Recent Articles
by Rick Cornell “Ask Tim Duffy about the origins of Music Maker Relief Foundation, the benevolent musicians’ assistance organization he’s overseen for 15 years now, and receive a story that feels half Southern mythology and half stark reality, stocked with characters that could come from The Band’s “The Weight.”
“When I met Guitar Gabriel, I was 25 years old, just out of a master’s program at UNC-Chapel Hill,” Duffy remembers. “I had become lost in the blues through Guitar Slim. Slim had cancer, and on his deathbed he told me to find Gabe. I made my way to a drink house in East Winston. The proprietress stood on the porch with a razorblade as a man was running out the yard holding his face.
I told another gentleman standing in the yard that Slim had sent me to find Gabe. The scene changed immediately, grins all around, when they realized I wasn’t a cop. Hawkeye took me over to the Piedmont Circle project. Gabe bounded out the door and hugged me. ‘I know where you want to go, boy. I have been there myself. I will take you there. But, my time ain’t long. Promise me one thing: When I die, bury me with my guitar!’ Music Maker started that day,” he concludes. “A young idealist and a broken-down blues bard embarking on an adventure.”
Bounce five words off Duffy—who celebrates Music Maker’s 15th year of helping the area’s lost bluesmen find an audience and funding this Saturday—and receive the same kind of passionate responses.
ANNIVERSARY: Celebration of a moment that changed the course of lives. We started Music Maker as a heartfelt response to the immediate needs of a handful of musicians in Winston-Salem, N.C. There was no long-term vision, just hungry artists that needed gigs. We are here 15 years later because of the steady stream of incredibly talented musicians we continue to meet that need our assistance and because of the tremendous patrons and volunteers that believe in this mission and won’t let us quit.
The hard part of this job is saying goodbye to so many greats: Guitar Gabriel, Etta Baker, Cootie Stark. The best part is knowing that you helped make their last days a little sweeter and spread their joyful noise around the world.
BLUES: Guitar Gabriel would say, “Blues will never die because it is a spirit. It is an uplift and the way you feel it, that is the way it is. And it brings a lot of joy to people. Music is made to make happiness, make you smile and forget your troubles. In the Good Book, it says to make a joyful noise. It doesn’t say what kind of noise, just as long as you make one.” The blues from the South is the aquifer that all rock, pop, jazz musicians around the world drink from.
RELIEF: A lifeline of hope to someone suffering tremendous adversity. The poverty in which most of our recipients live is not restricted to their households but often pervades their entire community. So, when something goes wrong, they can’t call on family members or friends because the friends are broke themselves. These artists are hard-working people that really don’t want a handout, but a hand-up. Helping artists help themselves by building their careers leads to financial independence and self-sufficiency. The recognition that comes with professional success brings pride and validation to the individual artist and uplifts the community. That’s a relief.
HERITAGE: If you do not know where you have been, how can you know where you are going?
Source: The Independent Weekly
by Jason Schneider Tim Duffy started the non-profit Music Maker Relief Foundation in the early ’90s after befriending many little-known blues artists living in the vicinity of his hometown of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. A list of high-profile donors that included Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt, and Taj Mahal put the foundation on solid ground after several years, allowing Duffy to embark on his true mission, to have his artists make records and support themselves. Although this egalitarian approach hasn’t given Music Maker the same profile as Fat Possum, Duffy (who sold Matthew Johnson the collection of 1960s field recordings by archivist George Mitchell that Fat Possum subsequently released) says he is more concerned about preserving a musical culture that he believes still has much to offer.
Source: Excite.ca
by James Calemine The North Carolina-based Music Maker Relief Foundation artists such as Boo Hanks, Macavine Hayes, Eddie Shaw and The Carolina Chocolate Drops perform at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival this weekend.
Source: Swampland.com
by Keith Spera In the Southern Comfort Blues, the Music Maker Relief Foundation, a North Carolina organization dedicated to sustaining elderly blues musicians, showcased a trio of artists. Piedmont acoustic guitarist Boo Hanks just turned 80. He didn’t play his first professional gig until age 79; he worked most of his life as a farmer. “He says he likes this better than driving a tractor,” noted his guitarist.
by Keith Spera A couple thousand people left the Blues Tent newly smitten by the Carolina Chocolate Drops. They are revivalists to a degree, revisiting rural African-American folk songs from as far back as the 19th century. Don Flemons, one young member of the trio, even dressed the part in suspenders and a long-sleeve work shirt buttoned to the neck.
by Jonas Beals Next Wednesday, the Kennedy Center will host a music festival that could happen only in Washington. The fifth annual Congressional Blues Festival provides a chance to see politicos and congressmen get down to blues superstars including Robert Cray and Elvin Bishop, as well as less-known legends such as Macavine Hayes, Captain Luke and Big Ron Hunter.
The event is a celebration of America’s roots-music heritage, and an opportunity to recognize the efforts of the Music Maker Relief Foundation, a Hillsboro, N.C., nonprofit that helps forgotten Southern music pioneers gain recognition and pay their bills.
Albert White is one such musician. He grew up in Atlanta playing guitar with his uncle, Piano Red. He later performed live or on record with Clarence Carter, Ben E. King and Hank Ballard. He never became a star, but his guitar was an important fixture in popular regional blues and R&B.
by Rick Cornell A long weekend in late April brought Alison Krauss, Tony Rice, Del McCoury, Elvis Costello and over 100 other bands to Wilkesboro this year, where they shared the grounds of a community college with beloved patriarch Doc Watson. For the last 19 years, thousands of fans have gathered at Merlefest, taking in four days of roots music 23 miles down U.S. 421 from Watson’s birthplace of Deep Gap.
Elsewhere, the fall and spring editions of the Shakori Hills festivals—twin mini-Merlefests in Chatham County, if you will—hosted a similar variety of roots-leaning acts. As usual, bluegrass festivals remained widespread in the state, publicity occasionally consisting of a few cardboard signs posted a couple weeks in advance. Somehow, fans of high and lonesome still find them. And in Carrboro, the fourth annual American Roots Series at the ArtsCenter again hit every corner of the sprawling Americana tent, from folk and swing to honky-tonk and sacred steel.
by Abby Buehler As he closed his eyes, a deep, soulful moan escaped his pursed lips, reverberating through the dimly lit bar. He moved his right hand over the six strings of his acoustic guitar, letting another chord out into the anticipating crowd.
As he shook his head and looked down, one wondered what he was thinking. Was he thinking of his childhood? Those early years of his life spent on the street corners with his father, playing for money. Or was he thinking about where his next dollar was coming from?
“Joy.” That was the one word that summed up Alvin “Little Pink” Anderson’s emotions on that stage.
by Jim Reed Most folks who were either raised in the South —or who have taken it upon themselves to learn a bit about the popular music traditions which have emanated from this region over the past century or so— cannot help but have at least a cursory knowledge of both traditional rhythm and blues and black gospel.
However, despite ample and undeniable evidence which demonstrates that these two seemingly incongruous genres are in fact inextricably linked (“bound to be bound” to borrow a phrase from a songwriter friend of mine), there still exists no small amount of confusion over the roots of not only rural, acoustic “country” blues and its cousin, electric “city” blues, but of their flashy grandchild: rock and roll.
Adolphus Bell knows this heritage better than most.
Source: Connect Savannah
by Jamie Williams Tim Duffy, founder of Durham’s Music Maker Relief Foundation, said Durham has a legitimate right to be called “home of the blues.”
“People think that the blues came out of Mississippi, but Durham has just as much of a claim as anyone.
“Blind Boy Fuller is arguably the biggest blues star of all time and he came right out of Durham.”
Source: The Daily Tarheel
Previous Page
Next Page
