Documentary Film – Nothing to Prove: Mac Arnold Returns to the Blues

The 2023 Horry County Museum Documentary Film Series continues with the documentary, Nothing to Prove: Mac Arnold Returns to the Blues.
Southpaw bassist and South Carolina native Mac Arnold was only ten years old when he and his brother built a guitar out of a gas can, a couple strips of wood, a handful of nails, and some screen wire. Arnold played in J. Floyd & the Shamrocks (who frequently featured a young James Brown on piano) while still in high school, and officially began his professional career when he joined Charles Miller’s band in the early ’60s. He moved to Chicago around 1965 and began working with saxophonist A.C. Reed before hooking up with Muddy Waters and his band in 1966. The Waters stint led to a fair amount of studio work, and Arnold played bass on several 1960s blues albums, including Otis Spann’s The Blues Is Where It’s At and John Lee Hooker’s Live at Cafe Au Go Go.