AFTER HELPING MUSICIANS IMPACTED BY RECORD FLOODING IN LOUISIANA, MUSIC MAKER RELIEF FOUNDATION SPONSORS 4TH ANNUAL BATON ROUGE MARDI GRAS FESTIVAL

The Music Maker Relief Foundation (Hillsborough, NC) -- created the Baton Rogue Musicians Fund (BRMF). The fund was created in partnership with the Baton Rouge Blues Foundation and will directly supported musicians impacted by the Louisiana Flood. The BRMF ended up raising over $62,000 for those impacted by the flooding.

Beginning August 12th a torrential downpour began over the state of Louisiana. Nearly 7 trillion gallons of water fell from the sky causing record-breaking flooding that has damaged more than 60,000 homes.

One of the damaged homes belongs to 91 year old blues pianist Henry Gray. Henry still tours both solo and with his band, Henry Gray and the Cats. Though he has travelled the world playing the blues with the Rolling Stones, Howlin' Wolf and countless others, Henry still lives in a humble home and like so many other working people, did not have flood insurance.

Music Maker founder and president, Tim Duffy stated, “When we heard that legends like Henry were impacted, we immediately reached out to send aid. Music Maker has been helping roots musicians in crisis for more than 20 years. In a situation like this, we first need to help stabilize an artist’s health and housing situation, then we can focus on getting instruments back in their hands and giving them access to stages so they can rebuild their livelihood.”

The floods impact can still be felt in many areas of Louisiana and with talking to the Baton Rouge community Music Maker Relief Foundation found that they were struggling to fund their annual Mardi Gras Festival. Music Maker, along with the Jazz Foundation of America, is sponsoring this festival on Saturday, February 25th at the North Boulevard Town Square, to give many impacted musicians a gig and to allow the people of Baton Rouge to celebrate this great Louisiana cultural tradition.

Contemporary artists around the world recognize the significance of roots musicians form the South. Grammy-winning artist Taj Mahal offered "These musicians are the foundation of all popular music in the world. When disaster turns on them it is not time to turn our backs. Let's show them the respect!"

Taj Mahal w/ Neal Pattman "Shornin' Bread"

BONNIE RAITT ON TAJ MAHAL “A 1-MAN GLOBAL WRECKING CREW... I JUST HAVE SO MUCH ADMIRATION FOR HIM”

PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED ALBUM ‘LABOR OF LOVE’ OUT DECEMBER 16

Bonnie Raitt recently shared her thoughts on Taj Mahal with Living Blues Magazine. Taj Mahal’s 47th album ‘Labor of Love’ comes out December 16 on Acoustic Sounds and consists of an acoustic session from 1998. Raitt says:

“There are very few artists with the wide musical reach of Taj Mahal; I can’t think of anyone who’s heard him that hasn’t fallen under his spell. From the very start, his impact was really groundbreaking—it’s hard to express how much those first two albums meant to me.

As an ambassador for world music—and roots music in particular—he perfectly embodies how music can cross-pollinate across generations and cultures to bring people together. Like Paul Simon, Ry Cooder and Peter Gabriel, Taj has turned so many of us onto musicians and styles we may not have appreciated as much otherwise. Not to mention he’s one of the funkiest blues and R&B singers, harp players, and guitarists alive.

I think his greatest contribution is going [to] be the way that he combines all these musical traditions in such an authentic and rich way. He’d had an incredibly eclectic and deep musical history, which in turn has inspired all those musicians with whom he plays—they learn about all the other tributaries of the music he’s mastered. Fro examples, there’s a lot of African musicians who might never have heard about Delta, Carolina or Texas Blues if they hadn’t met Taj. There are country and bluegrass musicians who love him; folk and jazz artists and Hawaiians, Cubans, Brazilians, and Jamaicans, too. The guy is a one-man global wrecking crew.

There really isn’t just one musical award that could encompass how eclectic Taj is. I think that’s why his Americana Music Association Lifetime Achievement Award is so fitting as it recognizes his impact on millions of people, celebrates his tremendous creative output and speaks to how Taj keeps people coming back seven decades into his career.

I just have so much admiration for him.”

TWO-TIME GRAMMY WINNER, BLUES HALL OF FAMER & AMERICANA MUSIC LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD WINNER TAJ MAHAL’S STRIPPED DOWN ALBUM ‘LABOR OF LOVE’ OUT DECEMBER 16 ON ACOUSTIC SOUNDS

FIRST RELEASE IN FOUR YEARS SET FOR LP, FEATURES SOLO FAVORITES FROM 1998 PLUS COLLABORATIONS WITH MUSIC MAKER RELIEF FOUNDATION ARTISTS

Two-time GRAMMY Award winner, Blues Hall of Famer, and Americana Music Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Taj Mahal’s 47th album ‘Labor of Love’ will come out December 16 on Acoustic Sounds.

‘Labor of Love’ features some of his most beloved materials such as the murder ballad “Stack-O-Lee,” Mississippi John Hurt’s “My Creole Belle,” the Delta standard “Walking Blues,” and the longtime live favorite “Fishing Blues.” Taj also collaborates with one armed harmonica player Neal Pattman, blind singer Cootie Stark, guitar master Cool John Ferguson (profiled in a recent issue of Premier Guitar), and Piedmont blueswoman Algia Mae Hinton. Pattman, Stark, and Baker have since passed on. Full liner notes by UNC writer Will Boone paint the full picture. All songs are previously unreleased while four of the songs have not been recorded in any other version by Taj.

Enraptured by the mission of the Music Maker Relief Foundation, Taj Mahal met MMRF head Tim Duffy in 1993 and introduced him to the Rolling Stones, BB King, Dan Ackroyd, and others; he is on the Advisory Board and has been a staunch MMRF ally and friend to Tim ever since. On a 42-date tour in 1998, Music Maker Relief Foundation head Tim Duffy set up recording equipment in whatever hotels Taj and the Music Makers were staying. Finally, in Houston, TX, Taj and the Music Makers got to playing after hours; six solo tracks were recorded along with seven tracks of Taj with Music Maker Relief Foundation artists such as National Endowment for the Arts’ National Heritage Fellowship winners Etta Baker and John Dee Holeman. ‘Labor of Love’ is Taj’s first release in four years. Of working with those musicians, Taj says that he most enjoyed “getting to know their lives and how they made things work” while getting “closer to the source.”

In the past half decade alone, Mahal has opened for Bob Dylan, Wynton Marsalis, and Eric Clapton; performed on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon with the Roots; guested on new Clapton recordings; joined the Rolling Stones onstage; performed at the GRAMMY Museum in Los Angeles, CA; joined a Bonnaroo jam with Susan Tedeschi, Anthony Hamilton, Derek Trucks, Chaka Khan; and performed on the Americana Music Awards.

Raised in a West Indian-American and African-American family, Taj Mahal signed to Columbia Records and began his recording career in 1968. Since then, he has played the music of the African diaspora, drawing connections between African, Carribean, South Pacific, and Southern American culture. Bonnie Raitt said of him, "Taj is probably the most important bridge we have between blues and rock-n-roll. He's as bad as they get." Mick Jagger has called him “a living link to the old blues tradition.”

'Labor of Love' Track List:

1. Stagger Lee
2. Shortnin' Bread (with Neal Pattman)
3. My Creole Belle
4. I Ain't The One You Love (with Alga Mae Hinton)
5. Fishin’ Blues
6. Mistreated Blues (with John Dee Holeman)
7. Zanzibar
8. So Sweet (with Cootie Stark)
9. Spike Drivers Blues
10. Hambone (with John Dee Holeman)
11. Walkin’ Blues
12. John Henry (with Etta Baker)
13. Song For Brenda (with Cool John Ferguson)

'Labor of Love' album cover

Taj Mahal 'Labor Of Love' liner notes

The blues live on because the blues give people life, not the other way around. Talk about the blues with Taj Mahal or Tim Duffy—founder of the Music Maker Relief Foundation—and you will quickly understand how deeply they grasp this. Both men are devoted to tradition, but not a museum kind of tradition. They’re devoted to living tradition; tradition that is not only “viable and vital”—as Taj puts it—but tradition that is life-giving and life-sustaining.

When Tim recounts his first experiences hearing Taj play live in the early 1980s, he describes a performer who rumbled with the echoes of ancestors and forefathers as he created a sound that was completely relevant in the present moment. Taj was not a revivalist. He was a medium for the blues’ reviving power.

            Tim and Taj first connected in the mid-1990s. Tim, just getting the Music Maker Relief Foundation off the ground, had released A Living Past, a book and CD set featuring artists he was working with. When this collection found its way to Taj, it stopped him dead in his tracks. For a long time, he had nurtured a belief that there were musicians out there playing traditional blues with life and vigor; musicians who didn’t simply remember the music, but who got life from it. And here they were. Taj describes hearing their music as “deeply personal,” something that illuminated things about his own musical roots he had intuited before but now came to understand more fully. Taj was also was fascinated by Tim. Unlike so many folklorists of the past, Tim seemed to understand that preserving tradition did not simply mean sticking photographs and recordings into an archive. Preserving tradition was “all about taking loving care of these older artists.”

Taj brought Tim out to L.A. and introduced him and his new foundation to folks like B.B. King, The Rolling Stones, and Eric Clapton. Tim invited Taj to his place in rural Pinnacle, North Carolina where the celebrated musician slept on a palette on the floor and hung out with several Music Maker artists. He loved how they played and sang, but he especially loved “getting to know their lives and how they made things work.”

            Taj says he wanted to “give whatever [he] had” to Tim’s foundation, and he figured maybe his name had “some kind of cachet.” Things fell into place, including a sponsorship from Winston cigarettes, and in 1998 a group of Music Maker artists set off on a mammoth 42-city tour with Taj as the headliner. Talk to anyone who was involved and it’s immediately clear that this was a special time. Artists who had spent the previous decades playing in drink houses and juke joints were lighting up audiences on high-profile stages across the country, rising to ever higher heights. The bigger the show, the better they played.

Taj was tearing it up too, of course. But he was also soaking it in. He was hanging out with artists like Cootie Stark, Neal Pattman, and Beverly “Guitar” Watkins. He was listening to them and learning from them. And he was reconnecting to music he had been hearing and playing since he was a kid. But now he was grasping it in a new way, going “deeper.” Nothing was drastically different, he says, it just felt like he was getting “closer to the source.”

Tim—sensing the incredibly rich musical possibilities in the air—hoped to catch something on tape. In addition to shepherding a motley assemblage of senior citizen bluesmen and women through a never-ending series of unfamiliar cities and settings, Tim was lugging around high-end recording equipment that he had recently acquired from the legendary audio wizard Mark Levinson. He set it up in hotel rooms in Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas—wherever—hoping he could get Taj to do an impromptu session. But it never seemed to work out.

Then one night in Houston, the daughter of Katie Mae was hanging around—the Katie Mae, the woman immortalized in the Lightin’ Hopkins classic “Katie Mae Blues.” Hopkins, with his highly-original cut-to-the bone poetry and raw elegance, is an Olympian figure of the blues, and Taj, being steeped in the blues’ American mythology, couldn’t miss the chance to meet this woman face-to-face. So, a few bluesmen and Tim and Taj and Katie Mae’s daughter hung out together in this Houston hotel room. After a while, Taj picked up an acoustic and started whipping out classic tunes—“Stack-O-Lee,” “Walking Blues,” “Fishing Blues”—merging his reinvigorated feeling for tradition with his inimitable personal style. The tape was rolling.

            Around the time of the Winston tour, Taj often visited North Carolina, first coming to Pinnacle and later to Music Maker’s new headquarters in Hillsborough. Tim had “tapped into a full-on living scene,” Taj says, and he was reeling with a sense of incredible good fortune that he was getting to be a part of it. He regularly sat in on recording sessions (usually long hang-out-and-barbecue sessions with some recording thrown in). When the music got going, Taj would play some piano, bass, harp, banjo, mandolin, whatever was needed. “It was fun. Really fun to get to use all my chops like that,” Taj says, “but I never got in just because I could. If I didn’t have something to say, I shut up.” He overflows with feeling when he talks about playing with these folks; singular artists like John Dee Holeman, Cool John Ferguson, Cootie Stark, and Algia Mae Hinton.

            Tim loved the sounds that were getting recorded. The players were letting loose, digging in, coming alive as the music came through them. This was it, that place where tradition becomes “viable and vital” in the present. He wanted to put this stuff out—these North Carolina sessions and the Houston hotel recordings. But the time wasn’t right. Taj had just released a string of great studio albums with a throwback R&B flavor, and there was a new 3-disc retrospective of his work on the market. There really wasn’t any commercial space for Taj Mahal versions of “Hambone” and “Shortin’ Bread.” So the recordings just sat around.

            For about two decades now, Taj and Tim have nurtured their friendship and partnership. They have incredibly nice things to say about each other. Both men credit the other with enriching their respective life, career, and musical journey. Tim says that, “having Taj Mahal be a champion for Music Maker has been one of the greatest joys of my life.” He goes on, “Without Taj, Music Maker would not be what it is, it would be something else; something different.” Taj’s spirit, it seems, infuses the whole enterprise.

In 2015, Tim’s foundation turned 21 years old, and Taj, born in 1942, was settling into his eighth decade of life. Both men were looking back and reflecting. They returned to these recordings made during that magical time in the late 1990s. In them they heard what Albert Murray, the great African American cultural critic, claimed to be the essence of blues style, “a unique blend of warmth, sensitivity, nonsense, vitality, and elegance.” These tracks needed to be heard. Taj wanted to do a vinyl-only release and Tim thought that “was really groovy.”

So here they are, on a piece of solid wax. Comb through all the dozens of Taj Mahal albums released in the last few decades and you won’t find a more intimate portrayal of his stripped-down traditional blues style, nor a better representation of Taj as a freewheeling, fun-loving, always in-the-pocket sideman. “When I listen to this,” Tim says, “it just shows how good the music really is. His version of ‘Shortin’ Bread’ with Neal Pattman is, you know, it’s just amazing. It’s as good as anything that was on wax in the 20s and 30s.” And it is, precisely because you don’t get any sense that Taj was trying to recreate some old record. He just sounds like he’s having fun. The album might be a Labor of Love (and the labor is there, no doubt), but when the needle hits the grooves, what really comes across is the love: the love of the budding friendship between Taj and Tim; the love of the blues; the loving care that is the essence of real preservation; and, especially, the love of being in the moment, playing, creating a sound that gives you life. I asked Taj what he wanted the record to say to people. “Hrmmh,” he grunted, diverting attention from my too-serious question, “just enjoy it.”

-Will Boone

Taj Mahal bio

Taj Mahal

In September 2014, some 50 years after moving to Los Angeles to form the band Rising Sons with fellow blues musician Ry Cooder and Jessie Lee Kincaid, Taj Mahal hightailed it to Nashville to receive an honor he called “one of the most powerful and wonderful things that could ever happen in my life.” Celebrating decades of recording and touring that have nearly singlehandedly reshaped the definition and scope of the blues via the infusion of exotic sounds from the Caribbean, Africa and South Pacific, the two-time Grammy winning singer, songwriter, film composer, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist was feted with the Lifetime Achievement for Performance Award at the 13th Annual Americana Honors and Awards.
“I’ve been performing for over 50 years, and to be recognized for the road I’ve traveled means the world to me, says Mahal, who during the show performed “Statesboro Blues” – which he first recorded on his eponymous 1968 debut album – on dobro with a band that included Cooder and Don Was. “I could not have done this without the audience that has been so supportive of me throughout my musical journey. It was a fantastic night and I was thrilled to be there and celebrated among such other outstanding American musical treasures like Jackson Browne and Flaco Jimenez, whose music and talent I am a fan of. It certainly represented a diversity of musical styles and culture. That’s what I’m talking about essay help!”
The night at the legendary Ryman Auditorium capped another extraordinary year for Mahal, which began with a performance at the Gregg Allman Tribute Concert in Atlanta and included playing on the entire Blind Boys of Alabama Christmas album; performing as part of the Bonnaroo Superjam on a bill featuring Derek Trucks with Chaka Khan, Eric Krasno from Soulive,  renowned R&B/blues session drummer James Gadson, David Hidalgo from Los Lobos and Susan Tedeschi; and playing and recording with Van Morrison in Dublin.

“What inspires me most about my career is that I’ve been able to make a living playing the music that I always loved and wanted to play since the early 50s,” Mahal says. “And the fact that I still am involved in enjoying an exciting career at this point in time is truly priceless. I’m doing this the old fashioned way and it ain’t easy..”

Since the release of 2008’s Maestro, his most recent studio recording which received a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Blues Album, Mahal has been busier than ever touring and recording at a whirlwind pace with old friends and fellow musical sojourners. In 2010, after being nominated for Entertainer of the Year by the Blues Foundation, he joined Jimmy Fallon’s Late Night studio band The Roots as a special musical guest on the Rolling Stones classic “Shine a Light.” He also opened in Lake Tahoe for Bob Dylan. One of the highlights of the following year as performing a special opening solo set for Eric Clapton and Wynton Marsalis at Lincoln Center; Mahal also performed several songs with his two fellow legends. The concert was recorded and released as a CD and CD/DVD entitled “Wynton Marsalis & Eric Clapton Play The Blues – Live From Jazz at Lincoln Center.”
After starting 2012 producing and performing (vocals, guitar and banjo) on Vusi Mahlasela’s live album Say Africa, Mahal joined the critically acclaimed Experience Hendrix tour for a three week run that included performances by everyone from Buddy Guy, Dweezil Zappa and Robby Krieger to Robert Randolph, Jonny Lang, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Keb’ Mo’ and Living Colour. Energized anew after the Sony Legacy release of two collections celebrating the riches and rarities of his musical legacy – the two disc set The Hidden Treasures of Mahal Mahal 1967-1973, featuring a full live 1970 concert from Royal Albert Hall, and The Complete Columbia Albums Collection box set, featuring all of his LPs from 1968-1976 – the bluesman enjoyed a wildly productive 2013.
That spring found Mahal singing and playing harmonica on “Further Down the Road” from Clapton’s Old Sock album, and performing as a featured guest at Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival at MSG (NYC) where over 30 of the world’s greatest guitarists played sidemen to each other over two nights. Mahal jammed with The Allman Brothers Band featuring David Hidalgo and Cesar Rosas of Los Lobos and in a special unplugged acoustic set with Keb’ Mo’.
That June marked the release of the all-star soundtrack album to “Ghost Brothers of Darkland County,” a supernatural blues n’ roots musical featuring music and lyrics by John Mellencamp, a libretto by author Stephen King and production by T-Bone Burnett. Mahal appeared on “Home Again” with Sheryl Crow, Dave Alvin and Phil Alvin, in addition to “Tear This Cabin Down” and “What Kind of Man Am I.” He later performed on “Vicksburg Blues” on actor/recording artist Hugh Laurie’s album Didn’t It Rain and a new rendition of his song “Winding Down” on the Sammy Hagar & Friends recording. He capped the year with “An Evening with Taj Mahal” at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles.
Mahal’s career has been full of and defined by colorful twists and turns, unexpected whimsical ventures and a commitment to a muse that has long preferred freewheeling innovation to conformity. So there’s always the challenge of finding the right words and phrases to capture just what he’s meant to American music over the past half century. Miles Mellough, who wrote the stark and honest, no holds barred liner notes for The Complete Columbia Albums Collection, captures the complexities perfectly on several posts he penned on his blog Birds with Broken Wings after the box set came out.
“Here’s the thing, plain and simple,” he writes. “Taj Mahal has always been a conundrum; a man who is capable of mirroring many things to many people, and the reason why is because he’s an enigma — an alchemist and a contrarian…Through his music he’s been a dirt farmer, a man of gentry, and a Mississippi riverboat gambler. He’s played the role of the pious country preacher of old South camp meetings to a chain gang prisoner breaking rocks in the hot, midday sun. He’s been a hard-boiled harp player with a gold tooth and process blowing gritty on the South side of Chicago to a West Indies fishing boat captain sipping Banana Daiquiri’s with a St. Kitts woman…Like the blues tree with its many roots, Mahal has become the sum of many parts. But if you were to strip him of the elements that have come to define him publicly, you’d no doubt find that beneath it all he’s really just a simple man with a harp, a steel guitar, and a banjo in his rucksack; a man making music with a whole hell of a lot of heart and soul.”

MUSIC MAKER RELIEF FOUNDATION AND CHEF BILL SMITH COMPILE FOOD-THEMED COMPILATION ‘BISCUITS FOR YOUR OUTSIDE MAN’ TO BE RELEASED JUNE 24

Music Maker Relief Foundation and chef Bill Smith have partnered together to compile the new compilation ‘Biscuits For Your Outside Man’ to be released June 24 on the Music Maker label. It features 1 previously unreleased song out of 17 tracks.

Among the artists featured are dual Blues Music and Americana Music Association Hall of Famer Taj Mahal, National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellows John Dee Holeman and Drink Small, North Carolina Folk Heritage Fellow Algia Mae Hinton, longtime James Brown sideman Robert Lee Coleman, and Pink Anderson’s son Little Pink Anderson. Smith has contributed brand new liner notes. ‘Biscuits’ is the 179th album to be released on Music Maker Relief Foundation. Songs range from folk standard “Shortnin’ Bread” to “Hambone,” which inspired the Bo Diddley beat. The album also includes Captain Luke’s baritone rendition of the Elvis Presley hit “Polk Salad Annie,” written by Tony Joe White. Many of the songs are hokum numbers that function as double entendre, using food as a way to talk about sexuality.

Smith is as well known for his sumptuous take on Southern comfort food as he is for his exceptional food writing—including the New York Times Notable and Food & Wine Best-of-the-Best cookbook Seasoned in the South and his recent book, the bestselling Savor the South title, Crabs & Oysters. He stands out as the only James Beard Foundation “America’s Classic Restaurant” chef ever to have been named a final-five finalist for Best Chef in the Southeast—and twice. Among the recipes that have become classics are Green Peach Salad (featured in the New York Times), Tomato & Watermelon Salad (featured on the cover of Southern Living), Cheesepork! (the southern schnitzel), Southern Risotto & Tamales and of course his many desserts, including his most famous, Honeysuckle Sorbet and Atlantic Beach Pie (dubbed by NPR the “Oh, My God Pie”).

‘Biscuits For Your Outside Man’ Track Listing

1.    Cook Cornbread For Your Husband (Biscuits For Your Outside Man) – Algia Mae Hinton
2.    Shuckin’ Corn – Cootie Stark
3.    Poke Salad Annie – Captain Luke
4.    Shortnin’ Bread – Neal Pattman & Taj Mahal
5.    Livin’ in a BBQ World – Drink Small
6.    Greasy Greens – George Higgs
7.    Cherry Pie – Adolphus Bell
8.    Cook Good Salad – Little Pink Anderson
9.    Down on the Farm – Guitar Gabriel
10.  Cookie Jar – Robert Lee Coleman
11.  Lima Beans – Algia Mae Hinton
12.  Cabbage Man – Sam Frazier, Jr.
13.  Chicken Pie – Mudcat
14.  Shortnin’ Bread – Red Rover
15.  Chicken Raid – Mr. Frank Edwards
16.  Old Bill – Big Boy Henry
17.  Hambone – John Dee Holeman

TAJ MAHAL AND DOM FLEMONS WEIGH IN ON ETTA BAKER AS ‘RAILROAD BILL’ DELUXE LP REISSUE COMES OUT THIS WEEK ON MUSIC MAKER RELIEF FOUNDATION

Etta Baker’s ‘Railroad Bill’ comes out this week as a deluxe LP reissue with new packaging, an unreleased bonus track “Police Dog Blues.” It includes a digital download of her entire catalog and new liner notes. Taj Mahal and Dom Flemons weighed in on the reissue:

Americana Lifetime Achievement Award winner and Blues Hall of Famer Taj Mahal says, "Possessing a stunning beauty, Etta's husband refused to let her travel and perform away from home. She never stopped playing music! This gracious grandmother was the source of a great deal of joy and surprise when I found out that she still played guitar after I heard her early recordings in the '60s. One of the signature chords of my guitar vocabulary comes from her version of 'Railroad Bill.’"

GRAMMY winner Dom Flemons says, “For more than half a century, Etta Baker has been considered by many to be the most important piedmont blues guitar player of all time. Her delicate and nuanced playing have influenced generations of finger picking guitarists. ‘Railroad Bill’ is an excellent collection of the songs that Etta recorded for Music Maker in the early ‘90s and is still considered her finest recording to date. Anyone who might ask you to narrow it down to one album to get started needs to own this record!  A classic for longtime fans as well as new listeners!"

TAJ MAHAL’S BUSTED OLD GUITAR FINDS ITS WAY TO BROOKLYN INDIE/AMERICANA/GARAGE BAND LELAND SUNDRIES’ DEBUT ALBUM ‘MUSIC FOR OUTCASTS’

PASTE PREMIERES “STUDEBAKER” SINGLE

Of the guitars used on Brooklyn band Leland Sundries’ new album ‘Music For Outcasts' (May, 2016 / L'Echiquier Records) one stands out: an inexpensive 1990s Sebring hollowbody guitar made in Korea. What’s special about it? Its former owner: Americana Music Association Lifetime Achievement Award winner Taj Mahal. Bandleader Nick Loss-Eaton recalls, “We were on tour in North Carolina and I was hanging out with my friends at the Music Maker Relief Foundation headquarters outside of Durham. Tim Duffy – the head of the organization – was selling some gear. I asked if he had any hollowbodies and he pulled out this one and handed it to me on the spot, saying that Taj had given it to him and that he’d give it to me. I did a double take and said, ‘Taj Taj?!’ Strumming it, the electric guitar had a warm, natural tone, even unplugged.”

Paste Magazine premiered the band’s indie rock single “Studebaker,” which has drawn comparisons to The War on Drugs.

Loss-Eaton had been involved with the Music Maker Relief Foundation – a non-profit organization dedicated to recording and helping elderly, traditional, southern musicians – for many years: putting on two benefit concerts for the organization in New York, helping with publicity, donating money, and getting to know some of the elderly artists personally such as Boo Hanks, Whistlin’ Britches, and Ironing Board Sam.

Nick continues, “The guitar was pretty busted when Tim gave it to me, with broken electronics and some rust. I had it fixed up with a pair of GFS P90 pickups, some new hardware, and new amp-style knobs for volume and tone.” It has since been used in concert at shows opening for Todd Snider and Spirit Family Reunion. “We only used it on a couple of songs on the new album but it just shined,” the bandleader recalls.

Largely a rock and roll album, ‘Music For Outcasts’ also boasts wonderful songwriting and Americana music; it has been compared to ‘Mermaid Avenue.’ “Keys in the Boot” is a country waltz inspired by a phrase overheard while on tour in west Texas; “Freckle Blues” is a noir/blues written in NYC during Hurricane Irene; “Maps of the West” captures the optimism of a new relationship atop a driving train beat; and “The Tide (Love Letter In Scrimshaw)” tells the story of the end of that coupling as the tale of one left behind as the other takes an overseas voyage.

Taj had bought a pair of these because he loved the tone and the vibe, despite being inexpensive, Korean-made guitars; reportedly, he still has the other one.

TAJ MAHAL ACCEPTS LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD FROM AMERICANA MUSIC ASSOCIATION

Taj Mahal accepted the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Americana Music Association at tonight’s ceremony at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN. Keb' Mo' presented the award. In his speech, Taj Mahal said, “This is one of the most powerful and wonderful things that could happen in life.” He then performed “Statesboro Blues” with an all-star band that included Ry Cooder (with whom he played in the Rising Sons), Don Was, and Buddy Miller.

He also reflected, "It's a real honor to receive a lifetime achievement award from the AMAs and to be in such esteemed company. I've been performing for over fifty years now and to be recognized for the road I've traveled means the world to me. I could not have done this without the audience that has been so supportive of me throughout my musical journey."

In the past five years, Mahal has opened for Bob Dylan, Wynton Marsalis and Eric Clapton; performed on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon with the Roots; guested on new Clapton recordings; joined the Rolling Stones onstage; performed at the GRAMMY Museum in Los Angeles, CA; and joined a Bonnaroo jam with Susan Tedeschi, Anthony Hamilton, Derek Trucks, Chaka Khan, and more. ‘The Complete Columbia Album Collection’ was released February, 2013 on Columbia/Legacy.

Composer, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Taj Mahal is one of the most prominent and influential figures in late 20th century blues and roots music. Though his career began more than four decades ago with American blues, he has broadened his artistic scope over the years to include music representing virtually every corner of the world – west Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, the Hawaiian islands and so much more. What ties it all together is his insatiable interest in musical discovery. Over the years, his passion and curiosity have led him around the world, and the resulting global perspective is reflected in his music today. Taj Mahal is a two-time GRAMMY Award winner and Blues Hall of Famer.

The Americana Music Awards were broadcast by NPR Music and SIRIUS XM and will be broadcast in edited form by PBS.

Taj Mahal Bio

Composer, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Taj Mahal is one of the most prominent and influential figures in late 20^th century blues and roots music. Though his career began more than four decades ago with American blues, he has broadened his artistic scope over the years to include music representing virtually every corner of the world – west Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, the Hawaiian islands and so much more. What ties it all together is his insatiable interest in musical discovery. Over the years, his passion and curiosity have led him around the world, and the resulting global perspective is reflected in his music today.

Born Henry St. Claire Fredericks in Harlem on May 17, 1942, Taj grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts. His father was a jazz pianist, composer and arranger of Caribbean descent, and his mother was a schoolteacher and gospel singer from South Carolina. Both parents encouraged their children to take pride in their diverse ethnic and cultural roots. His father had an extensive record collection and a shortwave radio that brought sounds from near and far into the home. His parents also started him on classical piano lessons, but after only two weeks, young Henry already had other plans about what and how he wanted to play.

In addition to piano, the young musician learned to play the clarinet, trombone and harmonica, and he loved to sing. He discovered his stepfather’s guitar and became serious about it in his teens when a guitarist from North Carolina moved in next door and taught him the various styles of Muddy Waters, Lightnin’ Hopkins, John Lee Hooker and Jimmy Reed and other titans of Delta and Chicago blues.

Springfield in the 1950s was full of recent arrivals, not just from around the U.S. but from all over the globe. “We spoke several dialects in my house – Southern, Caribbean, African – and we heard dialects from eastern and western Europe,” Taj recalls. In addition, musicians from the Caribbean, Africa and all over the U.S. frequently visited the Fredericks home, and Taj became even more fascinated with roots – the origins of the various forms of music he was hearing, the path they took to reach their current form, and how they influenced each other along the way. He threw himself into the study of older forms of African-American music, which the record companies of the day largely ignored.

Henry studied agriculture at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in the early 1960s. Inspired by a dream, he adopted the musical alias of Taj Mahal and formed the popular U. Mass party band, the Elektras. After graduating, he headed west in 1964 to Los Angeles, where he formed the Rising Sons, a six-piece outfit that included guitarist Ry Cooder. The band opened for numerous high-profile touring artists of the ‘60s, including Otis Redding, the Temptations and Martha and the Vandellas. Around this same time, Taj also mingled with various blues legends, including Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, Buddy Guy, Lightnin’ Hopkins and Sleepy John Estes.

This diversity of musical experience served as the bedrock for Taj’s first three recordings: Taj Mahal (1967), The Natch’l Blues (1968) and Giant Step (1969). Drawing on all the sounds and styles he’d absorbed as a child and a young adult, these early albums showed signs of the musical exploration that would be Taj’s hallmark over the years to come.

In the 1970s, Taj carved out a unique musical niche with a string of adventurous recordings, including Happy To be Just Like I Am (1971), Recycling the Blues and Other Related Stuff (1972), the GRAMMY®-nominated soundtrack to the movie Sounder (1973), Mo’ Roots (1974), Music Fuh Ya (Music Para Tu) (1977) and Evolution (The Most Recent (1978).

Taj’s recorded output slowed somewhat during the 1980s as he toured relentlessly and immersed himself in the music and culture of his new home in Hawaii. Still, that decade saw the well-received release of Taj in 1987, as well as the first three of his celebrated children’s albums on the Music For Little People label.

He returned to a full recording and touring schedule in the 1990s, including such projects as the musical scores for the Langston Hughes/Zora Neale Hurston play Mule Bone (1991) and the movie Zebrahead (1992). Later in the decade, Taj released a series of recordings with the Phantom Blues Band, including Dancing the Blues (1993), Phantom Blues (1996), and the two GRAMMY® winners, Señor Blues (1997) and the live Shoutin’ in Key (2000). Overall, he has been nominated for nine GRAMMY® Awards.

During this same period, Taj continued to expand his multicultural horizons by joining Indian classical musicians on Mumtaz Mahal in 1995, and recording Sacred Island, a blend of Hawaiian music and blues, with the Hula Blues Band in 1998. Kulanjan, released in 1999, was a collaborative project with Malian kora player Toumani Diabate (the kora is a 21-string west African harp). He recorded a second album with the Hula Blues Band, Hanapepe Dream, in 2003. Zanzibar, a European release, followed in 2005.

In 2008, Taj celebrated the 40^th anniversary of his rich and varied recording career with the Heads Up International release of Maestro, a mix of original material, chestnuts borrowed from vintage sources and newcomers alike and including performances by Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, Angelique Kidjo, Los Lobos, Ziggy Marley and others – many of whom have been directly influenced by Taj’s music and guidance.

Taj’s most recent release is a 15 cd deluxe box set titled Taj Mahal – The Complete Columbia Albums Collection (February 2013 via Columbia/Legacy). It includes every album from his self-titled debut of 1968 through 1976’s Satisfied ’N Tickled Too, plus landmark archival compilations Rising Sons Featuring Taj Mahal And Ry Cooder and 2012’s two-cd set of previously unreleased material,

The Hidden Treasures of Taj Mahal 1969-1973.

Taj continues to tour internationally, doing as many as 150 shows per year throughout the U.S., Europe, Australia, New Zealand and beyond.

Taj Mahal Photo

Credit: Jay Blakesburg

MUSIC MAKER RELIEF FOUNDATION EARNS PRAISE FROM NEW YORKER, THE NATION, WALL STREET JOURNAL AS WELL AS KUDOS FROM B.B. KING, BONNIE RAITT, TAJ MAHAL, DEREK TRUCKS, & MORE

Of late, the Music Maker Relief Foundation’s twentieth anniversary has earned press in the New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, The Nation, Wondering Sound, and more. But musicians are also praising the non-profit organization and record label. Here’s what some of roots music’s leading lights have said:

“We are the Music Makers [the book] highlights an essential part of our culture, providing us a glimpse into the lives of the amazing, and often little known, musicians of the American South. Tim Duffy has taken every opportunity to sustain a dimension of Blues culture that could easily be lost forever, and nowhere is that more apparent than in his new book.” –BB King

Clapton said, "Music Maker is a fabulous project, real evidence that the music I have always loved is alive and well." –Eric Clapton

“I think they’re doing wonderful work and I support them for keeping not only interest in the blues alive but the musicians themselves... The photographs in this book are not only beautiful, but reflect the deep love and dedication The Duffys have for both preserving traditional Blues culture and providing real support and opportunity for these wonderful musicians who might otherwise be forgotten.” –Bonnie Raitt

“Some of the best blues comes from unlikely places. Thanks to Music Maker for seeking out the real blues artists.” –Derek Trucks

“Having worked extensively with The Music Maker Relief Foundation, I can say without a doubt, it is one of the most amazing organizations I have dealt with. Tim's and Denise's dedication to preserving the quality of life and the music of these essential and historic musicians is unsurpassed. Congratulations on 20 years!” –Kenny Wayne Shepherd

"Through the efforts of the Music Makers Relief Foundation, these amazing people and artists have been able to live dignified lives. In many cases they were rediscovered during their golden years by Tim and Denise Duffy, then given the joy of new recognition by their families, peers and fans world-over!" –Taj Mahal

“I have never seen photographs generate so much of the atmosphere and personalities of blues music.” –John Cohen, The New Lost City Ramblers

Next up is "We Are The Music Makers," a new book out next week on Nautilus Press; ‘We Are the Music Makers,’ a 2CD set out September 30; and the Homecoming October 3-4 in North Carolina, featuring over 40 musicians performing in concert.

MUSIC MAKER RELIEF FOUNDATION 20TH ANNIVERSARY CULMINATES IN HOMECOMING CELEBRATION IN THE NC PIEDMONT OCTOBER 3 AND 4TH

LARGEST GATHERING OF MUSIC MAKER ARTISTS TO DATE FEATURES IRONING BOARD SAM, BEVERLY “GUITAR” WATKINS, JOHN DEE HOLEMAN, BOO HANKS, ROBERT LEE COLEMAN, LITTLE FREDDIE KING, AND MANY MORE
 
PANEL DISCUSSION OCTOBER 3 WITH UNC’S WILLIAM FERRIS
 
NEW ACCLAIM FROM THE NEW YORKER, WALL STREET JOURNAL, THE NATION
 
Music Maker Relief Foundation's 20th anniversary celebration will begin with a Homecoming Weekend October 3-4. October 3rd William Ferris, Phd will moderate a panel discussion preceding the opening of the We are the Music Makers! exhibit  and a Music Maker Blues Revue performance featuring Beverly "Guitar" Watkins, Cool John Ferguson, Captain Luke and more at The ArtsCenter in Carrboro, NC.

October 4 will mark the largest MMRF artist gathering ever with food, music and celebration featuring over forty artists. The performance will take place 2pm to 8pm at the Old Murphey School in Durham, NC. Among the many performers (full list at bottom with hometowns) are:
 
+ Ironing Board Sam – This “legendary” (Billboard) piano man and three-time veteran of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival has a new album ‘Ironing Board Sam & The Sticks,’ which is streaming at Billboard.
 
+ Beverly “Guitar” Watkins – This Atlanta guitar hero’s story of going from opening for James Brown and Ray Charles to working at a car wash was featured in the Wall Street Journal ahead of her recent Lincoln Center performance.
 
+ John Dee Holeman – This NEA National Heritage Fellowship award winner has recorded with Taj Mahal.

+ Boo Hanks – After making his debut album at the age of 79, the Washington Post praised his “irrepressible personality [and] propulsive push.” The lifelong tractor driver and Piedmont blues master recorded a session for Time Out New York.

+ Robert Lee Coleman – This guitarist was a member of the JBs and recorded with James Brown on such songs as “Hot Pants” and “Make It Funky.” Paul Reed Smith personally granted him a PRS guitar after hearing his playing.

+ Little Freddie King – This multiple New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Fest and Ponderosa Stomp veteran is one of New Orleans’ reigning bluesmen.
 
October 3 will see a panel discussion with Music Maker artists, moderated by folklorist and author William Ferris, PhD. Friday evening Music Maker will officially launch its exhibit, We Are the Music Makers with a performance by Cool John Ferguson, Ironing Board Sam, Beverly “Guitar” Watkins, and more. All of these events take place at the ArtsCenter in Carrboro, NC.
 
Recent events have included a museum exhibition, Lincoln Center performance. New book “We are the Music Makers” comes out September 15 on Nautilus Press while new 2CD set ‘We are the Music Makers’ comes out September 30. The New Yorker recently ran a playlist of Taj Mahal’s favorite songs from the Msuic Maker catalogue.
 
MMRF was included in Eric Alterman’s news and notes column in the Nation.
 
Here is a complete list of artists performing at the Homecoming at the Shared Visions Retreat Center in Hillsborough, NC October 4 along with list of their hometowns:
 

Big Ron Hunter - Winston-Salem, NC

Boo Hanks _ Buffalo Junction, VA

Captain Luke - Winston-Salem, NC

Cool John Ferguson - Beaufort, SC

Ironing Board Sam - Hillsborough, NC

John Dee Holeman - Hillsborough, NC

Pat "Mother Blues" Cohen - Salisbury, NC

Pura Fe - Durham, NC

Shelton Powe - Atlanta, GA

Tim and Susan Wells - Cedar Grove, NC

The Branchettes - Raleigh, NC

Beverly "Guitar" Watkins - Atlanta, GA

Drink Small - Columbia, SC

Eddie Tigner - Atlanta, GA

Robert Lee Coleman - Macon, GA

Dr Dixon - Atlanta, GA

David Bryant - Covington, GA

Algia Mae Hinton - Middlesex, NC

Lil' Joe - Atlanta, GA

Nashid Abdul - Atlanta, GA

Albert White - Atlanta, GA

Ardie Dean - Huntsville, AL

Bubba Norwood - Carrboro, NC

Lakota John and Kin - Pembroke, NC

Harvey Dalton Arnold - Burlington, NC

Lightnin’ Wells - Fountain, NC

Deer Clan Singers - Pembroke, NC

Lee Gates - Racine, WS

Major Handy - Lafayette, LA

Alabama Slim - New Orleans, LA

Little Freddie King - New Orleans, LA

Little Pink Anderson - Vermillion, SD

Dave McGrew - Curlew, WA

PeeWee Hayes - Milwaukee, WI

Gerald Robinson - Winston-Salem, NC

Tad Walters - Raleigh, NC

Jeffrey Scott - Culpeper, VA

About Music Maker Relief Foundation & MMRF Timeline

Music Maker Relief Foundation, Inc. is a tax exempt, public charity under IRS code 501(c)3. Music Maker aims to keep our Southern culture vital by directly supporting senior (over 55) American roots musicians in need, expanding their professional careers, and providing with basic life needs so they can focus on their art. Music Maker also assists Next Generation (under 55) artists in the development of their professional careers. Since the organization’s founding in 1994, Music Maker has assisted hundreds of musicians who represent the traditions of Blues, Gospel, Old-Time String Band, Jazz and more. Music Maker’s programs ensure the talents of these cultural treasures are accessible so that our rich musical heritage can be shared with the world and preserved for future generations.

Living Blues Magazine writes, "North Carolina's Music Maker label has been digging up obscure and blissfully eccentric blues and traditional music characters for most of their 17-year existence."

1991 – Tim Duffy invited to archive his field recordings and photographs at the Southern Folklife Collection.

1994 – Music Maker Founded in Winston-Salem, NC.

1994 – Our first donation! 2 pallets of Ensure purchased for elderly artists.

1994 - Guitar Gabriel and Willa Mae Buckner perform at Carnegie Hall.

1995 - Eric Clapton meets Tim Duffy at Cello Studios; the two record The MS Blues.

1997 - Tim Duffy Awarded Lifetime Achievement Award by National Guitars.

1998 – Winston-Salem Blues Revival, a 42-city tour, launches Music Maker around the country with blues legend Taj Mahal.

2001 – Music Maker relocates to Hillsborough, NC.

2002 – Music Maker releases the book Portraits and Songs of the Roots of America.

2004 – Tim Duffy named person of the week on ABC News with Peter Jennings.

2005 – DixieFrog Release The Last and Lost Blues Survivors sells 20,000 copies in France.

2006 – Music Maker Blues Revue begins tours through Europe yearly.

2006 – Music Maker Blues Revue invited to Byron Bay Blues Festival yearly.

2007 – Toot Blues Documentary released.

2008 – Music Maker buys a permanent residence for the organization in Downtown Hillsborough.

2012 – Music Maker awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to present a music series in Chapel Hill, NC.

2012 – Music Maker and supporters help purchase a new home for artist Precious Bryant.

2012 – Partner Artist Ironing Board Sam plays to over capacity crowd at New Orleans Jazz Fest.

2014 – Music Maker celebrates 20^th Anniversary with a launch of a new book and museum exhibit, We Are the Music Makers.