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Mac Wiseman 23.05.1925-24.02.2019
Malcolm Bell Wiseman (May 23, 1925-February 24, 2019) was an American bluegrass singer.
Press Reports
Nash Country Daily | by Jim Casey | @TheJimCasey | February 25, 2019
Country Music Hall of Fame Member Mac Wiseman Dead at 93
Country Music Hall of Fame member Mac Wiseman, 93, died on Feb. 24.
Over the course of his 60-plus-year career, Mac, who was known as “The Voice With a Heart,” released more than 50 albums, covering not only country and bluegrass, but also folk and gospel. Among his most famous singles are “The Ballad of Davy Crockett,” “Your Best Friend and Me” and “Jimmy Brown the Newsboy.” In addition, Mac was one of the original members of Flatt & Scruggs’ Foggy Mountain Boys and for a brief time was a member of Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys band.
He was born Malcolm B. Wiseman on May 23, 1925, in Crimora, Virginia.
courage him to sing and play the guitar.
“She told me to keep up with my music so I wouldn’t have to plow these old fields,” said Mac to Country Weekly in 2014.
During his final year in high school, the National Foundation for Polio matched funds for a scholarship that allowed Mac to attend college at the Shenandoah Conservatory of Music in Dayton, Va., where he studied music and radio broadcasting.
He played upright bass for Molly O’Day before joining the Foggy Mountain Boys and Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys. After performing on the Louisiana Hayride radio show, Mac started to develop a following of his own as a solo artist. He began recording albums in the 1950s, and didn’t stop until shortly before his death.
Mac was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 1994. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2014. Mac was the last living original board member of the Country Music Association.
Background information From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Early life
He was born on May 23, 1925, in Crimora, Virginia.
He attended school in New Hope, Virginia, and graduated from high school there in 1943. He had polio from the age of six months; due to his disabilities, he could not do field work and spent his time in childhood listening to old records.
He studied at the Shenandoah Conservatory in Dayton, Virginia, before it moved to Winchester, Virginia, in 1960 and started his career as a disc jockey at WSVA-AM in Harrisonburg, Virginia.
Music career
His musical career began as upright bass player in the Cumberland Mountain Folks, the band of country singer Molly O'Day. When Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs left Bill Monroe's band, Wiseman became the guitarist for their new band, the Foggy Mountain Boys. Later he played with Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys.
In 1951, his first solo single, "'Tis Sweet to Be Remembered", was released. According to Rolling Stone this song "catapulted him to solo stardom".
He was co-founder of the Country Music Association (CMA) and was its last living co-founder. In 1958, the original CMA board was formed with help from Wiseman to save the popularity of country music from rock & roll. He also served as the first secretary of CMA.
In 1986 he co-founded the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) which was another influential bluegrass music body.
Wiseman was referred to by a disc jockey as "The Voice with a Heart", a title which became popular among his fans. He was popular for his interpretations of songs on Dot Records such as "Shackles and Chains", "I'll Be All Smiles Tonight", "Jimmy Brown the Newsboy", and "Love Letters in the Sand".
In 2014, he released an album of songs inspired by his mother's handwritten notebooks of songs she heard on the radio when Mac was a child: Songs From My Mother's Hand.
He died in Nashville on February 24, 2019. The cause of death was kidney failure.
Mac Wiseman recorded splendid and often groundbreaking music for more than seventy years, remaining relevant and productive even in his nineties.
«He was a titan of bluegrass music's first generation, though bluegrass never defined him. He helped found the CMA, he headed Dot Records' country division, and he recorded with everyone from big band legend Woody Herman to Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Duane Eddy to Americana poet laureate John Prine.»
— Kyle Young, CEO, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
Awards and honors
In 1993 he was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor. Wiseman was a recipient of a 2008 National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the United States' highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.
In 2014 he was inducted into the Veteran Era category of the Country Music Hall of Fame, which is given to "an artist who achieved national prominence more than 45 years ago".
Videos, Downloads
*Immanuel Kant
Created: 20190226
Updated: 20200229
Wikipedia: This page was last edited on 27 February 2020, at 03:21 (UTC).