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 […]

I was honored to accompany Ironing Board Sam as his road manager for the 45th annual New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival this past weekend. Tim and I had been working so hard “beading up” Sam, decorating his portable keyboard, and I couldn’t wait to see the crowd’s reaction.

Last fall we found out that Ironing Board Sam was invited back to the 2014 New Orleans Jazz Festival; they made a special request for him to come with a big show. Early in Jazzfest’s history Sam played the blues underwater in a huge aquarium, performed while lifted up on a 50-foot cherry picker, floated […]