In late February, Music Maker was pleased to welcome back Brittany Anderson as our social worker. Brittany had previously served in that position for us from April 2018 through December 2019. Brittany has been at work for about six weeks now, busy reaching out to all our partner artists, surveying them, and learning everything she […]

When you met Algia Mae Hinton, the first thing you would notice was her hands. They were weathered hands, hands that had picked a million cucumbers. They were a farm laborer’s hands, and they produced the money she needed to raise seven children as a single mother in Johnston County, North Carolina, about 30 miles […]

The music of Etta Baker first put its hooks in me when I was a hockey-playing, 15-year-old suburban kid in Connecticut. One of my friend’s older brothers had a massive folk music collection. We would mine it for treasures. One day we found a very rare compilation called “Music From the Hills of Caldwell County.” […]

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 […]