We Are the Music Makers!: Preserving the Soul of America’s Music is a two-disc, 44-track compilation released in September 2014 by the Music Maker Relief Foundation (MMCD166) to mark the organization’s 20th anniversary. The Foundation, based in Hillsborough, North Carolina, was founded in 1994 by Tim and Denise Duffy to support traditional Southern musicians living in poverty, and its record label issues their music. The set was released alongside a book of Tim Duffy’s photographs and a traveling exhibit of the same name.
The artists include Etta Baker, Guitar Gabriel, John Dee Holeman, Ironing Board Sam, Pura Fé and Leyla McCalla, along with Taj Mahal, who plays backup banjo, guitar and ham bone on a few cuts. The Carolina Chocolate Drops, a Durham, North Carolina, string band whose recording career began on the label, are represented by “Sourwood Mountain,” recorded in Chapel Hill in 2006 with Rhiannon Giddens on vocals and banjo, Justin Robinson on vocals and fiddle and Dom Flemons on vocals and guitar — the group’s original three members. The group formed in 2005, and its members learned much of their repertoire from the African American fiddler Joe Thompson. Flemons also appears on “Keep On Truckin’,” a guitar duet with Boo Hanks, and sequenced the set. Tim Duffy produced the compilation, and the tracks were recorded between 1970 and 2014.
Tracklist
- 1 Freight Train Boogie alt version 3:02
- 2 A Living Past 1:19
- 3 Railroad Bill alt version 2:18
- 4 Going Away 4:24
- 5 High Yellow 4:09
- 6 Chapel Hill Boogie 2:16
- 7 Shortnin' Bread 5:31
- 8 The Old Rugged Cross alt version 2:59
- 9 No Hidin' Place 3:25
- 10 Feel Like My Time Ain't Long 3:29
- 11 The Old Time Religion alt version 2:34
- 12 My Lord and I 3:10
- 13 Cocktail Boogie 1:56
- 14 Big Belly Mamma 1:48
- 15 If You Don't Love Me, Would You Fool Me Good 2:11
- 16 Old Bill 4:41
- 17 President Clinton Blues 4:46
- 18 Looking for My Woman 2:43
- 19 What Can an Old Man Do (But Sing the Blues) 5:45
- 20 Greasy Greens 3:02
- 21 Clickin' 0:30
- 22 Tim Duffy Is a Good Ol' Guy 2:54
- 23 Railroadin' & Gamblin' 2:35
- 24 Pigeon Dance 1:17
- 25 High Steppin' Mamma 2:26
- 26 Fred, You Ought to Be Dead 3:40
- 27 Back in Business 4:48
- 28 Sourwood Mountain alt version 3:22
- 29 Let No Woman 2:45
- 30 Snatch That Thing 3:33
- 31 Cook Corn Bread for Your Husband 1:21
- 32 Peter Rumpkin 1:16
- 33 Child Support Blues 3:39
- 34 Nothing but Your Butt 3:55
- 35 Benton's Dream 4:37
- 36 Route 66 4:43
- 37 My New Next Door Neighbor 3:20
- 38 Flossie 1:58
- 39 Home on the Range 5:38
- 40 Keep on Truckin' 4:05
- 41 Old Black Buck 3:27
- 42 Manman Mwen 3:15
- 43 Amazing Grace alt version 2:57
- 44 Sing It Louder 3:00
