After a two-year pandemic induced hiatus, Uncle Dave Macon Days, a roots rendezvous, is back in Murfreesboro. The event will be taking place at The Fountains on October 7 and 8, and it will be free and open to the public this year as a thanks to everyone for 43 years of support.
The event headliners are the Cleverleys. According to their Facebook page, The New York Times wrote, “If Earl Scruggs, Dolly Parton, and Spinal Tap spawned a litter of puppies [it would be the Cleverlys].”
This year, the event will kick off on Friday evening starting at 5:00 p.m. with the Glade City Rounders, Jake Leg Stompers, and Uncle Shuffelo and His Haint Hollow Hootenanny. Saturday, October 8, things start at 1:00 p.m. with performances by The Will MacLean Band, Caleb Christopher Edwards, Jake Leg Stompers, and closing out with The Cleverlys.
“We will be focusing on pure entertainment and loving on each other this year,” said Gloria Christy, President of Uncle Dave Macon Days. “Plus, the awards to be given this year include the Heritage Award and the Trailblazer Award.”
Uncle Dave Macon Days honors traditional American music and the career of the first superstar of the Grand Ole Opry and Country Music Hall of Famer, Uncle Dave Macon. Macon was already famous on the vaudeville stage for his banjo playing, and he invested that fame into the new Grand Ole Opry in its early days.
The festival began in 1978 on the lawn around the courthouse attracting a few old-time music enthusiasts. Slowly it built with its addition of national competitions and increasingly stellar performance line-ups. From this small start, it grew into an event drawing old-time music and dance enthusiasts from around the world, with a $1.2 million economic impact on Rutherford County. This year is a chance to wake the festival back up.
“We had to pivot with all the changes caused by the pandemic,” said Christy, “but we have so many people on the committee who won’t say no. Keeping Uncle Dave Macon Days is saving our musical cultural heritage. If we don’t keep the festival going, it will go away and no one will know how important the music was in Middle Tennessee.”
Dr. Charles K. Wolfe, a professor of English at Middle Tennessee State University and an authority on old time rural music once told Christy that Uncle Dave is not a Festival, but a movement. A movement important to keep the music alive for the next generation so they can understand how it is the foundation of modern popular music.
“When I was little I’d sit on the porch with my grandmother and she’d tell me the old stories about the area and the music,” said Christy, “But today’s kids don’t have those kinds of conversations with older generations anymore. This festival acts as a porch talk.”
Macon’s 152 birthday will fall on October 7. Christy is excited to be able to celebrate his birthday this year as they reawaken the festival.
