The world has now spent an entire year living with the COVID-19 pandemic. What has this meant for Music Maker’s many partner artists? Our social worker, Brittany Anderson, sums it up best: “What I’ve found is that 2020 really took a toll on our artists. Just in a regular environment, as it was pre-COVID, they […]

Thirty years working with blues musicians has taught me that there can be great irony woven into the stage names performers choose for themselves — particularly with female players who opt for sugary noms de plume. But Precious Bryant was different. Precious was her given name, and she lived up to it. When Music Maker […]

Witnessing the Como Mamas, the amazing gospel group from Como, Mississippi, on stage will transport you. No matter if you see them at a festival or a concert hall, where you wind up is in church.  They sing the old hymns of the Black Baptist church. When the Como Mamas’ first album, “Get an Understanding,” […]

Chance meetings have always played a huge part in how Music Maker has built up its roster of partner artists over the years. From the beginning, when James “Guitar Slim” Stephens told me I had to find Guitar Gabriel, it’s been the same. One person we build a relationship with tells us about other musicians […]

“Any tree could be a hanging tree.’” — Freeman Vines For the exhibition of Freeman Vines’ Hanging Tree Guitars, Music Maker commissioned Dr. Will Boone of North Carolina State University to write a series of four historical essays to give context to viewers of the exhibition. For Black History Month, we have presented a weekly […]