New anthology keeps the songs and traditions of American roots music alive

Winston-Salem blues musician Ron Hunter, better known as "Big Ron Hunter," learned to play guitar on his family farm as a child with his father. 

“He would teach me how to make it talk, you know," he said. "He called me on the guitar, and I’d answer him back on the guitar."

Hunter is featured alongside more than 75 other blues, roots, folk and gospel musicians in the new anthology "Song Keepers: A 30 Year Anthology," which includes interviews and stories by N.C. historian and writer Georgann Eubanks. The book was released on Feb. 16 and commissioned by the Music Maker Foundation — a Hillsborough organization that financially supports artists within those genres and provides access to music tools. 

“It's a book that I think is kind of like an encyclopedia," Eubanks said. "It's got so many people and so much music."

Eubanks’ anthology features 85 songs from over 75 artists, with four CDs included with the book. She said  the artists vary in levels of popularity but all of their voices are important, which she hopes makes the anthology a “time capsule of blues music that will stick around.” 

The Music Maker Foundation was co-founded in 1994 by husband and wife Timothy and Denise Duffy and helps roots musicians record music, create albums and find performance opportunities around the world.

Hunter said that writing songs that everyone can relate to is what he tries to do. After his father died, he wrote “Going for Myself” about the experience of losing a parent. He said that people still reach out to him 13 years later to tell him how much they love the song. 

Hunter was introduced to Music Maker in 2003 by one of the original musicians — Guitar Gabriel — and in the two decades since he was introduced to Music Maker, he said the foundation took him “from a nobody to somebody,” especially because he got the opportunity to play in places like Costa Rica, Guatemala, Australia and France.

Timothy Duffy said he met Gabriel and a group of other musicians who did not fit into the music industry and needed financial assistance around 1994 and was inspired to create Music Maker.

“One thing led to another and 30 years later, we've helped well over 500 such artists, and we're still going,” he said.

When Eubanks was commissioned to write the book, she knew about Music Maker, but she said there was a steep learning curve when it came to getting to know all of the musicians represented in the book. 

Although they provide support for roots musicians of all ages, Music Maker offers assistance with living expenses for artists 55 and older who make less than $25,000 a year. In the organization's 30 years, Eubanks said the Duffys have escorted a number of musicians to the end of their life, like a family. 

"So, there were stories I could get straight from the artists and then some stories that Tim had to tell me," she said. "In fact, we spent a lot of time sitting and listening to this music and talking about the performers and their stories."

Many of the artists Music Maker works with come from underrepresented communities, Duffy said, but they are making music that has spanned across generations.

He said that the closest thing America has to a universal religion is music.

“But the blues and jazz and gospel music from the South is the roots and the aquifer of all popular music around the world and it still is today, and that's why it's so interesting,” he said.

Duffy said the work of Music Maker is big work, as the goal is not to sell millions of records but to document as many “unsung heroes of American music” for future generations as they can.

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