This weekend, a group of aging blues artists gathered in North Carolina to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the 鈥� a group that preserves the South鈥檚 rich musical traditions.
Many of the state鈥檚 blues musicians live in poverty and have trouble getting to the gigs they need to make a living. You can track the changes that North Carolina has experienced over the years through the stories and music of two men.
鈥淚鈥檓 Luther Mayer. I鈥檓 also known as Captain Luke. My voice get down so low it鈥檒l untie your shoestrings. That鈥檒l give you a problem tying them back up.鈥�
Captain Luke is 86 years old, and I barely saw him without a cigarette in his mouth. He wears a captain鈥檚 hat, an accessory he picked up years ago working in a Winston-Salem drink house. A paisley tie is in a knot around his neck. For Captain Luke,the music started early.
鈥淚鈥檝e been singing since I was 14 years old out in the cotton field playing with my uncle, following him all day in the field playing,鈥� Captain Luke says. 鈥淗e blew the harmonica. And he sung. And I was right behind him barefoot as a yard dog.鈥�
On that farm, Luther鈥檚 uncle had a mule that worked along with them. His name was Buck.
鈥淚 just made up a song about him and King Bee,鈥� Captain Luke says. 鈥淵ou鈥檇 see the little bees flying around the flowers and stuff. And I thought I could make a song out of clear blue like that.鈥�
Captain Luke is part of a group called the Music Maker Relief Foundation, which celebrated an anniversary over the weekend. For 20 years, Music Maker has been helping musicians pay a heating bill, or a doctor鈥檚 bill. It鈥檚 also a record company, run by Tim Duffy, that gives the artists work.
鈥淲hen I met Tim that was the best part of my life because I got to go somewhere,鈥� Captain Luke says.
Captain Luke started his touring in his sixties: 鈥淪alisbury. Highpoint. Little places like that you know, then we started getting other gigs,鈥� he says. 鈥淎tlanta, Georgia. Switzerland. France. German. Argentina. He started getting gigs for us. I was having fun then. I hadn鈥檛 been nowhere good.鈥�
Music Maker founder Tim Duffy says the organization鈥檚 mission is both to preserve Southern music 鈥搈uch of which he says is not recorded 鈥� and financially help out many blues musicians, who live on between $4,000 and $7,000 a year.
鈥淭hese types of archaic music forms are always on the edge and they鈥檙e not very celebrated, and it鈥檚 very much a social justice thing,鈥� Duffy says . 鈥淲e鈥檙e crossing lines of race and poverty and trying to reach out. So it鈥檚 in danger of not being heard, of not being captured.鈥�
But today, it will be captured. Another man 鈥� with deep-set eyes and a dark moustache 鈥� sits down with Duffy and Captain Luke.
鈥淢y real name is James. You call me James Boo Hanks. Boo Hanks is a stage name.鈥�
And where does Boo come from?
鈥淚 don鈥檛 know,鈥� Boo says. 鈥淲hen I was a little boy, they said, 鈥楤oo come here and do that!鈥� Don鈥檛 ask me, I don鈥檛 know.鈥�
Boo started playing gigs when he was 79 years-old.
鈥淚 feel good when I鈥檓 playing,鈥� Boo says. 鈥淲hen the audience enjoys it, when it looks like they鈥檙e enjoying it I feel good.鈥�
Boo Hanks still lives on a farm just over the North Carolina line in Virginia. His father played guitar before Boo Hanks even knew what a guitar was. He says music was a gift to him, from God.
鈥淗e told me, 鈥業f I give you a talent and you don鈥檛 use it, I鈥檒l take it away and give it to somebody else,鈥欌�� Boo says.
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