Bman's Blues Report

  Chocolate Drops' Rhiannon Giddens teams up with sister Lalenja on I Know I've Been Changed For Immediate Release Contact:   Corinne Everett Belch corinne@musicmaker.org 919-643-2456 HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. (April 18, 2013) - Music Maker Relief Foundation, an organization dedicated to assisting elderly Roots musicians and preserving American Traditional music, is excited to announce the upcoming release of I Know I've Been Changed by the Giddens Sisters on April 30th. The duo will also perform across North Carolina and in Tennessee on six dates in March. On the 15-track album, Rhiannon Giddens, of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, and her sister Lalenja Harrington team up to perform both traditional and original tunes. Rhiannon plays banjo and fiddle on the album, in addition to singing. Lalenja lends her vocals, along with her skillfu...

Carolina Chocolate Drops nominated for Grammy! Music Maker Next Generation artists and Board Members the Carolina Chocolate Drops h ave been nominated for a Grammy for their recording "Leaving Eden." This is the second nomination in the Best Folk Album category for the group , the first, in 2010, resulted in a win for their album "Genuine Negro Jig." The Drops have received acclaim internationally for their take on traditional folk music, and for drawing attention to the African-American contributions to American folk and traditional music. Don't miss the Grammys on CBS, 8pm February 10th! Good luck Drops! Ben Payton partners with Music Maker! Music Maker first met up with Ben Payton when working with him at the Southern Mississippi Roots Festival in October. Now, Ben is coming to our neck of the woods, and will perform at Hillsborough music venue Billsborough on 12/13 from 8-10pm! Scott Ba...

It is not widely known in this day that the fiddle and banjo were commonly played by African Americans from slavery times to well into this century. The two instruments in combination once provided much of the dance music for the balls and frolics of both white and black Southerners. And thousands of dance tunes--waltzes, schottisches, and reels--were adapted and composed for the fiddle and banjo. Scholars have long established the African origins of the banjo, the prototype of which was made of hollow gourds and animal hides. The fiddle, of course, is the familiar name for the European violin, which was brought by early settlers from the British Isles and Germany. No one knows exactly when or how the instruments were first played together, but it was a marriage of two radically different cultural traditions, giving rise to one of America's first truly indigenous musical forms. Joe and Odell Thompson were among the few "old-time" stringband musicians who remained act...

Music Maker Receives NEA Grant! Music Maker has received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to present a music series in Chapel Hill! The Music Maker Roots and Leaves series will take place on Fridays, June 8th - 29th , on the Village Green in Southern Village . The shows will highlight a diverse array of local musical traditions, from Piedmont Blues to Native American. 6/8 - My South My Blues will feature John Dee Holeman, an NEA National Heritage Fellow, Captain Luke and Cool John Ferguson. 6/15 - Heart Strings will present Piedmont-style guitarist Boo Hanks, and country band Kelly and the Cowboys. 6/22 - Sisters of the South will include performances from powerhouse vocalist Essie Mae Brooks and Pat "Mother Blues" Cohen. 6/29 - Native Voices , our final show, will showcase the Pura Fé Trio alongside 15-year old guitar prodigy Lakota John Locklear. More info to come. Hope to see you there! T...