This is the unedited version of the article “Growing the Blues” as published in Living Blues magazine. Issue #269. Vol. 51. #5. November 2020. By Frank Matheis
The college lad just turned 19 and has already raised eyebrows as a fabulous rising blues singer/guitar protégé. Sean Alexander McDonald, known as “Mack” McDonald, from Augusta, Georgia, is a junior at Middle Tennessee State University at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, 45 minutes outside of Nashville. He is studying audio production and minoring in music. He can smoothly master a range of styles from Robert Johnson to T-Bone Walker, from old country blues to Chuck Berry. Young “Mack” came to the attention of the blues world when he was recorded trying out a guitar in an Augusta, Georgia, music store by Michael Vincent Baideme. Just 15 years old at the time, the gifted Mack rolled out a breathtaking rendition of Robert Johnson’s Dust My Broom. Everybody noticed. OMG who is that kid? “The rest is history” said McDonald. He was now on the map.
Says McDonald, “As of right now, I’m really mainly focusing on graduating from college. That’s a really big steppingstone for me, because education is a very important thing to my family. When people invite me to perform, we’ll figure out how I’m able to work that in my school schedule and whether I’m able to go or not. My education is the main important thing. My father used to tell me all the time, “You do what you have to do so you can do what you want to do.” This is something that I definitely have to do, to get this done as of right now so I can set myself up for success in the long run.”
The talented young virtuoso played the King Biscuit Festival, for example, but only after putting school first. “They wanted me to play at the King Biscuit Festival the year before I actually played. But because I had just started school and it was my first year, my mom was like, no, you got to be in school! I got together with Rich Patton, who is a harmonica player out of Alabama, and we did a 45-minute set of a bunch of blues numbers that I had gotten together from older musicians like Jimmy Reed, T Bone Walker – a lot of my influences. After that, I was just walking around and meeting lots of musicians like Marcus Cartwright, Marquise Knox out of St. Louise, Keith Johnson out of Clarksdale. I actually got to meet Kirk Fletcher that day, which was really great. Marquise had a set on the same date that night, and he called me up and I played and sang a little bit.
His primary mentor has been Jontavious Willis. “I did my first show with Jontavious Willis, 2017. I have Jontavious Willis to thank for a lot of good stuff that’s been happening to me in the past few years. I have had a lot of mentors over the years, but I consider Jontavious to be a big brother. He took me under his wing and showed me some of the stuff, like some of the musicians that he was listening to and I kept their influence in my mind. He opened me up to a lot of country blues musicians. I am now able to be flexible with electric blues and country blues.
Like many musicians, he started off in church and he enjoyed the support of a musical family, “I always knew I wanted to be a musician. I grew up around musicians, growing up in church. I think I was 10 when I played my first gig, playing stuff like Louis Jordan and T Bone Walker and Chuck Berry. My father played jazz music when I was a baby because he’s a drummer. He played jazz music around the house to keep me calm, so I always had an affinity for music. It runs in the family. I was a really big Ray Charles fan at an early age. Around the time when I was seven I got my first guitar after being inspired by BB King, Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters. I wanted to do what they do. After getting my first guitar I started getting into Robert Johnson. That was I was when I really focused in the blues. I got into Delta slide guitar. I promoted myself to electric guitar it was a – Fender Stratocaster. Then, I started hearing about T Bone Walker and all these older musicians who influenced the musicians.
Expect great things from this amazing young talent.
