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Daddy Mack
Plain Man Blues - Daddy Mack Orr's Inspiring Story of
Struggle and Triumph
Inside Sounds |
In 2006, the
Daddy Mack Blues Band was preparing
to record their third album, Bluestones, for
Inside Sounds. Around the same time, Inside
Sounds’ producer Eddie Dattel was approached by
award-winning director Jim O’Donnell about
making a music documentary. When he found out
that the album was in the works, he decided to
pursue the project by telling the story of Daddy
Mack Orr.
The result was the excellent DVD
Plain Man Blues
– Daddy Mack Orr’s Inspiring Story of Struggle
and Triumph (Inside Sounds), a superbly-crafted
documentary that tells the story of Orr’s life
while capturing the recording process of the
album and including some exciting live
performances of the band.
O’Donnell documents Orr’s life, going back to
his early days in Como, Mississippi. Orr revisits his
hometown, driving down the gravel roads he
traveled in his youth and the cotton fields
where he labored. Orr tells some entertaining
stories about his growing up, how he first heard
the blues, and how he ended up in Memphis.
The film also examines Orr’s day-to-day life as
a mechanic in his garage in North Memphis. He
comes off as an amiable, regular guy during
these sequences --- a man that anyone would get
along with and also a man who has never backed off from a
challenge of any kind. After all, he picked up the guitar at the
age of 45!
The documentary intersperses comments from
Dattel, Judy Peiser (Executive Director of the
Center for Southern Folklore), and Orr’s wife,
Dorothy, as well as several of the musicians
involved in the making of the album (Billy
Gibson and brothers James and Harold Bonner)
during the recording process, and they all speak
glowingly of Orr and his love for the blues.
The recording of the album is also documented as
the band is shown working on several of the
songs, via clips from the sessions as well as
the songs played on the soundtrack. The viewer
also gets an inside look as to how songs are
written and how they are put together in the
studio.
The band (Orr – lead vocals/lead guitar, James
Bonner - rhythm guitar, Harold Bonner – bass,
William Faulkner – drums) are also show in
performance at three locations --- the 2006
Arkansas Music and Heritage Festival (with
Gibson on harmonica), The Center for Southern
Folklore, and at the Blue Worm in Orange Mound
in southeastern Memphis.
Daddy Mack Orr successfully juggles his everyday
life as a mechanic and family man with his life
as a Memphis blues man. His cheerful nature and
his love for the music comes through in every
scene of Plain Man Blues. Any blues fan would
truly appreciate this DVD, especially fans of
the Daddy Mack Blues Band. If you’re not one
before watching, you’ll be seeking out his
recordings once you watched.
By the way, Bluestones reached #3 on the
national blues radio charts.
--- Graham Clarke
