1979 Mac Martin & The Dixie Travelers Bluegrass Pittsburgh PA - 2-Page Article

Description

1979 Mac Martin & The Dixie Travelers Bluegrass Pittsburgh PA - 2-Page Article
Original, vintage magazine article
Page Size: Approx 8" x 11" (21 cm x 28 cm) each page
Condition: Good
Mac
Martin
&
The
Dixie
Travelers
The haunting bluegrass strains catch a
current of wind and are carried far
into the sylvan Western Pennsylvania
setting.
Families and couples are clustered be-
tween the beautiful shade trees in a semi-
circle of lawn chairs, blankets and
benches.
The atmosphere is relaxed and peace-
ful, and even strangers seem like friends.
On the bandshell stage, the focus of
activity, a smiling guitarist graciously
acknowledges the applause of the
audience, then exits, his set completed.
He is greeted by his young son, who
wears his pride for his dad in the beam
on his face.
“Dad,” he asks, “do you want me to get
out the albums (to sell)?”
“No,” his father replies gently, “We’re
not hungry.”
The scene was last summer at a Sunday
bluegrass fesitval in the Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania area. The father and son
exchange was between Mac Martin of the
Dixie Travelers, who are observing their
25th anniversary in 1979, and his 12-year-
old son, Bob.
The “We’re not hungry” response
to his boy says a lot about the man and
his music.
Who knows where Mac, now 53, (his
real name is William D. Colleran)
would have gone in the industry had he
chosen to pursue music full time?
Bill Vernon, in the liner notes to the
Dixie Travelers’ 1974 “Dixie Bound”
(County 743) album, succinctly captured
the Martin essence when he observed:
“Any authentically personal form of
music has its justly celebrated great
performers. At the same time, it is likely
to have many other performers whose
music is comparably proficient, creative
and rewarding, but who, for any of
several reasons, do not achieve the
acclaim they richly deserve.”
Mac’s accomplishments, Vernon sug-
gested, largely have gone unnoticed.
The Dixie Travelers, he reminded,
often have been compared to the Flatt and
Scruggs band as they sounded in the early
’50s.
Vernon: “(The Dixie Travelers) have
captured on record better than any other
group, perhaps including Lester and Earl
themselves, the atmosphere of informal
greatness that characterized the Flatt
and Scruggs WSM early-morning radio
shows of the period.”
Martin says that Flatt is his favorite
all-time singer, and Vernon adds that
“much of Mac’s singing is reminiscent
of Flatt in his bluegrass prime.”
Vernon also praises Martin for having
“the good sense to bring to bluegrass
great, neglected songs that fit naturally
and wonderfully into bluegrass, signifi-
cantly enriching both the material and
bluegrass music itself in the process.”
Dixie Traveler alumnus and author (of
a book, viewed by many as the definitive
work on bluegrass) Bob Artis:
“Mac is unique in that he is one of the
bluegrass old-liners, an original. That he
is from Pittsburgh, that really makes him
unique. I don’t think anybody performing
has the background, the knowledge of old-
time music that he does. I don’t think
anyone playing has that old-time sound
that he has, the early ’50s Flatt and
Scruggs sound from the golden age of
straight bluegrass.”
What does Mac think about all this?
Does he feel, as many suggest, he has
been slighted in the credit department?
"Well,” he considers the question. “I
would have to take responsibility for
that. I have never made it a point to
make music the first thing in my life. It’s
always been secondary to my regular job
(which is as an accountant and office
manager at a Pittsburgh music store).
“No, life’s been good to me and music’s
been good to me, and I don’t know if I
deserve any more credit, to be honest
with you.
“...Way back in the early days, the
’50s, I could have gone with different
bands. But at the time it was almost
a matter of economics. You could have a
full time job that would provide a liveli-
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