We Are the Music Makers!

Preserving the Soul of America's Music

Timothy Duffy, Denise Duffy

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781469651729
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Photographie

America tells its stories through song. Consolation to the lovelorn, courage to the oppressed, warning to the naive, or a ticket to the Promised Land, a great song can deliver the wisdom of ages directly to our souls. We Are the Music Makers! presents black-and-white portraits of artists who carry these songs from past to present: fathers and mothers, uncles and aunts, daughters and sons, grandparents and neighbors, who continue to lovingly stir the South's musical stew and feed American culture outside the realm of conventional fame and fortune. Newly available in paperback, this book features intimate photographs that will make you look more closely at the unrecognized greatness that surrounds us all.

INTRODUCTION

“We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems.”

—Arthur O’Shaughnessy, 1874

America tells its stories through song. Consolation to the lovelorn, courage to the oppressed, warning to the naive or a ticket to the Promised Land, a great song can deliver the wisdom of ages directly to our souls.

Deeply personal and implausibly universal, the blues, jazz, gospel and old time music of the American South form a deep aquifer that contemporary musicians all around the world drink from daily. The music is constantly expanding and morphing into country, rock, rap and soul, but trace the origins and you will find yourself standing squarely in the South.

We romanticize the bluesman as the lone wolf and rambler, bringing his song into our dreary workaday world, but the taproot of American song has always survived on the sweat of working class brows. It is the offspring of the tenant farmer, factory worker and domestic servant born during the precious few leisure hours they shared with their communities at a Friday night fish fry, Saturday afternoon on the back porch, or on Sunday morning in their church clothes. In the days when openly expressing rage at injustice could cost a black man his life, gospel and blues developed a language known only to its initiates, a code that mocked the oppressors and fortified the common man with camaraderie and resolve to keep his eyes on the prize. While individual experiences with race, relationships, poverty, and work vary, the feelings of being subject to injustice or finding love at last are universal.

In the following pages, we present portraits of these artists: fathers and mothers, uncles and aunts, daughters and sons, grandparents and neighbors, who continue to lovingly stir the South’s musical stew and feed American culture. You probably won’t recognize their names or faces, for few have found fame. Most of them weren’t easy to find.

My husband, Tim Duffy, has traveled the world with a guitar, tape recorder and camera since he was a college freshman in 1981. He started by documenting old time mountain musicians at weekly “pickin’ parties” in western North Carolina. He finished his college degree studying the Swahili and their Tarabu music on the Kenyan coast. When he returned to America, he enrolled in a Masters program in the Curriculum of Folklore at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. One of his last assignments was an oral history of James “Guitar Slim” Stephens, an African American blues artist from Greensboro, NC, who was dying of cancer. Slim encouraged Tim to seek out Guitar Gabriel in Winston-Salem, NC. Tim began his search in the drink houses of East Winston where he discovered musical geniuses; he has continued to seek talent in dozens of housing projects, small towns, and farming communities from the Virginia Tidewater to East Texas.

To hear and record the most authentic, archaic musical forms, Tim always seeks out the oldest guy who learned from the oldest guy who came before. He has found that you can’t just turn up on someone’s doorstep one afternoon and expect them to bare their soul to your camera and recorder. Tim acknowledges a deep obligation to these artists, “It is no small thing to ask a musician for their song and their story. The only way we can hope to make an equal exchange is if the documentarian and the artist have a genuine relationship; they must share more than just the moment the photo is taken or the song is captured.”

Tim took these photographs over the past twenty years and insists, “I know who I am looking at through the lens.” He knows them because of the countless hours spent with each artist over months and years. Days spent sharing songs, food, laughter and far too many miles in vans and airplanes have built the bridges of trust that allow these artists to give their wisdom and art so generously. These artists share their life lessons with us because we are dedicated to presenting their music to the world with reverence and to be partners in their struggle for a better life.

Whether in Appalachia or Africa, the other constant companion to roots music is grinding, relentless poverty. On some visits the artist couldn’t play for us because their guitar was in the pawnshop, or they weren’t up to it because they had a splitting headache from not being able to buy blood pressure medication. Whenever we meet new artists, they never ask for a handout, but always, “Do you know where I can get a gig? I need more work.”

We concluded that our nation’s musical traditions were suffering from starvation and underemployment. We founded the Music Maker Relief Foundation as a nonprofit in 1994 to preserve America’s music by directly supporting the people who make the music. We get gigs for those that want to perform, guitars for those who want to play, and feed the hungry. Our initial grassroots effort to meet the needs of a handful of blues musicians in Winston-Salem, NC, has grown to assist hundreds through the generosity and passion of our supporters, employees and volunteers.

We, in turn, have come to rely on the wisdom and knowledge of these elders in our personal and professional lives. We see the rebellions, loves, sorrows and joys these cultural treasures express in their stories, songs and pictures as reflections of our identity as the American people.

This book is filled with photographs of individuals we greatly respect and admire. Although an enthusiastic student of photography, Tim is a visual artist of necessity. He documents his surroundings because he is keenly aware that time is fleeting and these moments with elderly artists are too precious to be lost.

He focuses his lens entirely on Music Maker artists and our family. He does not guard these artists jealously, and often invites accomplished professionals to photograph these musicians. He asks the photographers to share their images with the artists, so they can be used to further their careers.

Tim shares his work with you here in hopes you will look more closely at the unrecognized greatness that surrounds you. He asks that you seek out the everyday heroic acts of art that will enrich your life.

— Denise Duffy

DENISE & TIM DUFFY,

SYLVESTER, GA

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We would like to thank the artists of Music Maker Relief Foundation (Music Maker) for their love, kindness, and friendship, and for filling our lives with song.

Dear Rick, Kathleen, Nathaniel, JP, Dave and Betty, your faith and support are the cornerstones on which our foundation has been built. Please know we are grateful to all of you each day for the opportunity to do this work we love so well.

We are very grateful to the dedicated professionals who have volunteered their time and expertise to serve on our Board of Directors, including Mark Levinson, Lucy DeVries Duffy, Kay Hill, Spike Barkin, Glenn Hinson, Lightnin Wells, Mudcat, Bill Lucado, Bill Puckett, John Price, Taj Mahal, Henry Slyker, Ryan Costello, Blane Wright, Eric Ashman, Ann Pitts, Bart Farrell, Tom Meyer, Rhiannon Giddens, Dom Flemons, Justin Robinson, Rich Henneberry, Rick Teller, Catherine Elkins, Saramel Evans, Jon Porter, Tom Wallack and Mark Chatinsky.

We would like to recognize our Advisory Board members for the support and wisdom they have generously shared, and give sincere thanks to Dickey Betts, Jackson Browne, Eric Clapton, Pura Fé Crescioni, Ardie Dean, Lutz Engelhart, Sue Foley, Ruthie Foster, Colonel Bruce Hampton, Jerry Harrison, Jimmy Herring, B.B King, Bill Krasilovsky, Mark Levinson, Tift Merritt, Jean-Hervé Michel, Bonnie Rait...