Music Maker Relief Foundation

By Rick Cornell

The mission statement of the Hillsborough- based Music Maker Relief Foundation is clearly and eloquently presented on the organization’s website (www.musicmaker.org). It begins “Music Maker Relief Foundation preserves and promotes the musical traditions of the American South. Since 1994 we have partnered with traditional artists over 55 years old who survive on a yearly income of less than $18,000, sustaining their day-to-day needs while building their careers.”

Some mission statements, despite the best of intentions, never progress beyond statement status, with the mission going unfulfilled for any of a variety of reasons. That is definitely not the case for Music Maker, who for its nearly 20-year existence has succeeded in fulfilling the promises laid out in those opening sentences.

Consider Ironing Board Sam, one of the Music Maker roster’s newer members. As Music Maker cofounder Tim Duffy explains, when he met Ironing Board Sam the septuagenarian – recently retired after 55 years in the music business – was being evicted from his rotting trailer in Fort Hill, SC. “We moved him into an apartment in Chapel Hill, got him teeth, glasses, clothes, a car, a new keyboard, a new CD and regular local performances,” says Duffy.

Now, two years down the road, Sam is preparing to release his third CD on the heels of headlining the Jazz Fest Blues Stage in New Orleans and touring across the United States, Switzerland and Australia. When he’s not on the road, Sam, who has since moved to Hillsborough, teaches a music class at a local public school once a month.