I first walked into Guitar Gabriel’s door in March of 1990. He took one look at me and said "Where you been so long? I know where you want to go, I’ve been there before and I can take you there." He led and I followed. Soon, Gabe and I were fixtures in the drink-houses of Winston-Salem. A few years passed as we performed at clubs and festivals throughout the southeast. We were also able to travel to Europe a few times. When we were not performing, Guitar Gabriel and I were looking up the many old performers he knew. Musicians such as Macavine Hayes, Mr. Q, Willa Mae Buckner, Guitar Gabriel and Captain Luke became my closest friends. They had all worked in show business, some for their whole lives, some just on weekends while holding a full-time day job. Every one of them had a great story and every story was different. Beside their love of music, they shared the constant struggle to make ends meet. Whether living on meager Social Security checks or in Gabe’s words "singing songs of the times for nickels and dimes"; there was never enough money, even for the basics. I became deeply disturbed by the difficult choices they had to make each month: food or medicine, rent or the car, heat or the telephone. I dedicated myself to finding a way to help these artists and the many others I was beginning to meet. I began to pick everyone up on check day in my old van and take them to the grocery store, to the post office to get money orders, then downtown to pay the utility bills and back home again. Every two months we would pick up a number of these old entertainers and go stand in the cheese line to collect their commodities. It was a fascinating period of my life, complete immersion in a world not often seen by a young white guitar player. I created an office in a small utility building behind the rental house Denise and I had in the back of a used car lot in Winston-Salem. From this tin shack I booked gigs and desperately tried to find recording deals for Gabe and the others. I communicated with the world by hand-written postcards because I couldn’t afford the long distance phone bills. By 1993, I had figured out that the present day blues scene had very little to offer my friends so I began to reach out to a few family friends for help. I had lost my father to leukemia in 1986, but he was a great lover of music and fast friend to many. I began to make a few calls to those who had offered to help if I ever needed them. The first to respond was my dad’s best friend, from Louisville, Kentucky, who sent a tractor-trailer to our small house full of Ensure, a nutritional drink which we gave to Gabe and Willa. It was a tremendous gift and kept these artists in good health. Then, audio pioneer Mark Levinson returned a call. Mark was one of the few clients that my father, an attorney, had kept after he became ill. A few months before my father passed he had won a very significant case for Mark, which essentially retained his right to work in the hi-fi industry. I told Mark that I had been recording these incredible blues artists for years. He invited me to visit him. So a few weeks later, in December of 1993, I visited his showroom in New York. Mark was stunned by my humble field recordings. As he listened to the music I began to tell him about the living conditions of these artists. He was moved and decided to help. It was Mark who envisioned the non-profit and gave us the name Music Maker Relief Foundation. We worked without sleep for two weeks remastering and writing the notes for a compilation CD and booklet, "A Living Past." Mark began using the CD to demonstrate his audio system and ask people to contribute to the cause. Our first support came from the audiophile community. In January of 1994, I returned to North Carolina with a nonprofit foundation and seed money. With New York as our platform to the world and Mark Levinson as our advocate and spokesperson, there was soon a steady stream of interest and a small stream of donations coming in. In October of 1995 Mark met Eric Clapton at a bistro and shared the Foundation’s story. Intrigued, Eric came to the studio a few weeks later and spent the afternoon listening to field recordings and talking about blues artists and the music. I had the great pleasure of recording a couple of guitar pieces with Eric. This meeting was a springboard for Music Maker to get the word out. We started getting press and meeting celebrities. Tower records distributed our CDs in their NY stores and featured us in their listening stations. Meanwhile, we continued to find performance opportunities for the artists. Donations continued to grow and we were able to send money to more musicians in need. Next, Mark invited Larry Rosen and David Grusen of N2K Records to his studio to listen to the music. In early 1996, they offered me a job as a producer for a series of releases featuring Music Maker artists. They also offered a very substantial royalty to the Foundation. I took the job and started to put records together. Denise and I traveled extensively across the South with a mobile recording studio, meeting more talented, under-appreciated artists. By this time Guitar Gabriel had passed on and we had moved to an old farmhouse in rural Pinnacle, North Carolina. I had a large library of field recordings and a small salary as a producer. I was still dedicated to keeping the Foundation alive. One December afternoon, I went to the mailbox to find an envelope addressed to the Foundation. I drove up the driveway thinking it was another CD order. Sitting on top of the hill, I opened the letter and was amazed to find an anonymous donation for a great deal of money. I jumped out of the car and screamed for joy. Then I turned around to watch my car roll down the hill; I had left it in neutral. This began a period of extreme growth for the Foundation. Knowing the immense need among our recipients, Denise and I immediately began to increase grants, expand programs and include new artists. Within a year, the foundation’s coffers were once again dwindling. Without a word, another large check appeared. It was unbelievable. We became friends with this generous donor and he became the backbone and unsung hero of our organization. All of the artists and my family have the deepest respect and admiration for his guidance and generosity. N2K Records was just being formed when I was signed. As their marketing plans began to solidify, it became clear that the work we were doing would never be released. Miraculously, in the spring of 1997, Cello Recordings purchased my contract from N2K. Looking for new support for the foundation I traveled with B.B. King while he recorded "Deuces Wild". B. was happy to help. He introduced me to many stars; the Rolling Stones, Dan Aykroyd, Jeff Beck, Bonnie Raitt and most significantly, to Taj Mahal. Taj was immediately smitten with Music Maker and got busy fast. He came down to Pinnacle and recorded with Cootie Stark, John Dee Holeman, Algia Mae Hinton, and Neal Pattman. These albums and others, nine in total, were released and distributed through Warner Brothers in 1999. He remains in close contact with us to this day, despite his non-stop touring and recording schedule. We are most fortunate to have this legend champion our cause. The Music Maker family loves him dearly for all he has done for the Foundation. Taj was also instrumental in helping us obtain the historic Winston Blues Revival tour, which took Music Maker to 36 cities in 1998 and 1999. It was a great joy to be able to meet so many music lovers across America. I can’t express how empowering the experience of first class stages and national press was for Cootie Stark, Neal Pattman, Beverly Watkins and the other Music Maker artists. We began the year 2000 without the help of a major sponsor or record company. It is a period where we must prove that we can stand on our own. By good fortune, a donor invited me to meet with him. As a blues fan of many years, he believes in our mission and is impressed with our achievements. Yet, as a businessman he saw the need for a more solid structure for our organization. He introduced us to nonprofit business consultant Fred Tamalonis. With the help of supporter Marc Comer, we hired Fred to evaluate our organization and devise a development plan. Implementing this plan, we have established the Music Maker Annual Fund and our new Visiting Artist Program. We are proud to have the great support of Georgia philanthropist Bill Lucado. Bill has taken our mission to heart and pledged a challenge gift of $100,000 to get the Annual Fund up and running. We also wish to give a special thanks Bill Krasilovsky, "Dean of Music Law", who has been instrumental in our success. It is our hope that one day there will be a Music Maker Center. A place where artists could take residence, share each other’s company and music, record, and hold seminars. We envision a roadside attraction where people come and explore documentary exhibits, have a meal and see a live performance. We wish for everyone to experience the art of these great, unsung heroes of southern music. So, we continue to work and we dream that one day all of this might come true. We know it is you, our donors, who have gotten us this far and will take us where we want to go. For this, we thank you. Yours Truly, Tim and Denise Duffy Music Maker Relief Foundation, Inc. receives all of its funding from private and corporate donations. Your contributions to Music Maker directly support traditional musicians in their efforts to keep playing, performing and recording. All donations include a one-year subscription to the MMRF newsletter. |