Name Harry McClintock Albums Haywire Mac | Role Singer | |
![]() | ||
Born October 8, 1882 ( 1882-10-08 ) Knoxville, Tennessee Other names Haywire Mac, Radio Mac, Strawlegs Martin Awards Country Music Association Award for Album of the Year Similar People Alison Krauss, Norman Blake, Chris Thomas King, Gillian Welch, John Hartford |
Soundie big rock candy mountain harry mcclintock
Harry Kirby McClintock (October 8, 1882 – April 24, 1957), also known as "Haywire Mac," was an American singer and poet.
Contents
- Soundie big rock candy mountain harry mcclintock
- Mov02572 avi harry mcclintock the trusty lariat
- Life
- Music
- Politics
- 78s
- LPs
- Compilations
- Songs
- References

Mov02572 avi harry mcclintock the trusty lariat
Life

Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, "the son of a railroad cabinet maker and nephew of four boomer trainmen". His drifting began when he ran away from home as a boy to join a circus. He railroaded in Africa, worked as a seaman, saw action in the Philippines as a civilian mule-train packer, supplying American troops with food and ammunition, and in 1899 found himself in China as an aide to newsmen covering the Boxer Rebellion. Back in the States, he hired out to the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway in the Pittsburgh area, and from there he took the boomer trail as railroader and a minstrel. Mac lived an adventurous life and never lost his sense of humor".
Music
He is best known for his song "Big Rock Candy Mountain", much later featured in the 2000 movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?. The song reached No. 1 on Billboard's "Hillbilly Hits" chart in 1939. Having worked as a cowboy himself, McClintock was one of the few "country" singers who had an authentic background from which to draw.
His song "The Old Chisholm Trail" was featured in the end credits of The Grandest Enterprise Under God episode (Episode 5) of the TV documentary miniseries The West.
He was included in Robert Crumb's series of "Heroes of Blues, Jazz and Country" trading cards.
Politics
He is credited as being the first person to sing "The Preacher and the Slave", a song by Joe Hill, in public. He was a lifelong member of the Industrial Workers of the World. In the early 1920s he worked and organized union men in the oil fields of west Texas, where he met and recruited writer Jim Thompson, who later incorporated him into several short stories using the name "Strawlegs Martin."
78s
LPs
Compilations
Songs
Big Rock Candy Mountain
Hallelujah - I'm a Bum
Long Haired Preachers
Goodbye Old Paint
The Preacher and the Slave
Utah Carl
Ain’t We Crazy
Subic
Fifty Years from Now
Sweet Violets
Uncle Jim's Rebel Soldier
Paddy Clancy
Darkie Uncle Ned
There Is Nothing New in Automobiles
Pete Wells and the Negro Fireman
Hedge Hog
Stung Right
Outside Dan Murphy's Door
Anecdote on Joe Hill
Anecdote on Pete Wells - Canal Boat Fireman
Marcus Daly Enters Heaven
Jordan Am a Hard Road to Travel
Jerry - Go Oil That Car
Sam Bass
Jerry - Go Ile That Car
Captain Simms & Mr Simms
Reconstructed Rebel Soldier
Poor Boy
Jesse James
What I'll Do
Captain Simms
Let Me Be Your Fantasy