MAC ARNOLD and His Plate Full Of Blues ...

... is the story of Mac Arnold, a Greenville County, SC organic farmer who has been encouraged by local young blues musicians to return to the performance stage to become a living link between today’s audiences and the legendary sound of the Muddy Waters Chicago blues band in which Mac sang and played bass in the mid-sixties.

This documentary is made possible by a modest "seed" grant from the South Carolina Arts Commission’s Folklife and Traditional Arts program in recognition of a folk heritage music tradition considered worthy of recognition and appreciation by the broadest possible community of citizens in the state of South Carolina. The grant was awarded to the Community Foundation of Greater Greenville to enable Stan Woodward to document the story of local blues musician, Mac Arnold, and his decision to return to performing the blues as a "musical link" between today’s audiences and the legendary blues he played as part of the mid-1960’s legendary Muddy Waters Chicago blues band. Mac played bass for Muddy, and his first CD – "Nothing to Lose" - has original songs written to recall those days with Muddy as well as with blues greats John Lee Hooker, Otis Spann, and his friend, Otis Redding.

Only three grants were awarded by to recognize folk artists this year out of over 50 applications to the South Carolina Arts Commission, and while small in amount, the prestige and recognition that the Arts Commission grant provides is an endorsement that challenges us to raise the necessary additional funds that will enable Stan Woodward and crew to track the spiraling progress of the group since shooting began in March ’05. The Community Foundation of Greater Greenville is the non-profit agency sponsoring the project and is seeking private and corporate tax-deductible donations to move the documentary onto a level that enables it to be broadcast statewide over SCETV and on to national distribution to PBS stations across the country.

So far the seed grant has enabled the video documentation of Mac’s story of leaving his father’s farm in Pelzer as a young man to try his musical gifts out at blues clubs in Chicago; moving on to perform with his own band in Chicago – The Soul Invaders – and on to Hollywood where he played with the "Soul Train" TV program's studio band; and the story of how a young Max Hightower (harmonica and keyboard) pursued Mac on his farm in Pelzer after he retired from the blues and returned home to take over running the family farm. It took Max nine years before convincing Mac Arnold that there were three other "top drawer" blues musicians in the area willing to come together in order to get Mac back into full time performance.

The first tax deductible donations raised enabled Stan to travel and document the band's performance on the "Newcomers' Stage" at the world famous King Biscuit Blues Festival in Helena, Arkansas – an important national venue where Mac appeared on the "New Performers" stage and was reunited with Louisiana's Bobby Rush, who was playing in Chicago at the time Mac was with the Muddy Waters band. (We learn that Bobby had made the same trek that Mac made to seek his fortunes in the Chicago blues clubs from the rural South, and had started out playing with Muddy Waters two decades earlier.) 

In November, additional donations enabled Stan to travel to San Francisco to document Mac and the band at an historic blues event – the reuniting of the last two living blues musicians who played with the 60’s Muddy Waters Chicago blues band – Mac Arnold and Francis Clay (Muddy’s drummer and composer.) The reunion of the two musicians took place during the 80th birthday celebration for Francis Clay. The historic blues event was celebrated by a Mac Arnold and Plate Full O' Blues commemorative performance at the famous San Francisco blues club - Biscuit and Blues.

Earlier on in October Mac and the band won first place at the Charlotte Blues Society’s "Battle of the Bands" competition – a head-to-head competition where the winner goes on to Memphis in January to compete at the International Blues Competition. Stan and crew followed Mac to the Memphis competition and on down to Clarksdale, Mississippi, where Mac - as part of his re-connecting with his Muddy Waters blues band past - played at a local juke joint called "Red's" where he was joined by Handy Award-winners, Big Jack Johnson and Slick Ballenger in one of the band's most memorable performances.

Following the Memphis shoot, Stan nominated Mac for the Jean Laney Harris Folk Heritage Award - South Carolina's most prestogious recognition of individuals who are considered folk heritage "treasures" in the state of South Carolina. When Mac won, Stan and crew were there to capture the award ceremony at the SC State Capitol, and produced a 4-camera live-switched TV production of the Mac Arnold Folk Heritage Award concert at the Handlebar music club in Greenville, SC.

The final shoot took place when Mac and the band held center stage at the July 4th Red, White and Blue Festival in Mac's home-town of Greenville, where the band gave a knock-out performance that introduced a new song designed to be performed in public schools to educate the next generation of South Carolinians to their blues heritage roots and the art of the down home country 'talking blues." 

With all production funds expended, we are currently seeking donations to enable Stan to put together the post-production editing team necessary for taking over 150 hours of footage and cut it down to a one hour TV documentary to appear on public television.

PLEASE HELP... make a tax deductible donation to this project and receive a "Friend of Mac Arnold and His Plate Full of Blues" gift. Send your tax-deductible contribution to:

Attn: Bob Morris, Executive Director 

Community Foundation of Greenville

37 Cleveland Street , Suite 101

Greenville, SC, 29601

For further information about donating to the Mac Arnold Documentary Film Fund:

Phone – 864-233-5925

Major corporate underwriters will receive a special 3-D animated computer graphic of their logo or company name which will appear at the opening of the broadcast with a narrated credit appropriate to the donation.

The documentary is being produced for broadcast over public television, starting with a statewide broadcast over SCETV.