Music Maker 25: Roundtable Discussion

Gathering an intriguing cross-section of staff, associates, and longtime artists of the Hillsborough-based nonprofit Music Maker Relief Foundation, this panel—moderated by former National Endowment for the Humanities chair and current UNC-Chapel Hill folklore and history professor William R. Ferris—sheds light on Music Maker’s efforts to help preserve Southern voices in blues and folk traditions for the last twenty-five years. Music Maker founder and executive director Timothy Duffy is joined by Fat Possum Records general manager Bruce Watson, who Duffy credits for helping the Carolina Chocolate Drops reach a wide audience. Alabama Slim, a Freddie King collaborator and a veteran of deep South juke joints, also appears alongside soulful Native American singer-songwriter Pura Fé—who is a Music Maker Relief Foundation advisory board member—and the real-deal R&B queen Pat “Mother Blues” Cohen, who, in interviews, has referred to the Music Maker folks as family. —Spencer Griffith