Check out our new Mission Video! Pass it on!

Music Maker's Mission - share it with your friends! Music Maker Relief Foundation: Our Mission Watch our new video - and share with your friends so they can experience what Music Maker is all about!  Listen:  Cool John & Captain Luke - Hotel Happiness  Diggin': "Hotel Happiness" Since it's getting into autumn now, the leaves are starting to change and there is a bit of a chill in the air: perfect for digesting songs about change. Change is inevitable, it happens, and it proves that we're alive. That's why I was so fascinated by "Hotel Happiness" by Captain Luke and Cool John Ferguson: the Captain's impressively low bass rumble and Cool John's picking make the song seem like the typical love song full of saccharine sweetness. But here's the thing about hotels: they aren't meant to be lived in. The very nature of them is novelty: small sized soaps, mints on the pillow, questionable pay-per-view -- the kind of things that aren't really suited to everyday life. Maybe happiness is this fleeting, too. Maybe it's like a vacation. "I'm checking into hotel happiness / cause darlin' I found you," Luke croons. It's adorable, and you want to think that you'll be in that perfect honeymoon bliss forever. Maybe there is an underlying current of impermanence and maybe not. Maybe it's just about escaping yourself long enough to appreciate what you have while you have it. Cool John Ferguson will be in Columbia, MO this weekend for Roots N Blues N BBQ and both Captain Luke and Cool John will be at Capitol Blues Night in October.  - Whitney Keep up with Music Maker!      Support Music Maker, and help keep the music alive!     Capitol Blues Night is back - and bigger! The Blues is back in D.C. - Capitol Blues Night is October 24th! This time though, a full Music Maker Blues Revue will be performing at The Hamilton, and tickets will be $25. Don't miss this - it's not often you get to see Ironing Board Sam, Captain Luke, Cool John Ferguson, Big Ron Hunter, Sol Roots and Ardie Dean all on one ticket! Tim said, "This classic drink-house lineup will be seen in one of DC's finest venues. Ironing Board Sam filled the Blues Tent to capacity at Jazzfest all by himself. Add Cool John Ferguson and Captain Luke, and the show will be just that much more explosive." We hope to see you at The Hamilton October 24th! Doors open at 6:30pm, show begins at 7:30pm. Get your tickets at thehamiltondc.com/live.   Southern Mississippi Roots Festival - artist spotlight   L.C. Ulmer brings boogie music from South Mississippi to the Music Maker Stage on October 13th. Ulmer, born in Ellisville, MS in 1928, has spent his life playing music and working various jobs. He learned guitar from his father, and sang in his church choir as a child. Other influences include artist Blind Roosevelt Graves; Ulmer studied Graves's slide-playing and imitated it. Before he entered his teens, Ulmer began playing for tips - his first professional gigs. Ulmer said, "The guitar was my pride and job. I wanted to go in front of that audience - always wanting to be seen.   I love that feeling. That's me." At 79 years old, Ulmer's record, Long Ways from Home, was released by Hill Country Records. He continues to play for a growing fanbase, performing at Festivals throughout the U.S. and Europe. We are so thrilled to have L.C. Ulmer as part of the Music Maker Stage in Hattiesburg, MS on October 13th!

Upcoming Shows: Click here for more info on upcoming events    9/20 - John Dee Holeman & Lightnin' Wells - SOOTS Benefit, Chapel Hill, NC 9/22 - Music Maker Blues Revue - Roots N Blues N BBQ, Columbia, MO     9/23 - Leyla McCalla - Mass MoCA Fresh Grass Bluegrass Festival, North Adams, MA 9/29 - Ironing Board Sam & Drink Small - Sweet Palmetto Festival, Columbia, SC 10/4 - 10/7 - Deer Clan - Shakori Hills Music Festival, Pittsboro, NC    10/6 - George Higgs - St. Anne's Chapel, Tarboro, NC  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.