But I am speaking of the Man who they nicknamed "Haywire Mac".
The "King of the Hobos"
Harry McClintock
He is the guy who popularized the song "Big Rock Candy Mountain". Harry sang songs that were raw, and showed the gritty side of people who lived through the great depression of the late 1920s and 1930s.
It is the same song that author Wallace Stegner named his book after.
The title was/is a sarcastic metaphor, and in regards to his father's desire to find the last easy street, that Wallace decided to use in the story of the futile, yet hard-working efforts they put forth as a family to make things work in the one place he called "home".
It was more than they could handle, and the family fell apart.
But Harry's songs were something of a comfort to a child who would believe, at least for a summer of two, that it could be possible to have a normal, average life.
It is one of the reasons why I have chosen to bring a banjo to the Stegner house, record "Big Rock Candy Mountain", as well as my own songs based on the book of the same name.
And record on my Mac.
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