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by Brenda Owen Download original story from the Pontotoc Progress LeeGatesPontotocNews.pdf
From the farms of 1950s Pontotoc County, Mississippi to the Milwaukee blues scene of the 21st Century, Lee Gates has traveled a road that has taken him around the world. Now hailed as one of Milwaukee’s pre-eminent blues musicians, Lee was born December 20, 1937 in Pontotoc. “I grew up in Pontotoc County,” he said recently in a phone interview from his home in Milwaukee. “I lived out between Pontotoc and Ecru.” His parents Brice and Inez Gates were both guitarists, and he remembers learning to “play guitar in Oxford, Mississippi. I used to work down on Brown’s Farm in Oxford with my daddy. I was about nine years old and I knew that’s what I wanted.” His musically gifted parents encouraged his dreams. When he was 14, his mother bought him an electric guitar, no small purchase in those lean days. But he listened and learned. He listened to BB King, John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters on the radio and picked up a tip here and there from other blues players, especially his parents, both of whom played blues and country blues
In 1959, the 22-year-old Lee migrated to Milwaukee where he found work performing with the house band at Wilson’s Club at 10th and Center Streets, a gig he held for 15 years while he worked at a steel mill during the day. “Sometimes I use to get home at 5 o’clock in the morning and go to work without any sleep,” Lee recalled. In addition to Milwaukee, he’s played all throughout the United States, from California to Kansas to Alabama, and even in Europe. The decades of struggle finally paid dividends in October 2003 when he recorded his first CD. Tim Duffy, president of Music Makers Relief Foundation in Hillsborough, North Carolina, related the story on the album cover notes: “Lee called me up and announced that he was coming to Hillsborough. I asked him what for and Lee replied, ‘To make a CD.’ I asked Lee if he wouldn’t mind going down to Alabama to record. Two days later, Lee caught a Greyhound to Huntsville, he missed a layover in Nashville and got in early the next morning and went straight to the studio with Ardie Dean. Lee proclaimed the record done in three hours and was soon on a bus heading back home. One must rejoice in the ‘happening’ of this CD, especially the glorious tone of Lee’s guitar. After performing for 52 years I have a feeling that Lee is just beginning his recording career.”
Indeed, following Lee’s first CD, Lee Gates and the Alabama Cotton Kings, his has recorded two other albums with Music Maker, Black Lucy’s Deuce and, most recently, Touring with Lucy, released in September 2009. “Black Lucy — that’s my guitar,” Lee explained. Lee’s family includes a sister still living in Pontotoc, a brother in New Albany and more family in the Milwaukee area including two daughters, a grandchild and his mother, but it is certainly Lucy who has been his most constant companion through the years. The instrument is almost an extension of his own body, giving voice to the music he hears in his mind so he can share it with others.
Music critic Lou Novacheck said of Lee in a recent blog: “Lee Gates has Mississippi Mud running through his veins. He also has blues genes, since he’s a first cousin to Albert Collins (a legendary Texas blues musician). If Lee isn’t a true-blue, Mississippi Delta bluesman, then nobody can carry that moniker. But Lee isn’t just a bluesman. He’s also a Luther Allison-style blues rocker from Pontotoc, Mississippi. Lee hasn’t had any of the breaks that many other less-skilled blues-rockers have had in spite of his blazing guitar work and good writing skills. He’s had several brushes with greatness, coming close to the golden ring, but never quite reaching it. But he’s most certainly not lacking the talent to still reach it. Maybe this time around.”
Whether or not he reaches worldwide fame, Lee said he will play his music and be true to himself and his roots. “I don’t try to play like anyone else, I create my own thing,” Lee said. Pontotoc County native making mark on Milwaukee blues scene Lee Gates traces his roots and his music back to Pontotoc County.
Source: The Pontotoc Progress
by Matthew Martin Jerry “Boogie” McCain answered the phone with his usual, trademark response to “Hello.” He’s got arthritis, bursitis and a whole litany of ailments. The legendary blues harmonica player will soon have the best medicine for his condition — a payday.
Music Reports is attempting to collect Boogie’s discography to put on Microsoft’s new music service. McCain received notification of this via mail Tuesday, and he mailed it back Wednesday.
“I already mailed it today,” McCain said. “I don’t want to be late. I want everything to be on time, except dying.”
For one of the first times in his career, McCain is handling everything himself — no lawyers, no managers, no producers.
“Boogie’s doing all this on his own, no lawyers and no vultures,” McCain said.
The result of doing it all by himself is McBlues Music, McCain’s record/publishing company he runs. He currently has an account on CD Baby online, which is handled by Terry Jennings, owner of Little Faces Doll Shop. The next thing on his calendar is recording a new album. The record will be recorded in Huntsville by co-producer Artie Dean. But before he can do that he must follow his doctor’s orders and rest his vocal cords after a polyp was removed. For the rest of the month, he can’t sing or play his harmonica. There was two weeks where he was not to talk, but that lasted about seven or so days, he joked. Still, McCain is happy it is not worse. At least he still will be around to sing, dance and most importantly, play his mouth harp.
“Thankfully, it wasn’t throat cancer,” McCain said.
For years, bluesmen like McCain were cheated out of their royalties by record labels and managers who got rich off the records they recorded. Those “vultures” preyed on McCain and other bluesmen, but he said he is done with that.
“If I had known how the music business would’ve turned out, I would have been a preacher,” McCain joked. “That way I would have gotten paid every Sunday.”
After 60 years of baring his soul on stage and in the studio, McCain might finally get his due — and he couldn’t be more excited. For those who have met him, or seen him perform, you understand where McCain got his nickname. With some stateside recognition coming his way, Boogie finally has a reason to jump up and down and dance and play like a man possessed.
Source: The Gadsden Times
Harvey Pekar, author of American Splendor, and Gary Dumm, comic artist who has worked with Pekar since 1976, have written and drawn comics for NC based nonprofit, Music Maker Relief Foundation, since 2003. Now, these comics will be featured in a 2010 calendar that MMRF produced in order to raise funds for their programs that support elderly Southern musicians who are enduring the most desperate of times.
“We’re proud to be part of the Music Maker family,” Dumm said. “Even if you can’t play a lick of music, knowing that you’ve helped musicians who otherwise might have been silenced, to play and sing their songs may be the sweetest sounding and best music of all.”
Each month features a different comic that highlights the unique talents and fascinating personalities of Music Maker recipient musicians. Whether it be a comic about the late Willa Mae Buckner’s snake collections and carnival shows or a comic about Drink Small’s, the Blues Doctor’s, ability to cure “the restless foot syndrome,” the calendar will give you a glimpse into the lives of these musicians and the work of the foundation.
“This fine calendar is well worth the donation to Music Maker Relief Foundation,” Pekar said.
In addition to the 12 comics, the calendar chronicles the birthdays of many legendary musicians the foundation has helped throughout the years, including African American string band the Carolina Chocolate Drops, the late Cootie Stark and Etta Baker.
“I’m grateful that Harvey Pekar and Gary Dumm have shared their amazing artistry with us,” Tim Duffy, MMRF president, said. “Their support through creativity will help us raise funds during this tough time.”
The calendar is part of the organization’s holiday gift giving program. Please visit gift.musicmaker.org for more information.
Source: the Comic Book Bin
by Richard Marcus Throughout the month of November other Blogcritics writers and myself have been reviewing and talking about Blues music. Something that’s become clear from writing some of these articles, and from reading them, is the universal appeal of the Blues. Guitar players from Finland and record labels in Germany only confirms the fact, everybody does indeed get the Blues. But no matter how far flung the Blues has become; there’s no doubt in anybody’s mind where its roots lie. When Thomas Ruf of Ruf records in Germany wanted to give some of his young European Blues musicians a deeper understanding of the music they played, he took them to Mississippi and Memphis to record. They hung out and played for hours a day with the people who have lived and breathed the music and the life circumstances that created it. Ruf understood that it’s one thing for these young people to play the music on a daily basis, but another altogether to experience it. In Europe they lacked the resource that would enable this, the people who’ve been living, breathing, performing, and creating the Blues for the past few generations.
The roots of Blues music run deep in the Southern United States, and are closely intermingled with the social history of that region. To play the Blues without an awareness of the people and the places it came from is to rob it of the very vitality that has kept it vibrant and alive long after its originators have passed on. When Thomas Ruf took his musicians to record Pilgrimage: Mississippi To Memphis they were only seeing the tip of the iceberg. Beneath the surface is floating hundreds if not thousands of musicians who contributed in one way or another to a little piece of the story of the Blues. These men and women, who should be recognized for their contributions to the creation and development of American culture, have been living their lives in obscurity and, in most cases, poverty. Unfortunately, many still are. But because of the efforts of one couple, a very exiting change has taken place over the last fifteen years.
The way Tim Duffy tells the story of the Music Maker Relief Foundation it sounds like such an obvious thing to do. It makes you wonder why no one thought of it earlier. In 1990 he had met Guitar Gabriel, and they began playing together. Through Gabriel Tim began to get to know other older musicians and learned about the harsh realities of their lives. Initially he tried to organize gigs and recording deals for these musicians in order to help them keep body and soul together. After three years of this he realized that without help he wasn’t going to get anywhere. He had made some rough field recordings of many of the performers and in the end they were what started the ball rolling.
Tim had sent out a general plea for help to people who had been friends of his late father, and one of the first to respond was Mark Levinson a pioneer in the world of commercial stereo equipment. He was the one who got the ball rolling for the Music Maker Foundation by promoting an initial compilation disc through his showroom. A chance meeting between Mark and Eric Clapton resulted in Eric’s interest in the project and the initial bump that the project needed to get publicity and a small distribution deal with Tower Records. They were now able to start generating some funds and booking shows for the artists. It was only the beginning.
Now seventeen years since his fateful meeting with Guitar Gabriel (who ironically died just as the foundation began to bear fruit) The Music Maker Relief Foundation has come quite a distance. With an Advisory board that includes Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Brown, Sue Foley, and B.B. King, and Taj Mahal serving on the Board of Directors, public awareness is growing, which assures the continued growth and expansion of the programming offered by the organization. Not only are they now able to provide grants for individuals in need of financial assistance, they are able to produce records, arrange gigs for individual artists, and promote international tours under the Music Maker banner. Slowly but surely they are not only bringing the people who made the music out of obscurity, but generating interest in some of the lesser known styles of the music as well.
There is always the danger that when some performers die that a style or type of music could vanish with them forever. Producing groups like the Carolina Chocolate Drops, three young Black musicians who play the Country Blues of the Carolinas, ensures that music is prevented from becoming either only a memory or a dusty museum piece. The Music Maker Relief Foundation is not just about recognizing the achievements of those who came before, or even just preserving their music like fossils in amber. Now that they have successfully started their grant program to artists in need, their next step is to ensure the music’s continued vitality and bring it to new audiences everywhere.
The Chocolate drops are one step in that direction, but Tim Duffy envisions a day when the foundation has its own facilities for recording, performing, and celebrating the people who create the music. He’s well aware of how fickle fad and fashion can be, so he knows it will take a permanent effort beyond what he and his wife Denise are capable of as individuals to maintain what has been started. Not only is the music that the foundation strives to preserve important, the work of the foundation itself must be preserved beyond this one generation for it to be successful. Initially it may have been founded with the humanitarian goal of caring for those who pioneered the Blues, but it has outgrown that impulse. Now it is fast becoming a means of preserving an important aspect of the United States’ cultural heritage.
With the permanent location of Tim’s realized it will be possible for the music and the people who perform it to have the means to always be a part of the nation’s awareness. Nevermore will they become out of sight and out of mind or risk being relegated to the scrap heap of the forgotten. If you have even the barest of interest in the Blues and the people who were responsible for keeping it alive over the years, in all its glorious shapes and sizes, then you may want to consider a way in which you can support the efforts of the Music Maker Relief Foundation. They are one of the best and brightest hopes for keeping the Blues alive today.
Source: blogcritics
by Rick Cornell “Ask Tim Duffy about the origins of Music Maker Relief Foundation, the benevolent musicians’ assistance organization he’s overseen for 15 years now, and receive a story that feels half Southern mythology and half stark reality, stocked with characters that could come from The Band’s “The Weight.”
“When I met Guitar Gabriel, I was 25 years old, just out of a master’s program at UNC-Chapel Hill,” Duffy remembers. “I had become lost in the blues through Guitar Slim. Slim had cancer, and on his deathbed he told me to find Gabe. I made my way to a drink house in East Winston. The proprietress stood on the porch with a razorblade as a man was running out the yard holding his face.
I told another gentleman standing in the yard that Slim had sent me to find Gabe. The scene changed immediately, grins all around, when they realized I wasn’t a cop. Hawkeye took me over to the Piedmont Circle project. Gabe bounded out the door and hugged me. ‘I know where you want to go, boy. I have been there myself. I will take you there. But, my time ain’t long. Promise me one thing: When I die, bury me with my guitar!’ Music Maker started that day,” he concludes. “A young idealist and a broken-down blues bard embarking on an adventure.”
Bounce five words off Duffy—who celebrates Music Maker’s 15th year of helping the area’s lost bluesmen find an audience and funding this Saturday—and receive the same kind of passionate responses.
ANNIVERSARY: Celebration of a moment that changed the course of lives. We started Music Maker as a heartfelt response to the immediate needs of a handful of musicians in Winston-Salem, N.C. There was no long-term vision, just hungry artists that needed gigs. We are here 15 years later because of the steady stream of incredibly talented musicians we continue to meet that need our assistance and because of the tremendous patrons and volunteers that believe in this mission and won’t let us quit.
The hard part of this job is saying goodbye to so many greats: Guitar Gabriel, Etta Baker, Cootie Stark. The best part is knowing that you helped make their last days a little sweeter and spread their joyful noise around the world.
BLUES: Guitar Gabriel would say, “Blues will never die because it is a spirit. It is an uplift and the way you feel it, that is the way it is. And it brings a lot of joy to people. Music is made to make happiness, make you smile and forget your troubles. In the Good Book, it says to make a joyful noise. It doesn’t say what kind of noise, just as long as you make one.” The blues from the South is the aquifer that all rock, pop, jazz musicians around the world drink from.
RELIEF: A lifeline of hope to someone suffering tremendous adversity. The poverty in which most of our recipients live is not restricted to their households but often pervades their entire community. So, when something goes wrong, they can’t call on family members or friends because the friends are broke themselves. These artists are hard-working people that really don’t want a handout, but a hand-up. Helping artists help themselves by building their careers leads to financial independence and self-sufficiency. The recognition that comes with professional success brings pride and validation to the individual artist and uplifts the community. That’s a relief.
HERITAGE: If you do not know where you have been, how can you know where you are going?
Source: The Independent Weekly
by Jason Schneider Tim Duffy started the non-profit Music Maker Relief Foundation in the early ’90s after befriending many little-known blues artists living in the vicinity of his hometown of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. A list of high-profile donors that included Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt, and Taj Mahal put the foundation on solid ground after several years, allowing Duffy to embark on his true mission, to have his artists make records and support themselves. Although this egalitarian approach hasn’t given Music Maker the same profile as Fat Possum, Duffy (who sold Matthew Johnson the collection of 1960s field recordings by archivist George Mitchell that Fat Possum subsequently released) says he is more concerned about preserving a musical culture that he believes still has much to offer.
Source: Excite.ca
by James Calemine The North Carolina-based Music Maker Relief Foundation artists such as Boo Hanks, Macavine Hayes, Eddie Shaw and The Carolina Chocolate Drops perform at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival this weekend.
Source: Swampland.com
by Keith Spera In the Southern Comfort Blues, the Music Maker Relief Foundation, a North Carolina organization dedicated to sustaining elderly blues musicians, showcased a trio of artists. Piedmont acoustic guitarist Boo Hanks just turned 80. He didn’t play his first professional gig until age 79; he worked most of his life as a farmer. “He says he likes this better than driving a tractor,” noted his guitarist.
by Keith Spera A couple thousand people left the Blues Tent newly smitten by the Carolina Chocolate Drops. They are revivalists to a degree, revisiting rural African-American folk songs from as far back as the 19th century. Don Flemons, one young member of the trio, even dressed the part in suspenders and a long-sleeve work shirt buttoned to the neck.
by Jonas Beals Next Wednesday, the Kennedy Center will host a music festival that could happen only in Washington. The fifth annual Congressional Blues Festival provides a chance to see politicos and congressmen get down to blues superstars including Robert Cray and Elvin Bishop, as well as less-known legends such as Macavine Hayes, Captain Luke and Big Ron Hunter.
The event is a celebration of America’s roots-music heritage, and an opportunity to recognize the efforts of the Music Maker Relief Foundation, a Hillsboro, N.C., nonprofit that helps forgotten Southern music pioneers gain recognition and pay their bills.
Albert White is one such musician. He grew up in Atlanta playing guitar with his uncle, Piano Red. He later performed live or on record with Clarence Carter, Ben E. King and Hank Ballard. He never became a star, but his guitar was an important fixture in popular regional blues and R&B.
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