“NOTHING TO PROVE: 

The Story of Mac Arnold’s Return to the Blues”

The Woodward Studio Limited,

Producer Stan Woodward

Documentary filmmaker Stan Woodward began a journey in 2005 filming every aspect of the life and performances of South Carolina bluesman Mac Arnold.  He has now completed that quest and the DVD release is scheduled with a premiere showing on December 9, 2009 in Greenville, SC.  It will be broadcast statewide by South Carolina Educational Television and widely available for commercial release.  A pre-release copy of the uncut DVD was made available for my review.  (ED.: We will post up the cover & other pertinent info soon.)

Mac Arnold’s first band in high school often featured James Brown playing piano.  Arnold headed to Chicago in 1965 to work with saxophonist A. C. Reed and the next year became the bassist in the Muddy Waters Band.  After more than a year with that band, Arnold’s musical ventures included recordings with Otis Spann and John Lee Hooker among others and collaborating on many successful television shows before he retired and returned to his family farm in Pelzer, South Carolina.  In 2005 he and his newly formed band Mac Arnold & Plate Full O’ Blues recorded a widely acclaimed CD, “Nothin’ To Prove,” and Arnold was back on the road.

This is a down-to-earth story about one of the last surviving members of the Muddy Water’s era who played the blues with the best and yet finds that same joy and inspiration from digging in the dirt on his farm.  Some of the memorable scenes include those of Arnold sharing his homegrown collard greens with friends and fans.  He reminisces about the homemade gasoline can guitar that his brother Leroy built in the late ‘40s that he would “borrow.”  He shares stories about Muddy Waters who called him the “straw man.”  The camera captures performances as Arnold and the Plate Full O’ Blues band retrace the past on the road from South Carolina to the Mississippi Delta and Muddy Waters’ hometown Clarksdale, Mississippi.  In San Francisco Arnold reconnects with Waters’ bandmate, drummer Francis Clay (d. 2008).  In 2007 the first annual Mac Arnold Cornbread & Collard Greens Blues Festival in Greenville, SC featured old friends Hubert Sumlin, Eddie Shaw, Bob Margolin and Willie “Big Eyes” Smith and a short clip shows Arnold, Sumlin and Shaw backstage sharing stories.  Arnold’s latest mission is working with Blues in the Schools and an inspirational segment features the band’s original tune “I Can Do Anything” which was recorded live with the Greer High School Choir.  There is an engaging interview and performance clip with the Homemade Jamz Band. 

Dr. William R. Ferris, Senior Associate Director, Center for the Study of the American South, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in an interview describes Arnold as a “…unique voice in blues history, he is an exceptionally articulate thoughtful musician…I see his crops of collard greens and his music, the blues, as joined at the hip.”

This documentary provides a powerful mix of interwoven segments that will leave the viewer with the feeling that they have experienced a slice of modern music history.  Arnold’s engaging personality shines through and his joyous spirit is reflected in his music and the way he lives his life.  Arnold uses his past to connect to the future and the filmmaker takes us on the journey in an epic of immense historical and blues cultural value.

(C) 2009, Dorothy L. Hill

BluesSource.com

2009-11-10