Article written by Erika Godfrey, who has performed with Mac Snow for over 10 years, as a member of the Roundpeak Ramblers, along with Mac's son, Steve Snow, Mikel Snow, Bailey Holderfield, and John Strickland.
As a younger musician, I think one of the things I have enjoyed most about playing with veteran musicians of the North Carolina and Virginia area is hearing the stories they have to tell about their travels and adventures during their lifetime of playing. In particular, after playing with Mac Snow for almost 10 years, I have always enjoyed hearing Mac and his wife Nellie; reminisce about the times they had with folks like Fred Cockerham, Earnest and Scotty East, Paul Sutphin, Benton Flippin and many others. Despite hearing these stories from Mac for several years, it has only been in the last few years that it has occurred to me as well as others that these stories really need to be preserved. So, when the opportunity arose I purchased my very own digital recorder and sat down one afternoon with Mac and Nellie. It was during this interview that I learned whole lot about the 26 years or so Mac played as a central member of the Pine Ridge Boys.
Mac Burl Snow was born on March 3, 1930 to Mr. and Mrs. Garfield Snow in Lambsburg, Virginia. Like many people during this time, Mac was brought into a world full of old-time music. During our interview, Mac talked about his father, Garfield, and his brother, Harley Clayton, being clawhammer banjo players. Mac himself took up music after moving to the Pine Ridge area of Surry County with an older sister and her husband. At age eight, he started out playing an F5 Gibson mandolin. Shortly thereafter, Mac took up the learning the guitar from a book he purchased through a mail-order catalog.
Mac began playing as a member of the Pine Ridge Boys in the late 1960’s shortly after Fred Cockerham moved away and ceased performing as the Virginia-Carolina Ramblers. When Earnest East created the group, the originating members where: Earnest on the fiddle, Scotty East on the guitar and vocals, Mac Snow on the guitar and vocals, and Gilmer Woodruff on the banjo. In the spring of 1969, the Pine Ridge Boys recorded their first album entitled Earnest East and the Pine Ridge Boys: Old-time Mountain Music. However, Gilmer did not remain with the group and he would be the first of several banjo players, old-time and bluegrass style, to play with the Pine Ridge Boys.
Although Scotty did all of the singing on that first album, Mac, Scotty and later Patsy East would set the Pine Ridge Boys apart from other old-time groups of the area with their harmony singing and powerful two guitars combination. Mac said that when you played with Earnest he liked singing and he wanted you to sing everything you played if you would. When I asked him whether or not it was common for bands to sing in competition back then, he told a story about playing the fiddlers convention in Marion, VA. At Marion they used to have a score sheet; if a band wanted to know why they didn’t win they could get the score sheet. Mac said, "Earnest told that man, one time that they had played over there for 5 or 6 years and they ain’t never got a thing. When he got the score sheet, they said the band was entering old-time band playing bluegrass." However, there were other festivals where Mac, Scotty, and Patsy won trophies for their vocals.
Mac Burl Snow was born on March 3, 1930 to Mr. and Mrs. Garfield Snow in Lambsburg, Virginia. Like many people during this time, Mac was brought into a world full of old-time music. During our interview, Mac talked about his father, Garfield, and his brother, Harley Clayton, being clawhammer banjo players. Mac himself took up music after moving to the Pine Ridge area of Surry County with an older sister and her husband. At age eight, he started out playing an F5 Gibson mandolin. Shortly thereafter, Mac took up the learning the guitar from a book he purchased through a mail-order catalog.
Mac began playing as a member of the Pine Ridge Boys in the late 1960’s shortly after Fred Cockerham moved away and ceased performing as the Virginia-Carolina Ramblers. When Earnest East created the group, the originating members where: Earnest on the fiddle, Scotty East on the guitar and vocals, Mac Snow on the guitar and vocals, and Gilmer Woodruff on the banjo. In the spring of 1969, the Pine Ridge Boys recorded their first album entitled Earnest East and the Pine Ridge Boys: Old-time Mountain Music. However, Gilmer did not remain with the group and he would be the first of several banjo players, old-time and bluegrass style, to play with the Pine Ridge Boys.
Although Scotty did all of the singing on that first album, Mac, Scotty and later Patsy East would set the Pine Ridge Boys apart from other old-time groups of the area with their harmony singing and powerful two guitars combination. Mac said that when you played with Earnest he liked singing and he wanted you to sing everything you played if you would. When I asked him whether or not it was common for bands to sing in competition back then, he told a story about playing the fiddlers convention in Marion, VA. At Marion they used to have a score sheet; if a band wanted to know why they didn’t win they could get the score sheet. Mac said, "Earnest told that man, one time that they had played over there for 5 or 6 years and they ain’t never got a thing. When he got the score sheet, they said the band was entering old-time band playing bluegrass." However, there were other festivals where Mac, Scotty, and Patsy won trophies for their vocals.
While Mac was discussing his playing style, I learned that he began using a thumb and finger picks (a thumb pick for guitar runs and alternating basses; and then a finger pick that brushes down and back up again, similar to the way Maybelle Carter played) when he started playing with Scotty. He said that was the way Scotty played guitar when he joined the Pine Ridge Boys. Previously, Mac had used a flat pick but this was because he had played mandolin before picking up the guitar. When Mac and Scotty played the guitar together, Mac said Scotty would play rhythm while Mac put guitar runs in. When I asked him about his runs he said, “I guess I started putting them in mostly when I played with Earnest. I’ve always put some in. See Scotty he is a good rhythm picker, he kept it going, I could put a lot of runs in when I played with him”. When I asked him where he learned them from, he said he just figured them out.
The Pine Ridge Boys were well known on the fiddlers convention scene playing at conventions in places such as Low Gap, Union Grove, King, Beulah, Mount Airy, Charlotte and Lake Norman in North Carolina; Lambsburg, Sugar Grove, Independence, Galax, and Marion in Virginia; and New Glenwood Park in Bluefield, West Virginia. It was actually during this discussion that I learned Union Grove and Fiddlers Grove were held at the same time on Easter Weekend for awhile. Mac told me, “They used to have Fiddler’s Grove and Union Grove at the same time, them brothers was kindly a feuding, they wanted to see which one would have the biggest crowd I reckon. That one up there a Fiddler’s Grove he wouldn’t put up with no dope or drinking and the other one would, so the other one had the biggest crowd. There used to be so much traffic you couldn’t drive backwards and forwards to play both of them, you had to walk. We used to walk backwards and forwards to play both of them, that’s how crazy we was. They did that for a long time, I guess maybe 8 or 10 years. The first one I’d ever played at was with Earnest up on the road there at an old school house, then it moved down there on this farm and then he finally built this big ole building, I mean a big building.” In 1975, the Pine Ridge Boys were named World Champions after winning first place in the Old-time band competition at Union Grove. In addition to Mac, Scotty and Earnest, Steve Davis performed with the group on the banjo and Chester McMillian played the mandolin. When I asked Mac about what awards the group had won, he couldn’t remember all of them; however, he did say that Earnest had a whole bunch of ribbons and trophies and that he had so many they had to make him a cabinet to put them in. An interesting fact I learned about the Pine Ridge Boys and the world of fiddlers convention, was that the group actually sponsored their own fiddlers convention for about 4 years as a benefit for special needs children at the Children’s Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
In addition to being a dominate force at many of the area fiddler conventions, some of the other notable performances by the Pine Ridge Boys (Pine Ridge Boys and Patsy) were the American Dance Festival at Duke University, a “mini-folklife festival” at the North Carolina Correctional Center for Women in Raleigh, NC in 1978; and the 41st National Folk Festival at Wolftrap Farm Park in Vienna, Virginia in 1979. The group also took part in a filming for the Library of Congress during 1978. In 1980, the group performed and accompanied its leader, Ernest East as he and neighbor Tommy Jarrell were recognized by the National Council for the Traditional Arts with a performance at the Andy Griffith Playhouse in Downtown Mount Airy, NC.
As I mentioned earlier, after Gilmer Woodruff left the Pine Ridge Boys there were several banjo players, both old-time and bluegrass, who played with the group. Mac and Nellie couldn’t remembered everyone who played or in what order but he did say, “We had a bunch, even two or 3 bluegrass pickers. Earnest didn’t care, as long as they would sing. The band competitions weren’t separated then, it wasn’t old-time or bluegrass and we won some when there wasn’t anything but bluegrass.” Nellie also added that they won some even with a bluegrass picker. Some of the banjo players they recalled were: Steve Davis, Andy Cahn, Barry Poss, Ray Hanes, Richard Lundy, Wesley Golding, Dix Freeman and Blanton Owen. Other members over the years have been Chester McMillian on the mandolin and Wayne Golding and Wayne Creed have been pictured playing bass with the group. In 1975 the group began to call themselves the Pine Ridge Boys and Patsy after Scotty’s wife, Patsy joined the group on bass and vocals. In 1981, the Pine Ridge Boys recorded another album as the Pine Ridge Boys and Patsy: Stringband Music from Mount Airy with Patsy on the bass and vocals and Andy Cahn on the banjo.
Mac continued to play with the Pine Ridge Boys and Patsy until Earnest’s health declined and the group played less frequently. For a little while, Mac, Scotty and Pasty played with Richard Bowman and Ray Alden as the Round Peak Band. However, it just wasn’t the same as being a Pine Ridge Boy. I hope everyone has enjoyed this article and I apologize if I left an event or person out. All information was taken from my interview with Mac and Nellie Snow, newspaper articles/pictures/flyers I found in the Snow family scrapbook or the two albums produced by the group.