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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 southeast of Raleigh.

Algia Mae Hinton’s hands.

But those hands also finger-picked some of the most amazing Piedmont blues you’ll ever hear, a skill she learned from her mother.

Algia Mae got married when she was 21 and moved from her home in Johnston County to Raleigh, but after her husband was killed in 1965, she brought her seven children back to her home-place and raised them by picking crops in the field. In those days, she reserved her guitar playing for house parties and for her children. 

In 1978, the folklorist Glenn Hinson met Algia Mae and helped her take her playing on the road. She played the National Folk Festival and even at a Carnegie Hall event called “Southern Roots.” And the guitar wasn’t the only thing in her repertoire. Algia Mae was also an amazing dancer. She danced in the eastern North Carolina tradition that no one seems to able to settle on a name for — some call it buck dancing, some call it flat-footing, and others just call it tap. 

Buck dancing is a term that most people associate with the country music of the Appalachians, a practice that’s generally done by white people. But the truth is the style originated among African Americans during the time of slavery. 

And Algia Mae was one of its finest practitioners. 

Music Maker began working with Algia Mae in 1995, when we landed a record deal that allowed us to record many great Piedmont blues players who were still living at the time — folks like Guitar Gabriel, Etta Baker, Big Boy Henry, John Dee Holeman and, of course, Algia Mae. This group of Piedmont players were among the first musicians to be part of our sustenance program. We helped them get gigs, made sure they had transportation to wherever they would play, and did all we could to help them expose their art to broader audiences. Those early experiences shaped the model by which Music Maker still operates.

All these players knew each other, and they would gather at small festivals in North Carolina communities like Eno and Rock Hill to play together. And they would also show up every year for Algia Mae’s birthday party at her home in Middlesex. Even after Algia Mae was confined to a wheelchair and could no longer play her guitar, the birthday parties continued.

The magic of all those gatherings looms large in our memories. Algia Mae was a woman of few words, but when they came out, they were almost always funny. She would sit there with a big smile, and she loved to listen to music and loved meeting the other artists. She passed away three years ago at 88, but to us, Algia Mae Hinton will always live in our memory.

— Tim and Denise Duffy