Music Maker Relief Foundation partner artist singing weekly outside of nursing home
Pat "Mother Blues" Cohen, a Music Maker Relief Foundation partner artist sings weekly outside of a nursing home that's had an outbreak of COVID, where her brother lives. Pat's is a powerful story of artist giving back the way they can, even while the artist herself, with cancelled shows, little money, little digital literacy, and underlying health problems, is at a disadvantage. This is true of so most of the MMRF partner artists, primarily older black musicians. Pat had to leave New Orleans after Katrina flooded her house and was set to make a major comeback there with a slot at New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Fest, which is obviously not happening now. She lives outside of Charlotte, NC these days. Following are pieces from PBS NewsHour, CNN, and Rolling Stone.com on Pat, as well as her compatriots Sam Frazier, Jr. of Birmingham, AL, Ironing Board Sam (also formerly from NOLA) of Montgomery, AL, and New Orleans' Alabama Slim, and how Music Maker works clo...