While in the grocery store the other day, my husband and I had an encounter that wasn’t extraordinary, but to me further solidified the impact Music Maker has on our artists and on the outside world. We had just gotten back into town from vacation, and realized we literally had no food in our house. Normally […]

Listen: Crooked World Blues Lakota John and Kin (that’s Momma Tonya, Papa John and Sister Layla) live in Pembroke, NC. They are members of the Lumbee Indian tribe, the largest tribe East of the Mississippi. Lumbee are named after the Cypress lined Lumber, a blackwater  river that slowly meanders through North Carolina’s Coastal Plain. The […]

It’s been a busy month for us here at Music Maker – then again, any given month is a busy month. A couple of weeks ago, we were pleased to hold an extremely successful benefit show at The Hamilton in Washington, DC.  The Carolina Chocolate Drops and Ironing Board Sam packed the house full and […]

Listen: Late in the Evening Pernell King and Guitar Gabriel’s “Late in the Evening” is on my playlist this week. Pernell was Guitar Gabriel’s half-brother, who spent 27 years in prison. Guitar Gabe was one of the founding Partner Artists at Music Maker’s very beginning. I am haunted by the story of how Guitar Gabe […]

Listen: Slavery Time Blues I have been thinking a lot about slavery as of late. Growing up in Connecticut we learned about it, but it was very abstract to my experience. Many of our artists that I have spent time with had great-great-grandparents born into slavery that lived to be very old, who told them […]