In “Our Living Past,” Timothy Duffy immortalizes dozens of Southern Blues icons that he’s met over the course of his 35-year career as an artist and activist. Duffy is the founder and executive director of the Music Maker Relief Foundation, a nonprofit organization that aims to preserve the musical traditions of the South by directly […]

Vari-Colored Songs by Leyla McCalla From her Langston Hughes inspired album “Vari-Colored Songs” Leyla McCalla describes a racist southern setting with melancholic acoustic melodies in her track titled “Song for a Dark Girl”. McCalla tells a sad love story of her lover getting abused then lynched while her heart breaks. As a result she is […]

Grasshopper Pie by Slewfoot and the Angels Slewfoot’s six minute opus starts with some funky rudiments on the snare paired with a driving bass line and by the time the horns pop in Oh Boy has put you in a trance. The song is laced with clanging percussion and rattling tambourine with echoing backup singer […]

Music Maker Relief Foundation partner artist the Como Mamas have won the Soul Prix from the Académie du Jazz for their album Move Upstairs! Check out all the winners and nominees here – http://www.academiedujazz.com/palmares-2017.html  

Even in today’s music business, the album is crucial to an artist’s career. Without an album you can’t get gigs, and every musician wants to gig. When I met Guitar Gabriel, Captain Luke, Willa Mae Buckner, and the community of blues musicians in Winston Salem, NC back in 1991, I was trying to figure out […]