Bman's Blues Report

Macon, born in 1920 in Society Hill, played a type of music he called "boogie and blues," which he learned from his father, Buster Macon, at house parties and frolics in the rural Macon County community. They played old-time, country blues tunes, such as "John Henry," and "Staggerlee," in a rousing style intended for dancing. Albert Macon began teaching Robert Thomas to play blues guitar when Thomas, who was nine years younger than Macon, was about 15 years old. For over 40 years the two men played music together at fish fries, parties and festivals in the greater Auburn, Tuskegee, and Columbus, Georgia area. The two men also received national and international attention, playing such venues as the Knoxville World's Fair and the American Blues Festival in the Netherlands and the WDR Blues Festival in Bonn, Germany. If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, Like ---B...

Albert Macon, born in 1920 in Society Hill, played a type of music he called "boogie and blues," which he learned from his father, Buster Macon, at house parties and frolics in the rural Macon County community. They played old-time, country blues tunes, such as "John Henry," and "Staggerlee," in a rousing style intended for dancing. In a 1991 interview with music researcher Joyce Cauthen, Macon described set dances held in neighbors' homes where his father played guitar and Robert Thomas' father called the figures that guided the couples on the dance floor. He also described another type of dance involving rhythmic foot shuffling and tapping, known as buckdancing. Macon, who was an excellent buckdancer himself, recalled the competitive nature of the scene. "They'd be singing what I'd be playing. Like 'Sixteen-Twenty' and 'Mean Old Frisco.' And then all the ladies would stand back and the men would come around and do the...