Since Netflix released its film “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” with Viola Davis masterfully playing the Mother of the Blues, critics all over the world have raved about the film. Rainey was a true pioneer of American music — and she was only one degree removed from the Music Maker Relief Foundation. One of our original […]

It’s officially winter, and freezing temperatures have brought cold nights to towns all over the South, where most of Music Maker’s partner artists live. And every night when the temperatures drop, we never forget to ask ourselves, “Are our partners safe and warm tonight?” In our 26 years of existence, Music Maker has worked to […]

When I called him, Robert Lee Coleman’s phone was disconnected. This pandemic year has made hard times harder for many Music Maker partner artists. Losing regular gigs has brought ripple effects, like the inability to keep the phone bill paid and, in Coleman’s case, a car breakdown. Losing one’s car hurts an aging musician like […]

“My great-grandparents and grandparents were not educated because state laws prohibited the education of slaves; but they developed their own language, music, and other means of communication. My family has always been talented. That’s where my girls got some of their talent.”    — Arie Gay Vines Artis Walking in the Shadow of My Past, 2016 […]

You can blame Henry Slyker’s two decades-plus loving relationship with Music Maker on Holiday Inn Express. Up through 2002, if you checked into a Holiday Inn Express, you would find in your room a magazine called Navigator with the snappy tagline, “Leave the towel. Take the magazine.” The final issue of Navigator carried the cover […]