Freight Train Blues: Music Maker Blues Revue

The Music Maker Blues Revue is an all-star band and a thriving musical institution. It was born in the early 1990s as a backing band for Guitar Gabriel, and quickly became a power cell of Music Maker Foundation’s live presence. Featuring dozens of different Music Maker artists over the years, the Revue has played all over the world in every kind of venue. They’ve busked on the sidewalks of High Point, NC, and received standing ovations at Carnegie Hall. From Argentina to Australia, Europe to Guatemala, and across the U.S., the Revue pleases all types of fans – “the boogiers and the bookworms,” as drummer Ardie Dean puts it.

Atlanta native Albert White grew up playing behind his uncle, Piano Red, a legendary Rhythm & Blues powerhouse who had many hits including the song “Doctor Feelgood” famously covered by the Beatles. In Albert, the tradition of high-energy, funky R&B lives on. Albert and his band The Rockers have played jukes, clubs, weddings and celebrations throughout the Southeast from the 1960s to the present. Along the way, they have shared the stage with every notable R&B star that has traveled the circuit including Rufus Thomas, Ray Charles, The Tams, Joe Tex and many more.

Pat “Mother Blues” Cohen shares the mettle, pathos, and ocean-deep compassion of the blues singers she idolizes — Billie Holiday, Koko Taylor, and Etta James. Despite losing her home twice, she keeps taking her talent and heart to the world. Pat’s performances have always unfurled the tapestry of her life experiences to her audience in soulful words and music. That compassion began to flow from Pat in brand new ways during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. As her scheduled gigs disappeared, she began playing one-woman shows at nursing homes. She even made phone calls to individual people and sang to them. These works of compassion wound up making her the subject of touching stories on PBS Newshour and in Rolling Stone Magazine.

Jimbo Mathus is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist, best known for his work with the swing revival band Squirrel Nut Zippers.

Freight Train Blues 2024

The Town of Carrboro, N.C., proudly presents the Music Maker Foundation’s Freight Train Blues series of live concerts every Friday evening between May 3 and June 21, 2024 at the Carrboro Town Commons, 301 W. Main Street. The series is a collaboration among  Music Maker Foundation, the Town of Carrboro, WUNC 91.5 FM, and The Forests at Duke. Funding for this year’s series was also provided by the North Carolina Arts Council’s Spark the Arts initiative.

Bring your picnic, lawn chairs and blankets for a FREE evening of live music on the lawn. Public parking is available and free in downtown Carrboro.

Music Maker Foundation’s Freight Train Blues series honors Elizabeth “Libba” Cotten’s legacy in the world of roots music by emphasizing the cultural diversity, complexity, and vitality of her music and the music of many other artists local to her community and all over the country.