: “In A Cool Shady Nook” (Katy Cline), “If I Could Only Blot out The Past” and “Knoxville Blues.”
The McGee Brothers made their first recording together in 1928 for Gennett [see songs below]. They continued to play with Uncle Dave and other groups (another Fruit Jar Drinkers group of George Wilkerson for Sam, and the Crook Brothers band for Kirk) and recorded with Uncle Dave.
Sam And Kirk McGee; McGee Brothers Discography to 1942 (Songs with Dave Macon not included):
Sam McGee Solo Recordings (4-14-1926 to 1934): As Willie And Mary Strolled By The Seashore; Brown’s Ferry Blues; Buck Dancer’s Choice; Chevrolet Car; Easy Rider; Franklin Blues; If I Could Only Blot out The Past; In A Cool Shady Nook; Kickin’ Mule; Knoxville Blues; Railroad Blues; Red River Valley; Ship Without A Sail; Southern Whistlin’ Coon; Way Down In Arkansas;
Kirk McGee Solo Recordings Nov. 1928- 1934 (includes songs with Blythe Poteet): C-H-I-C-K-E-N Spells Chicken; Flower From My Angel Mother’s Grave; Home Ain’t Nothing Like This; House At The End of The Lane; If I Could Only Blot out The Past; If I Could Only Hear My Mother Pray Again; If I Only Had A Home; Love Always Has It’s Way; My Girl Is A High Born Lady; My Mother’s Hands; My Wife Left Me; No One Else Can Take Your Place; Only A Step To The Grave; Shoo Fly Don’t Bother Me; Where Is My Mama;
McGee Brothers- May 1927 to Nov. 1928 (sometimes with Mazy Todd): Brown’s Ferry Blues; C-H-I-C-K-E-N Spells Chicken; Charming Bill; Flower From My Angel Mother’s Grave; Hannah Won’t You Open The Door; My Family Has Been A Crooked Set; Old Master’s Runaway; Ragged Jim; Rufus Blossom; Salt Lake City Blues; Salty Dog Blues; Someone Else May Be There While I’m Gone; (The) Tramp;
McGees Play Grand Ole Opry- The Dixieliners
Sam McGee, early Opry performer: “The Opry came down here and said they wanted players who were outstanding in the field—and that’s where they found us, out standing in the field.”
In 1926 the McGees started perfoming on the WSM radio’s The Grand Ole Opry with Uncle Dave. According to Sam: “Just as soon as word circulated about the Opry, the Barn Dance it was then, everybody got excited about it. Uncle Dave Macon and me were down in Alabama. He says, ‘Let’s go and play on that Barn Dance.’ It wasn’t any trouble to get on then because it was so new and they didn’t have the people they needed.”
Uncle Dave began was using his son Dorris to play guitar for him, and when the 1929 Depression hit the McGees and Macon parted ways. In 1932 The Dixieliners were formed with Fiddlin' Arthur Smith, Sam and Kirk. This trio was one of the finest to ever play on the Opry and played five years. Kirk was fine singer, guitarist and banjoist as well as a fiddler. Arthur was excellent fiddler and a good singer and clawhammer banjoist and Sam was a good singer and excellent guitarist and banjoist. Although frequently on tour and radio, The Dixieliners, one of the best Opry groups, never recorded until the reunion record in the 1950's (see listing below).
Besides guitar, Sam played the banjo and the Gibson banjo-guitar. He and Kirk were often billed as comedy acts, with Sam wearing a red wig to become a Toby character developed in minstrel shows. A lot of his songs show his comedic side (with lines like, "Met a little gypsy in a fortune telling place--she read my mind, and then she slapped my face..."), but were accompanied with masterful runs and bends on the guitar. Charles K. Wolfe's excellent book on the early Opry, A Good Natured Riot, tells how Uncle Dave taught showmanship to the McGee brothers, particularly playing up the hillbilly aspects for comedy.
McGees Later Years
Sam and Kirk’s lives intertwined with some of the best old time acoustic musicians of the 20th Century, including Dave Macon, the Delmores, and Fiddlin' Arthur Smith, as well as moving into bluegrass circles. By the late 30's the Dixieliners dissolved, and the McGees took up their day jobs (Kirk in realty in Nashville and Sam in farming in Franklin), still appearing regularly on the Opry in the old-time segment, which was retained into the 60's.
Sam's granddaughter Jane McGee Frost wrote about Sam's playing the first electric guitar on the Opry: "Yes, Sam McGee did play the first electric guitar (National New Yorker Model made in 1938) ever played on the Opry sometime In the early 40’s. The story he told in our family and that I have heard forever is that after he played, George D. Hay told him not to bring that electric guitar back that they wanted to keep the Opry down to earth. A year or so after that, Pee Wee King performed with electrical instruments in his band and from that point on, the Opry allowed electric instruments. My Uncle Bass McGee still has this National New Yorker electric guitar. It does not look anything like any other musical instrument I have ever seen.”
She also wrote: "I inherited my grandfather’s Gibson Mastertone banjo as well as a couple of mandolins. When he passed away [Sam died in a farm accident in 1975], he had 27 musical instruments in his estate and all remain within our family except for one Gibson Electric guitar which was loaned out and is now missing. (serial number Gibson E-S300A5087 in case you come across this hot instrument--contact Jane...)
In 1957 Sam and Kirk were “discovered” during the folk revival and eventually recorded three albums for Folkways and Starday. These recordings come from three live sessions, the first from a 1955 show at the New River Ranch (a show that also featured Grandpa Jones). Recorded by Mike Seeger, the set includes a cover of Tennessee Ernie Ford's “Milk 'Em In The Morning Blues,” Kokomo Arnold's “Milk Cow Blues,” Sam's own “Railroad Blues” and three others. The next 16 tracks (from a 1966 show in Bean Blossom, Indiana) spotlight the brothers on a typically eclectic set of tunes, including John Henry, Tiger Rag, Blackberry Blossom, When The Wagon Was New, and others. The final four tracks were again recorded by Seeger, this time in 1967 as part of the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife.
Mike Seeger: "I saw the McGees at a Grandpa Jones show at New River Ranch in 1955. I knew very little about them except Sam's guitar picking, and only a little of that. They were still playing well and I asked them to record. Their LPs didn't sell very well, as far as I know. Both LPs are available on special order and single tracks are down-loadable at 99 cents each via the SF website. "
Sam And Kirk McGee Discography After 1942:
In 1962 the McGee Bothers cut an album for Starday called Opry Old Timers. Also featured on the album are songs by the Crook on alternate tracks. Starday: SLP-182 “Opry Old Timers” Sam & Kirk McGee with Crook Brothers [1962] Roll On Buddy; Hung Down My Head & Cried; Freight Train Blues; Roll Along Jordan; My Gal's a High Born Lady; Coming From the Ball; Chittlin' Cookin' Time in Cheatham County;
Grandad of the Country Guitar Pickers: (Sam and Kirk McGee: Arhoolie Records; available from County Records) Sam McGee Stomp; Fuller Blues; Burglar Bold; Dew Drop; Jesse James; Ching Chong; Blackberry Blossom; Wheels; How Great Thou Art; When The Wagon Was New; Franklin Blues; Penitentiary Blues; Pig Ankle Rag; Railroad Blues; Buckdancer's Choice; Black Mountain Rag; Wayfaring Stranger
McGee Brothers (Sam and Kirk McGee) and Fiddlin’ Arthur Smith: Old Timers of the Grand Old Opry (Folkways Records - FW02379 1964): Amos Johnson Rag; Bile Them Cabbage Down; Boogie; Buck Dancer's Choice; Charming Bill; Chinese Breakdown; Coming from the Ball; Cumberland Gap; Dance All Night With a Bottle in Your Hand; Don't Let Your Deal Go Down; Drummer Boy; Dusty Miller; Easy Rider; Evening Shade The; Green Valley Waltz; Guitar Waltz; Hell Among the Yearlings; Hollow Poplar; House of David Blues; I've Had a Big Time Tonight Jim Sapp Rag; Keep a Light in Your Window; Kilby Jail; Knoxville Blues; Late Last Night; Lafayette; Memphis Blues; Milk Cow Blues; Milk 'Em in the Evening Blues; Needlecase; Peacock Rag; Pig at Home in the Pen; Polly Ann; Railroad Blues; Red Wing; Rock House Joe; Roll on Buddy; Sally Johnson; Sally Long; Single-Footing Horse; Sixteen on Sunday; Snowdrop; Uncle Buddy; Under the Double Eagle; Whistling Rufus; Whoop 'Em Up Cindy; Widow Haley;
Sam & Kirk McGee (Fuller Arnold’s MBA label recorded in the 1970s): Blue Light; Blues Come On In; Bound To Go; Buck Dancer’s Choice; Cabbage Head; Dark Clouds; Drunkard’s Dream; End Of Forever; Flattop Pickin’ Sam McGee; Franklin Blues; Gulf Coast Blues; Kirk’s Waltz; Knoxville Blues; Little Texas Waltz; Mabel Claire; Railroad Blues; Sally Long; Sam’s Other Side; Shut The Door; Southern Moon; Too Late To Change Your Mind; Tramp, The; Uncle Fuller; Victor Rag; Waiting For A Letter; When The Wagon Was New; While I'm Away; Won’t Happen Again;