Mac Arnold & Plate Full O’ Blues

Hendersonville Theatre is proud to launch its 2023 Hometown Sound Music Series with Mac Arnold & Plate Full O’ Blues!

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. Arnold 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 be an organic farmer, Arnold is back with his own band and a “plate full” of CDs, building a new foundation in blues, soul and funk.

​As part of the Muddy Waters Band, Arnold 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, just to name a few. During this time, Arnold 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”.

Arnold later formed the Soul Invaders, which backed up many artists, including The Temptations and B. B. King. In the early 70’s, he moved 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 80”s.

Arnold now resides in Pelzer, where at the age of ten he got his first taste of the blues when he learned to play his brother Leroy’s home-made guitar. Going back to his roots. Arnold is serving up a mess of Blues with his own band, Mac Arnold & Plate Full O’ Blues. The band consists Austin Brashier on guitar and vocals, Max Hightower on harmonica and vocals, Rick Latham on drums, Mike Frost on bass and  Arnold on vocals and Gas Can Guitars.

The Blues Music Awards have taken notice of Arnold over the past few years. He was on hand for the 31st annual Blues Music Awards held May 6, 2010 in Memphis. Arnold accepted the award for Best Historical Album for his participation on the 1966 recording Muddy Waters – Authorized Bootleg: Live at the Fillmore Auditorium (Geffen Records). The recording was released in 2009.