Turns out that we’re not the only ones who believe that our partner artist Alabama Slim’s January album, “The Parlor,” is a masterful take on the blues. Here is a roundup of all the critical praise the album has received, and you’ll find links to stream and to buy the album at the bottom. “Authentic […]

“I went to Mr. Jefferson because a guy told me Mr. Jefferson had wood. And he said, ‘Vines, I’m gonna tell you right now. You’re black and I’m white. That wood there came off a hanging tree.’ I said, ‘I don’t even believe that.’ He said, ‘I don’t give a damn what you believe. They […]

“Ma told me all the time. ‘The Ku Klux Klan is gonna get you, boy, hanging ’round with that white man.’” — 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 […]

By Jed Finley These days it seems like everybody’s got the blues. At least that’s what Pat “Mother Blues” Cohen tells me. “I think a lot of people have the blues these days. It’s behind the frustration, this COVID nonsense, and the politics. People are still mad, what are they mad at? What do they […]

“It would do you good to get in the country even if you do have to rough it. You can sit right here and look right at the sky and you can almost feel the Earth turning.” — Freeman Vines For the exhibition of Freeman Vines’ Hanging Tree Guitars, Music Maker commissioned Dr. Will Boone of […]