Mac Odell
Musician · 1916–2003 · Roanoke, Alabama
Best known for
Songwriter
Mac Odell — born Odell McLeod — was an Alabama country-gospel singer, radio entertainer, and songwriter whose “Thirty Pieces of Silver” entered the standard bluegrass and country-gospel repertoire after Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper, Hank Williams, and Red Smiley all carried it onto record. He spent the 1930s and 40s broadcasting across the South before stepping away from music for a Michigan sign business.
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- Born Odell McLeod on May 31, 1916, in Roanoke, Alabama.
- Grew up listening to the Skillet Lickers, DeFord Bailey, and Jimmie Rodgers on the family radio.
- Toured the southern radio circuit through the 1930s as half of the Mac & Slim duo with Slim Bassett; landed a regular New Orleans show on WWL in 1935.
- Held resident-musician posts at WJJD Chicago and WLAC Nashville over the 1930s and 1940s.
- Wrote and first recorded “Thirty Pieces of Silver” with his Alabama Jubileers in 1949; the song became a standard via cuts by Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper, Hank Williams, Red Smiley and the Blue Grass Cutups, and Harry & Jeanie West.
- Moved to Benton Harbor, Michigan in 1957 and ran the local Odell Signs shop; stepped away from songwriting for nearly two decades.
- Resumed writing and performing in the late 1970s after a 1974 heart attack, recording new sides and revisiting older songs for the German Folk Variety label.
- Died in 2003.
