Dennis Tolbert, Creatures of the Southern Wild receive Lifetime Achievement Awards

For the artists we work with, music isn’t just a hobby or a profession – it’s a lifelong calling. Music Maker Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Awards honor musicians (and others) who have dedicated their lives to answering that call, making significant contributions to the cultural fabric of American roots music along the way. This week, we’re proud to honor four of our latest Lifetime Achievement Award recipients: Dennis Tolbert (Mt. Airy, NC), Scott “Paco” Goolsby (Caledonia, MS), Kirk Bowie Russell (Muscle Shoals, AL), and John Kveen (Oxford, MS).

Singer, guitarist, and songwriter Dennis Tolbert first stepped onto the roots scene in the early 1970s with Brotherhood of Peace, a pioneering Southern rock band from Mt. Airy, NC. Fifty years later, Dennis continues to perform regularly across western North Carolina with the Dennis Tolbert Band, keeping alive the spirit of his hometown’s underground rock scene.

Together, Scott “Paco” Goolsby, Kirk Bowie Russell, and John Kveen are the Creatures of the Southern Wild, an extraordinary roots group put together by fellow Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Jimbo Mathus. The Creatures are musical shapeshifters whose broad experience across genres allows them to move seamlessly from electric blues and R&B to soul, gospel, and honky-tonk country. We are proud and honored to have them as our very own house band at Music Maker Studios in Fountain, NC.

Your support makes it possible for us to give back to pathbreakers like our Lifetime Achievement Awardees, whose work contributes so much to our cultural heritage. Please consider making a donation today so we can continue supporting the unsung heroes of American music. Together, we can keep this music playing for generations to come.