Mac Arnold & Plate Full O’ Blues

Mac Arnold & Plate Full O’ Blues return to Hendersonville Theatre in August for HT’s Hometown Sound Music Series! Alabama Blues Hall of Fame member Mac Arnold’s first band included James Brown on piano. He toured and recorded with the Muddy Waters Band and recorded LPs with Otis Spann and John Lee Hooker. Mac moved to Los Angeles and produced Soul Train with his friend Don Cornelius. He even played bass on the Sanford & Son television show when he wasn’t playing bass for Otis Redding and B.B. King. After retiring from show business to become an organic farmer, Mac is back with his band and a “plate full” of CDs, building a new foundation in blues, soul, and funk.

?As part of the Muddy Waters Band, Mac helped shape the electric blues sound that inspired the rock and roll movement of the late 60’s and early 70’s. Regular guests of the band included Eric Clapton, Paul Butterfield, Mike Bloomfield, and Elvin Bishop. The Muddy Waters Band (as a unit) shared the stage with the likes of Howlin’ Wolfe, Elmore James, Jimmy Reed, Junior Wells, Big Joe Williams, and Big Mama Thornton. During this time, Mac played on John Lee Hooker’s “live “album, Live at the Café Au Go-Go, as well as Otis Spann’s classic recording The Blues is Where It’s At.

Mac later formed the Soul Invaders, which backed up many artists, including The Temptations and B. B. King. In the early 1970s, he moved to Los Angeles to work at ABC Television and LAFF Records (Redd Foxx). This led to working on the set of Soul Train from 1971 to 1975 and then working with Bill Withers (Lean On Me) before moving back to South Carolina in the 1980s.