Music Maker is proud to announce the ultimate Blues showcase! Join us Friday, Oct. 8th at 6pm at the American Tobacco Campus in Durham, NC for the finale of WUNC’s and American Tobacco’s Back Porch Music on the Lawn Series.
For more than 25 years, PineCone has offered a wide assortment of programs highlighting the diverse and dynamic musical traditions found throughout the Carolina Piedmont region. This music includes styles and forms that are indigenous to the region and those which emerge everyday as newcomers move here from around the world, bringing with them their own traditions to add to our shared cultural identity.
While the majority of PineCone’s annual programs focus expressly on the music and musicians of the Piedmont region, the Down Home Series showcases artists from around the state, nation, and globe whose music finds connection and expression here. From Western North Carolina favorites Doc Watson with David Holt and Richard Watson to modern bluegrass all-stars Daily & Vincent to the Hawaiian ukulele of Jake Shimabukuro and the Irish rock of The Chieftains, this year’s artists take the audience on an extraordinary musical journey that extends from the Hawaiian Islands around to Ireland, but always comes full-circle to the foothills that we call home.
PineCone is honored this year to partner with Broadway Series South to present The Chieftains in Memorial Auditorium on March 13 to close out the Down Home Concert Series, just in time for St. Patrick’s Day! In their 40 years together, these Grammy award winning musicians have continuously made the musical traditions of Ireland relevant and appealing around the world.
Other highlights of the series include:
November 12: North Carolina’s own Doc Watson returns to Raleigh with longtime friend and collaborator David Holt and his own grandson, Richard Watson, to share songs and stories of the mountains in Hills of Home. (Sponsored by McCullers & Whitaker and Collegiate Capital Management)
January 7: A rare opportunity to see two musical virtuosos, Tim O’Brien & Bryan Sutton, perform as a duo.
January 26: Modern-day bluegrass all-stars Daily & Vincent return to Raleigh with an expanded repertoire that honors the original sound of bluegrass while pushing it in new directions.
February 12:Jake Shimabukuro graces Fletcher Theater with his exciting, innovative ukulele playing and compositions.
February 17: Grammy-winning multi-instrumentalist Sam Bush will share some classic bluegrass numbers and his own trademark sound, while Alaska-based Bearfoot returns to the PineCone stage with their signature harmonies and inventive, bluegrass-infused music.
March 13:Paddy Moloney, THE CHIEFTAINS, and special guests close out the Down Home Concert Series in Memorial Auditorium just in time for St. Patrick’s Day! In their 40 years together, these six-time Grammy award winning musicians have continuously made the musical traditions of Ireland relevant and appealing around the world. (Sponsored by Collegiate Capital Management)
Tickets go on sale on August 9. PineCone members can take advantage of a week-long pre-sale beginning on August 2. Learn how to become a member, or get more details on each performance on PineCone’s website, www.pinecone.org.
PineCone is the largest, most active folk performing arts organization in North Carolina, offering a wide assortment of music programs to the Triangle community. While the majority of PineCone’s annual programs focus expressly on the music and musicians of the Piedmont region, the Down Home Concert Series showcases artists from around the state, nation, and globe whose music finds connection and expression here. PineCone is a resident company at the Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts. PineCone presents free concerts in partnership with the NC Museum of History, the Town of Cary, and the Town of Wake Forest; jam sessions in different styles of music, and a weekly bluegrass radio show on 94.7 WQDR. Visit www.pinecone.org or call the office at 919-664-8302 for complete details. The Irregardless Cafe and Boom! Magazine are in-kind sponsors of this year’s Down Home Concert Series.
Music Maker supporter Ed Carson of Still Pond, MD and Kill Devil Hills, NC passed away suddenly last week. Ed was a member of the prestigious North Carolina dance troupe, The Green Grass Cloggers. He was proud to perform at Carnegie Hall and prouder still to be the tour bus mechanic. We met Ed in 2007 at the Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival in Silk Hope, NC. Soon after, he purchased a Bluebird Motor Coach that had been donated to Music Maker. The purchase proceeds enabled us to renovate and open our Program Center in Hillsborough.
Ed remained a steadfast contributor, joining us for Fishin’ Blues Tournaments in Central America, working on MMRF’s ‘73 Winnebago and volunteering at our popcorn stand at the Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival. He was planning to attend our Capitol Blues Night last Thursday, but it was not to be. Tim Duffy took this photo of Ed with his favorite bus, Rosie, this past spring at Shakori Hills.(Hi-res file here). Ed was an extremely generous soul and a friend to many in need, he will be sorely missed.
In the late 1930s, Jim Crow walked unopposed in Mississippi, and Europe was preparing for war. Though an ocean apart, the threads of hate and fear bound those disparate places together.
When you purchase Allen Whitley’s first novel, Where Southern Cross the Dog, some of the proceeds will be donated to the Music Maker Relief Foundation and The Blues Foundation.
The book contains a CD filled with numerous blues songs, oral history narrations, etc. taken from the time period. Most have never been released or heard since their original recording and are gems in and of themselves.
Synopsis: When Travis Montgomery returns to Clarksdale after graduating from college, he finds his hometown cloaked in fear—four gruesome murders in six weeks. With no clear motive and few clues, the sheriff doesn’t have a suspect—until Luke Williams, a white sharecropper, confesses.
Across town, Dr. Conrad Higson is developing a cotton harvester, a machine that will replace field hands. Expelled from Germany for publicly humiliating a high ranking officer, the well-respected scientist is secretly spying for the Nazis, hoping for permission to return to his fatherland.
While Luke awaits trial, the last four members of Clarksdale’s defunct Ku Klux Klan break him out of jail. Luke turns himself in again hours before the discovery of a fifth mutilated body. But the evidence doesn’t match up, and Travis and his girlfriend, Hannah, the daughter of a prominent African-American family, begin their own investigation, piecing together the circumstances of the murders.
As the town reels from a trial, arson, and yet another body, Travis and Hannah persevere in their search for justice as they illuminate the dark soul of the Deep South.
A masterful blend of mystery and historical fiction, Where Southern Cross the Dog pits first love and idealism against hatred and racism in Depression-era Mississippi.
Bio:Allen Whitley works in the field of environmental sustainability and has published numerous articles. He serves on the Board of Directors for Goodwill Industries of Central Texas and is a former board member of the Writers’ League of Texas. Through his first novel, Where Southern Cross the Dog, he seeks to bring the rich history of blues to a wider audience and raise money for two worthy causes.
It has been a long road making this happen. With the downturn of the economy last year we had no touring overseas. Due to the diligent work of MM Advisory Board members Jean Herve Michel (France) and Lutz Engelhardt (Germany), we were able to put together this summer tour. Now they are working hard to bring artists back this fall and next spring. These tours inspire thousands of music fans and challenge our artists to reach new creative heights, resulting in a huge sense of pride through these major achievements.
It is a huge undertaking to get such an ensemble of artists on tour. In preparation for this tour, we helped raise money for Eddie Tigner to replace his keyboard and car after they were stolen; we provided Beverly “Guitar” Watkins with a new guitar to take on the road; we reprinted Pat “Mother Blues” Cohen’s CD to sell on the tour; and we helped all of the artists arrange doctors appointments, bills, and prescriptions so they could travel with ease.
When you support our Cultural Access Program, you help these overlooked purveyors of American musical traditions get their music heard worldwide.
By supporting Music Maker, you are truly helping us give artists a hand up—not just a hand out. Thank you so much for your continued belief in our programs.
Tour Schedule:
JUNE
05 - France - Corbeil Essonne - Theatre De Corbeil Essonnes
06 - France - L-Hay-les-Roses - Parfum de Musiques
08 - France - Jazz Club Etoile - Hôtel le Méridien
09 - France - Jazz Club Etoile - Hôtel le Méridien
10 - France - Jazz Club Etoile - Hôtel le Méridien
11 - France - Jazz Club Etoile - Hôtel le Méridien
12 - France - Jazz Club Etoile - Hôtel le Méridien
14 - London - Royal Festival Hall (Beverly and Albert only)
20 - Spain - Getxo - Blues Festival
22 - Spain - Madrid - Sala Clamores
23 - Spain - Madrid - Sala Clamores
JULY
03 - France - Vienne - Jazz à Vienne
07 - Spain - Malaga - Festival Malaga
09 - Germany - Kassel - Kulturzelt
10 - Germany - Kassel - Kulturzelt
West Asheville’s Harvest Records was graced with an in-store performance by The Carolina Chocolate Drops. Videographer Aaron Morrell captured their performance.
A ciencia cierta no se conoce con exactitud los orígenes del blues y resulta imposible afirmar la fecha exacta del nacimiento de este estilo. De hecho los blues se empiezan a describir y perfilar como tales a finales de la primera década del siglo XX.
En lo que sí están de acuerdo la mayoría de estudiosos, es que su origen se remonta a los esclavos llegados a Norteamérica provenientes de Africa un siglo antes de la guerra civil.
Las raíces africanas del blues se muestran en este álbum de manera continua y particular, pues todos los intérpretes que se incluyen en el disco, pueden calificarse como auténticos ‘songsters’, ‘griots’ o ‘storytellers’, formando un magnífico elenco de músicos, la mayoría de ellos desconocidos para el gran público, a menos que se sea una persona versada en el tema, estudiosa de la historia, o coleccionista empedernido de blues.
Dieciocho canciones originales, intensas, genuinas, reales donde se plasma con autenticidad y criterio las verdaderas fuentes o raices del blues, con letras donde se habla de esclavos, de Dios, de las prisiones, de mujeres, de alcohol, de juego, de prostitutas…
Magnífico cd para conocer un poco más a fondo el espíritu y los orígenes del blues.
