Mack Magaha (1929 to 2003) was the fiddler in two of the most watched bands of his era. He joined Don Reno and Red Smiley’s Tennessee Cut-Ups in 1955 and stayed through the band’s classic decade. In 1964 he moved to Porter Wagoner’s Wagonmasters and became a fixture of the Porter Wagoner Show, where audiences knew him as Nashville’s Dancing Fiddle Man. He wrote Mack’s Hoedown and the Wagoner and Dolly Parton hit We’ll Get Ahead Someday.
Why Magaha matters
Magaha put bluegrass fiddle on television every week for a decade. The Reno and Smiley band played television in Richmond, Petersburg, Roanoke, Harrisonburg, and Washington, and the Porter Wagoner Show reached country fans across the nation. Viewers who never went to a festival learned what a bluegrass fiddle break looked like from watching Magaha dance through one. His fiddle also sits under Reno and Smiley’s first sessions together, including I Know You’re Married (But I Love You Still), the band’s most popular song.
Life and career
Magaha was born on August 1, 1929. His early life is thinly documented. He enters the record in 1955, when Reno and Smiley reformed as a touring act after a promoter in Richmond, Virginia, booked them for an Easter weekend show. Magaha came along on fiddle with John Palmer on bass. The band was offered a regular spot on the Old Dominion Barn Dance and stayed in Richmond. Their first session together, in August 1956, produced Country Boy Rock ‘n’ Roll, No Longer a Sweetheart of Mine, and I Know You’re Married (But I Love You Still).
For the next decade the Tennessee Cut-Ups worked the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic with regular television shows and a King Records contract that put out a single every six weeks. Magaha’s Mack’s Hoedown, released on King in 1955 as the flip side of I’m the Biggest Liar in Town, carries his name in the writing credit. He played on the band’s Wanted album beside Palmer, Sid Campbell, and a young Ronnie Reno. Red Smiley’s health forced him off the road in early 1965, and the classic band ended.
Magaha had already left in 1964 to join Porter Wagoner’s Wagonmasters. He played old-time fiddle on the Porter Wagoner Show and worked beside Dolly Parton after she joined the show. His song We’ll Get Ahead Someday gave Wagoner and Parton a top ten country single in 1968, one of their first duet hits. RCA Special Products released his album The Dancin’ Fiddle Man in 1974.
In the 1970s Magaha became a regular performer at the Opryland USA theme park in Nashville, where he recorded live albums of his bluegrass and country show. He died at the Veterans Hospital in Nashville on August 15, 2003, at age 74.
Playing style
Magaha’s stage act is the first thing anyone mentions. He danced while he fiddled, kicking and spinning through his breaks, and the country music writer Stephanie Ledgin grouped him with Curly Ray Cline as the fiery showmen of bluegrass fiddle. The dancing was not a substitute for the playing. On the Reno and Smiley records he plays a hard, driving shuffle that fits Don Reno’s banjo.
His solo records show the range a television fiddler needed. The Dancin’ Fiddle Man runs from Orange Blossom Special and Little Liza Jane to Our Waltz and Cajun Lady. His hoedowns are built for a stage, with short, clear phrases that a crowd can follow while he moves.
Influences and legacy
Magaha’s fiddle chair in the Tennessee Cut-Ups was later filled by Benny Martin, in a short partnership Reno announced at the first Fincastle festival in 1965, and by Buck Ryan. His style of showmanship links him to Curly Ray Cline and to the Opry fiddlers who came before him. Songs he wrote or co-wrote stayed in circulation: I Know You’re Married was recorded by Bill Anderson, Rodney Crowell, Patty Loveless, Jimmy Martin, and Travis Tritt.
He stayed close to his old bandmates. A 1990 reunion of the Top O’ the Morning television show, led by Ronnie Reno, brought Magaha back beside John Palmer and other Reno and Smiley regulars.
Signature tunes and songs
Mack’s Hoedown I Know You’re Married (But I Love You Still) We’ll Get Ahead Someday Orange Blossom Special Little Liza Jane Fiddlin’ Sid.
Essential recordings
I’m the Biggest Liar in Town / Mack’s Hoedown, Reno and Smiley (King, 1955) Wanted, Reno and Smiley (King) We’ll Get Ahead Someday, Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton (RCA Victor, 1968) The Dancin’ Fiddle Man (RCA Special Products, 1974) Mack Magaha Plays Bluegrass and Country at Opryland (1978)
Watch and listen
Magaha plays a fiddle tune on the Porter Wagoner Show. Watch the feet as much as the bow.
Magaha plays Katy Hill, a breakdown that shows his shuffle at speed.
What to learn from Magaha
Learn Mack’s Hoedown from the 1955 King single. It is a short, square hoedown with phrases that land right on the beat, and it teaches how a fiddle break can drive a banjo band without fighting it. The technique to steal is his stage presence. Magaha proved that a fiddler can move and still play in tune. Stand up at your next jam, plant your feet, and let your body keep time. The bow arm relaxes when the rest of you does.
Sources
Mack Magaha, Wikipedia Reno and Smiley, Wikipedia Don Reno, Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum Album of the Week #28, Reno & Smiley’s Wanted, Bluegrass Today Moments in Bluegrass: Wild bus ride with Don Reno and Red Smiley, Bluegrass Today Bonny Beverley passes, Bluegrass Today Mack Magaha, Discogs Don Reno, Red Smiley and the Tennessee Cutups, I’m the Biggest Liar in Town / Mack’s Hoedown, Discogs Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton, We’ll Get Ahead Someday, Discogs Mack Magaha, The Dancin’ Fiddle Man, Discogs
Related players
See the fiddle players hub and the fiddle guide for more bluegrass fiddlers. Curly Ray Cline shared his taste for showmanship. Benny Martin followed him in Don Reno’s band, and Paul Warren held the same kind of chair with Flatt and Scruggs in the same years.