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Face Magazine
Portland, Maine
May, 1995
I'm Following the Stars
My first memory of Ken MacKenzie dates to the early 60’s when he and
Simone the Mrs. had a Saturday afternoon television show. Those were,
of course, vastly different times, when the most radical cartoon going
featured Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner, and local programming ran
to Dialing for Dollars. Odd as it might seem, my grandfather,
who was blind, loved to watch the MacKenzie show, mainly to hear
"country & western" music in its pristine form. Fiddles,
yodelin' and storytellin' were all part of the program, and the fact
that it originated from a television studio in Portland, Maine, about
2,000 miles from the nearest thing you could call a prairie, made its
authentic sound all the more amazing.
Remarkably, Ken MacKenzie and the group never issued a recording,
despite the fact that his own performing career spanned more than four
decades. But after Ken died in 1993 (Simone passed away in 1984),
their sons Richard and Ken Jr. and Richard's niece Marjorie began to
sift through transcriptions from 1951 and 1952 of the MacKenzies'
radio show. From it they've culled 21 tracks of unbelievably high
sound quality that will stir memories many haven't recalled in a
quarter century or more.
The excellence of "I'm Following the Stars"
starts with the sound quality and ends with the fact that five members
of this band wound up in the Maine Country Music Hall of Fame. But as
good as accordionist Dick Monroe, fiddler Pete Dixon, stand-up bassist
Joe Gallien and Betty Gribbin were, and as versatile as the band was,
with Simone able to front them to spell Ken, MacKenzie himself remains
one of the great forgotten talents of country music anywhere. You
probably don't have to go any farther than the 52 second sustained
yodel on "Texas Plains" to make that point, but you could.
Just listen to how easily he slips that yodel into 'The Round-Up in
the Fall." People often regard yodeling as the vocal equivalent
of riding a unicycle, but for Ken it was another way to deliver the
words.
Besides the Western songs, the MacKenzies' did a lot with spirituals
('Can the Circle Be Unbroken, ' ' Read the Bible If You Want to Meet
the Lord,' 'S.A.V.E.D.), story songs ('Rescue From Mooseriver
Goldmine)," "The Calgary Round-Up') and nonsense songs
("I Was Born About Four Thousand Years Ago'). But above all Ken
MacKenzie & Simone the Mrs. were entertainers. To everybody's
credit and benefit, these transcriptions include introductions and
cross talk between the musicians which only go to reinforce the
feeling of authenticity.
It may not seem like much, but if you're stuck for a Mother's or
Father's Day gift, contact Richard MacKenzie about copies of I'm
Following the Stars. If your parents grew up in Maine between
1935 and 1965 you may have found a better gift than they ever imagined
could exist.
Copyright © 1998 MacKenzie
Family Productions
All Rights Reserved. Do not duplicate or redistribute in any form.
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