In 1999 I was sent a newspaper clipping from Texas about a music writer’s chance meeting with Texas bluesman Clyde Langford. Clyde lived in Midway, TX, a small town between Dallas and Austin. I recognized it as the very same town where the legendary blues artist Lightin’ Hopkins was born and raised. I called information, […]

  Adolphus Bell’s hero was Martin Luther King Jr.; during the Civil Rights movement in Birmingham, Adolphus and his young friends put their lives on the line for Freedom. When Adolphus began working with Music Maker we put him on tour with our Blues Revue. During his debut European tour, he got up on stage […]

  I met Rufus McKenzie in Georgia, in a tiny town called Perry, just outside of Macon. This is one of the most magical musical spots in America; folks like James Brown, Otis Redding, Emmit Miller, the Allman Brothers, Riley Puckett and so many more musical pioneers sprung from this area. Rufus grew up sharecropping […]

  In celebration of Black History Month, I’ve been listening to the Music Maker catalog nonstop, going through tons of incredible material. Today I stumbled upon Ben Payton; what a voice! You can literally feel the grit of his words pour out of the speakers. Cradling a slower rhythm in “You Lost a Good Man Baby,” […]

Our country was colonized by the nations of West Africa under brutal, horrible conditions. Over 12.5 million slaves were brought to America, and it is they who built the huge financial base of our country. More importantly, the culture they developed defined the greatest cultural attributes of our nation. After Emancipation and through the greatest […]