Raleigh students explore roots music with Music Maker

We may live in the age of AI chatbots and doomscrolling, but genuine American roots music has a bright future ahead of it – especially if these students from Raleigh Charter High School (RCHS) have anything to say about it.

Last month, Lucas Duffy (Artist Services Coordinator), Taylor Kennedy (Programs Coordinator), and Sam Horn (Community Coordinator) visited Wilson Library at UNC-Chapel Hill to meet the members of Sustaining Roots Music Project (SOOTS), a student group at RCHS that works to preserve North Carolina’s musical heritage. Inspired by the Music Maker model, history teacher Charles Montague and 15 RCHS students founded SOOTS in 2006 as a school citizenship project. Tim Duffy and bluesman John Dee Holeman played for one of the group’s early benefit concerts in 2007 – and nearly 20 years later, SOOTS continues to raise money and awareness for Music Maker!

On this rainy Friday morning, the students of SOOTS made the trek from Raleigh to Chapel Hill to visit the Southern Folklife Collection and the Center for the Study of the American South. Lucas, Taylor, and Sam kicked off the day with a Music Maker meet-and-greet, sharing the Music Maker story and introducing them to some of the extraordinary artists we’ve served over the last 32 years. Our team also donated a set of Music Maker books to the group so they could continue exploring our catalogue back at RCHS.

“Traveling to Chapel Hill to see y’all before looking at archives and exploring what the Love House has to offer was a breath of fresh air for our students,” says Charles, “inspired and inspirational.”

After the presentation, students had the chance to study rare documents from the Southern Folklife Collection – including items from the Music Maker collection! Their field trip also included a session on Southern music with renowned folklorist (and longtime Music Maker friend) William Ferris, as well as sessions with foodways folklorist Marcie Ferris and other UNC scholars at the historic Love House.

Charles hopes this field trip will become a yearly SOOTS tradition. In the meantime, the group is gearing up for their May Day Cake Bake on April 24th, their biggest annual fundraiser for Music Maker.

Year after year, we’ve been so impressed with these students’ creativity, initiative, insight, and deep passion for music. This year’s members were no exception. Our team had a blast meeting these incredible young music lovers, and we look forward to collaborating more in the future. Thank you for inviting us, SOOTS!