Music Maker Supports Mississippi Blues!

Music Maker Heads to Mississippi! Tim Duffy and Ironing Board Sam will head down to Hattiesburg, Mississippi tomorrow to partner with the University of Southern Mississippi this weekend! The Music Maker Stage will take place on Saturday, October 13th from Noon – 4pm, and will also feature Ben Peyton, L.C. Ulmer and the Drew Young Band. Music Maker is so thrilled to be able to present these Mississippi artists at the wonderful Southern Mississippi Roots Festival. We hope that if you’re in the area you’ll check it out! Listen:  John Dee Holeman –  Give Me Back My Wig Diggin’: “Give Me Back My Wig” John Dee Holeman has a new dog. Whitney and I stopped by to visit with John Dee and Joan after work one night last week. As we walked in, I saw a ball of fir scurry under John Dee’s chair. I though maybe I had seen something I shouldn’t have but I couldn’t resist.  “I think there’s something under your chair John Dee.” “I got a dog and it won’t give me the time of day. It only wants to be with John,” Joan (John Dee’s lady) croaked. John Dee laughed and laid back in his chair like a man in charge. The dog poked his little face out from under the chair where it hid. It’s hard to think of this man ruffled for any reason. His cool delivery on “Give me back my wig” taking the acknowledgement of a loved one’s betrayal with his signature poise and resolve, is a snapshot of the real John Dee, possibly the coolest guy I have ever met. Listen and hear for yourself. – Aaron   David Butler Photo of the Week by Tim Duffy Keep up with Music Maker!      Support Music Maker, and help keep the music alive!     Know Your Roots: Mississippi Blues Cool John Ferguson and Lee Gates It’s hard to distill the bedrock of modern music to a blurb, but if you have to start anywhere in getting to Know Your Roots, you should start with the Mississippi (or Delta) Blues. The Delta Blues have been described as an elaboration on work chants, slave songs and field hollers. The patterns of repetition and call-and-response developed organically as black workers in the South adapted musical traditions from several cultures; “Bluesmen gave their audience a music they could relate to in the most intensely personal manner, a music that was theirs and theirs alone,” writes Robert Palmer in his history of the genre, “Deep Blues.” This music was an essential part of life for the people that played it, but the universality of it plucked the interest of folks like W.C. Handy and Alan Lomax, people who documented and helped to propagate the spread of Blues and Blues-influenced music.  Many Music Maker Relief Foundation artists draw from delta blues influences, including Lee Gates, Alabama Slim and John Dee Holeman.      Music Maker’s Know Your Roots campaign will be exploring different genres of Roots music on Facebook and Twitter over the next several months. Make sure you’re following us to get the latest!  Don’t Miss Out – Capitol Blues is Back and Bigger!   Tickets on sale now for October 24th! Get them here!

Upcoming Shows: Click here for more info on upcoming events  10/11 – Pura Fé – 8th Annual Dreamcatcher Awards Gala, Hamilton, Ontario  10/12 – Big Ron Hunter – The Depot, Hillsborough, NC  10/13 – Ironing Board Sam, L.C. Ulmer, Ben Peyton, Drew Young Band – Music Maker Stage, Southern Mississippi Roots Festival, Hattiesburg, MS     10/13 – John Dee Holeman – Richmond Folk Festival, Richmond, VA 10/14 – Ironing Board Sam – Crescent BBQ and Blues Festival, NOLA  10/19-10/21 – Robert Lee Coleman, Ironing Board Sam, Nashid Abdul Khaaliq, Big Ron Hunter, Ardie Dean- Blues at the Crossroads, Salina, KS 10/27- 11/2- Ironing Board Sam, Carolina Chocolate Drops – Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise 11/11 – George Higgs –  Pinecone Music of the Carolinas, NCMoH, Raleigh, NC 11/19 – Lakota John and Kin – American Indian Heritage Festival, NCMo, Raleigh, NC   Music Maker Relief Foundation, Inc. helps the true pioneers and forgotten heroes of Southern music gain  recognition and meet their day to day needs. We present these musical traditions to the world so American culture will flourish and be preserved for future generations.

“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, Like —Bman’s Blues Report— Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! –  ”LIKE”