An Upstate blues legend is coming to Greer City Park this Saturday. Community members are invited to see Mac Arnold & Plate Full of Blues at Tunes in the Park on Aug. 16 at 6 p.m.
Mac Arnold, lead singer and guitarist of the group, is a native of Ware Place, S.C. Arnold is a well-renowned musician, being inducted into the South Carolina Entertainment & Music Hall of Fame in 2023. In 2017, he was inducted into the Alabama Blues Hall of Fame, as well.
Now 83 years old, Arnold has been playing music since he was 10. It wasn’t just a simple matter of buying a guitar, though. He and his brother Leroy, who also had an interest in music, had to get a bit creative.
“My father's very religious, Southern Baptist, and he wouldn't buy a guitar,” Arnold said. “He personally said he couldn’t afford it, but the bottom line was, he didn't believe that a guitar should be an instrument for a family. He thought that guitars were a devil's instrument.”
He continued, laughing: “And I agree with him. I play the devil out of mine.”
Since his father would not buy a guitar for the brothers, Leroy fashioned one out of a tin gas can and string.
“We had it hid in the barn, and we always played when he wasn't home,” Arnold said. “My father looked for that can for years and couldn't find it.”
As Arnold got older, he continued his music career, moving to Chicago in 1965, where he played with blues legend Muddy Waters as his bassist. He forgot about the gas can guitar for a while, until about 18 years ago, when he was reminiscing with one of his brothers.
Immediately, Arnold began looking for an old-style tin gas can. It took him a while, but once he did, he made a guitar out of it, just as his brother Leroy had done all those years ago.
“I played it around the United States here, and then all of a sudden, the thing took us to Europe,” Arnold said. “And it’s taken us all over.”
Now, Arnold lives locally back in Pelzer, S.C. After a lifetime of playing blues at home and abroad, he now spends much of his time at home tending to his farm. But he isn’t done yet — and now Greer residents can get a taste of a plate full of blues this Saturday.
When asked what he hopes listeners get out of his show, Arnold had a simple answer: positivity.
“I always write positives,” Arnold said. “I write a true story, and I sing about it.”
See Mac Arnold & Plate Full of Blues this Saturday at Greer City Park. For more information on the band, see their website.
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