Over the past three years Music Maker has been forging a partnership with the famed Telluride Blues & Brews Festival and for this year’s festival we pulled out all the stops. We set a goal to raise $30,000 with a special benefit dinner/recording session that was held at Studio in the Clouds right outside of Telluride, CO. We also premiered the Music Maker Drink House, located right next to the Blues Stage, the Drink House featured a lounge area, exclusive artist meet and greets, listening stations, a photography exhibit featuring our partner artists and a VIP ticket giveaway to next year’s festival. The Brews & Blues audience received Music Maker with open arms and we were able to raise $32,500 in donations from the benefit dinner and Drink House to support our mission of helping elderly musicians in need. 

Pat “Mother Blues” Cohen performing at the Blues Stage

While there is great reason to celebrate we also experienced an emergency situation while in Telluride. Partner artist Pee Wee Hayes suffered a stroke shortly after arriving in Colorado. Music Maker Program’s Manager Aaron Greenhood realized something was wrong with Pee Wee and notified emergency services. He was airlifted to St. Mary’s Hospital in admitted in the ICU where they have a stroke center. Pee Wee’s brother, Delta Hogg, said that, “without Music Maker’s help I think my brother could’ve died.” Through our partnership with Jazz Foundation of America, we were able to fly Delta Hogg to Grand Junction to be with Pee Wee as he recovers. Music Maker is in touch with Delta Hogg and Pee Wee is on the mend and recovering quickly.

Unfortunately, Pee Wee was unable to perform at the festival due to the stroke but the Glorifying Vines Sisters, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Pat “Mother Blues” Cohen continued on and wowed huge crowds from the Main Stage to the Blues Stage and even an intimate Gospel performance at the Campground Stage next to a waterfall! Music Maker can’t express how thankful we are to the Telluride Blues & Brews Festival, SBG Productions, Telluride Express and to everyone that gave for making this event a huge success for our partner artists

Alice Vines of the Glorifying Vines Sisters performing at the Campground Stage