Get Henry Byrd's album before anyone else!

Record Club coming up - still time to join and get Henry Byrd's Pomegranite Ave! The Record Club is a great way to hear new releases from Music Maker - and now is a great time to join because you'll get Henry Byrd's yet-to-be-released post-humous album Pomegranite Ave, our September selection! With the Record Club, you'll get albums before they're available to the public, four times per year, for $100. You'll get great music and help us continue our mission of preserving Roots music and sustaining artists. In 2002 Henry Byrd's friend Scott Riggan recorded Pomegranite Ave, named for the street Byrd was living on. He was 91 years old at the time, and this album showcases Byrd's lifetime of musical history and finger-pickin' East Coast blues style. Get your Record Club subscription here! Listen: George Conner - In This World Alone Diggin': "In This World Alone" It's hard to get into the rhythm of the work week when it's shortened by a holiday. There's nothing like a soulful blues jam like "In This World Alone" to musically illustrate all the lethargy I'm still feeling after a long weekend of... well, nothing. From the opening guitar licks to the dancing harmonica, the song transports me back to a muggy summer day, one where I'm not concerned with news or technology but with just the very essentials of life: how somebody done me wrong. Or I done somebody wrong. Or how nobody's doing nobody wrong. The rhythm is what it comes down to, and George Conner carries us through his tune smoothly and steadily, the rolling bass line providing room for the guitar, harmonica and vocals to explore. He makes it easy for us to lament our own loneliness when listening to lyrics that devolve into a kind of mournful humming. Sometimes you don't even need words to express that broken spirit from which springs the Blues. - Whitney Southern Mississippi Roots Festival - artist spotlight On October 13th Music Maker will present the Music Maker Stage at the Southern Mississippi Roots Festival in Hattiesburg, MS. We'll showcase a varied group of artists from the South, including Ben Peyton. Peyton, of Jackson, Mississippi, is an acoustic blues artist with strong roots in the Delta. As a teenager in the 1960s his family moved to Chicago, and he took advantage of the city's vibrant blues scene, playing with artists such as Bobby Rush. He put down his guitar in the 1970s to focus on family, but was back at it by the 1990s, and returned to his home state of Mississippi to study the greats like Robert Johnson and Charley Patton. His great passion for blues history and teaching others about acoustic country blues makes him a perfect addition to the Music Maker Stage. Peyton was recently honored to represent his home state of Mississippi in Washington DC for the American Folklife Center's Homegrown Concert Series presented by the Library of Congress. You can learn more about Ben at benpayton.com, and be sure to stay tuned for more artist spotlights! Little Freddie King by Cornelius Lewis The six songs that "make you, you" This is a really cool thing that we found this week - The Guardian has launched a program that asks six questions, helping you choose the "Six Songs of Me" (or, in this case, you.) The music is loaded in from Spotify, which means if the answers to any of your "six questions" are Music Maker artists/tracks, they might be there! Check out this cool site and then share your six with us on Twitter - and we'll do the same over the next week! Keep up with Music Maker! Support Music Maker, and help keep the music alive!

Upcoming Shows: Click here for more info on upcoming events 9/8 - John Dee Holeman - Harvest Festival, Duke Homestead, Durham, NC 9/7 - 9/9 - Pura Fé - Ohio Lesbian Festival, Pataskala, OH 9/14 - Ironing Board Sam - The Depot, Hillsborough, NC 9/15 - Ironing Board Sam & Big Ron Hunter - Apex Jazz Festival 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 10/13 - Ironing Board Sam, L.C. Ulmer, Ben Peyton, Drew Young Band - Music Maker Stage, Southern Mississippi Roots Festival, Hattiesburg, MS 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.