“A Neat Way to Live”

Vandalia Award Winner Mack Samples

By John Lilly

Mack Samples at his home near Duck, Clay County. Photograph by Michael Keller.

Mack Samples never set out to build an impressive list of personal accomplishments. Yet he is regarded as a West Virginia treasure, having received the 2003 Vandalia Award for his lifetime of contributions to our state’s folk culture and for his many achievements as a musician, singer, dancer, dance caller, festival organizer, and author. “I didn’t start out to do those things in order to achieve success in them,” Mack says frankly, speaking from his home on a remote Clay County farmstead. “I just kind of did that stuff because I enjoyed doing it.”

Anyone who has seen Mack in action knows the truth behind those words. Mack does know how to enjoy himself. He nearly bursts with excitement as he performs on stage as a member of the Samples Brothers Band, he flatfoots with the exuberance of a 10-year-old kid on Christmas morning, and he calls figures with a ferocious intensity that can raise the blood pressure of any square dancer lucky enough to be on the dance floor when he is calling. Whatever activity Mack undertakes, he does it with authority, enthusiasm, and deep commitment. “There’s not anything I did because I wanted recognition,” he explains. “It’s just things I went out and did because it came natural to me.”

It came honestly, as well, as he traces his family roots in the Elk River Valley for more than 200 years.

You can read the rest of this article in this issue of Goldenseal, available in bookstores, libraries or direct from Goldenseal.