Suffering a disability from infancy, polio victim Mac Wiseman left his Blue Ridge Mountain valley home to forge a career in country music. His pure, bell-like tenor and guitar stylings broke barriers, as he succeeded on his own terms, scoring success worldwide. Wiseman worked early on with Bill Monroe and Flatt & Scruggs, then found solo stardom via hits like "Tis Sweet To Be Remembered," "Ballad of Davy Crockett" and "Jimmy Brown The Newsboy." A mainstay on the music scene even today, he became the genre's first artist to produce other acts, and has recorded with such legends as Molly O'Day,...

Since infancy, he's suffered an impaired leg from Polio, but Mac Wiseman had too much backbone not to succeed. He worked twice as hard as other Appalachian farm-boys, then went on to get an education and carve out a career in show business: First as a broadcaster, then as musician for pioneers Buddy Starcher, Molly O'Day, Flatt & Scruggs and Bill Monroe, and finally as a solo singer, hitting his stride with ballads about "Davy Crockett" and "Jimmy Brown The Newsboy." Behind the scenes, Mac's produced acts like Reno & Smiley, Cowboy Copas and Bonnie Guitar; became a founding father of the...