On the way to the Juke Joint Festival, we stopped off in Como, Mississippi, to meet the Como Mamas – sisters Della and Angelia and cousin Ester Mae, all the grandchildren of Miles Pratcher. Pratcher was a seminal blues musician recorded in the 50s by Alan Lomax. Through great talent and good fortune the Mamas […]

In October 1995 my friend the audio pioneer Mark Levinson was working hard to help me launch the Music Maker Relief Foundation. He had recently moved his audio company Cello to a brownstone on 61st St in New York and outfitted it with showrooms and an amazing recording studio. By chance he met Eric Clapton […]

International travel is tricky. In the best of circumstances you can expect that there will be many transfers, visas, customs interrogations, passport inspections and the occasional pat down/strip search. The stories Tim and Denise tell about getting through airports with Macavine Hayes and Guitar Gabriel are hilarious and hair-raising. It probably sounds fatalistic, but because […]

Carl Rutherford and Tim Duffy Coupled with footage of “The L.B.J Poverty Tour” the New York Times recently released an article about McDowell County, the poorest in West Virginia, and the balance between struggle and poverty that has crippled the county’s communities for generations, specifically focusing on the small city of War, West Virginia. The […]