Carl Hodges

She has gone to Cincinnati

She’s a rounder, in heart, oh Lord

and she’s gone with that $10,000 man

Carl Hodges, a self-taught blues guitarist, wrote many endearing songs in his straightforward Chesapeake-manner. Hailing from Saluda, Virginia, Hodges’ career spanned several decades, during which he not only played music, but also worked as a common laborer, well and ditch-digger, and in construction. In addition, he lived with diabetes, which he control with medication subsidized by Music Maker grants.

Hodges was a songster in the traditional sense: he didn’t stick to one genre. He would play old blues, country, and gospel songs, all with a unique and mesmerizing old-timey vibrato that struck audiences.

Music Maker met Carl Hodges in 1995. After which, Carl would often visit us in North Carolina, and would in turn host Tim and Denise Duffy in his own Virginia home. In addition to helping out with diabetes medication, Music Maker helped pay Carl’s utilities, secure guitars for gigs and recording, and installing an oil furnace in Hodges’ house.

Music Maker introduced Carl to numerous North Carolina blues artists, expanding his network of friends and collaborators. We recorded him many times, featured him in books, and helped tour aboard (e.g., the Blues Estafette Festival in Utrecht, Holland) and domestically around the South.

Carl Hodges was born in 1932 and died in 2010.