Mac and Bob

The first country singing team of Mac and Bob, full titles Lester McFarland and Robert Gardner, were blind music artists who met in the Kentucky School for the Blind in 1915. While with the capacity of playing several devices — Gardner performed piano professionally actually before Mac pc and Bob created their duo — they eventually settled within the mix of mandolin and acoustic guitar, commensurate with sacred duos such as for example Kim and Nyland; eventually, they helped to help expand popularize this format. Like a duo, Mac pc and Bob made an appearance within the Keith Vaudeville Circuit from 1922, and from 1925 on, on WNOX in Knoxville. Found out with a Brunswick skill scout in past due 1926, Mac pc and Bob started an extended and prolific documenting career that led to several game titles that offered well for Brunswick, including “When the Roses Bloom Once again” — their biggest vendor — and “The Shiny Sherman Valley,” a variant of “Crimson River Valley.” In 1931, Brunswick was bought out from the American Record Company, or ARC, and Mac pc and Bob had been retained within the Sears & Roebuck label Conqueror, which reissued almost all of their Brunswick information furthermore to building new types through 1935, leading some experts to conclude the duo made even more information than they actually did. Also on Conqueror, the favorite billing of “Mac pc and Bob” was selected over their complete names, that was the typical on Brunswick. That same 12 months, Mac pc and Bob had been named to the standard roster within the WLS Barn Dance radio system in Chicago. They might make yet another recording program after ARC was obtained by Columbia in 1940, consisting completely of sacred materials; their recording job finished when Sears made a decision to turn off Conqueror in 1941. To be able to help memorize and workout their songs, Macintosh and Bob utilized a specially modified type of Braille. Their calm, old-timey performance design never changed within the 30 years that Macintosh and Bob had been energetic; they sang basic tranquility in two parts, and occasionally Gardner sang single. Their repertoire was wide and included traditional ballads, gospel hymns, and blues, but their treatment of such materials was equivalent without respect to the choice. Although thought to be evergreens, both style and materials began to use thin with the past due ’40s, and Macintosh and Bob retired in the WLS Barn Dance in 1950. Robert Gardner passed away at age group 81 in 1978, and Lester McFarland implemented him in 1984, aged 82.