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This collection has use restrictions. For details, please see the restrictions.
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the FAQ section for more information.
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Collection Overview
| Size | 1,050 items |
| Abstract | Timothy Duffy (1963- ), folklorist and musician, produced field recordings of the American roots tradition as an undergraduate at Warren Wilson College and while working on a folklore master's degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A few years after graduating in 1991, he co-founded the Music Maker Relief Foundation (MMRF), a non-profit organization near Hillsborough, N.C., that helps southern roots tradition musicians meet their financial needs and gain recognition for their work. The collection includes chiefly sound recordings, but there are also artist files, CD liner proofs, correspondence, photographs, posters, documentation, video recordings, DVDs, and miscellaneous items. Most of the material relates to Duffy's work with MMRF. Sound recordings include Duffy's folklore thesis fieldwork in the Black Mountains of North Carolina and recordings of blues, gospel, and R& B artists such as Walt Davis, Ray Greene, Jeeter Riddle, James "Guitar Slim" Stephens, Etta Baker, Willa Mae Buckner, Guitar Gabriel, Cool John Ferguson, Cootie Stark, Cora Mae Bryant, Sammy Mayfield, Neal Pattman, Beverly "Guitar" Watkins, Jerry McCain, Essie Mae Brooks, Precious Bryant, Preston Fulp, Macavine Hayes, Algia Mae Hinton, John Dee Holeman, Captain Luke Mayer Luther, Taj Mahal, and the Greene Acres Picking Party. Some of the sound recordings include interviews with artists. |
| Creator | Duffy, Timothy. |
| Language | English. |
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Information For Users
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Subject Headings
The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.
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Biographical Information
Timothy Duffy was born 14 March 1963 in New Haven, Conn. In 1981, he moved to Swannanoa, N.C. to study at Warren Wilson College where he began recording local musicians at picking parties as a work-study participant with the Appalachian Music Program. As a novice guitar player, Duffy began to play in the mountain music tradition. Ten years later, Duffy transformed his interest into a thesis project and returned to the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina to interview and photograph the musicians at the Greene Acres picking party.
In 1983, Timothy Duffy moved to Kenya where he completed his undergraduate degree in 1987 at Friends World College. While in Africa, he apprenticed under Swahili songster and oud virtuoso Zein Al-Abdein; produced field recordings of children's music, street songsters, and dance rituals; conducted interviews of Mombasa men living in poverty; and researched the belief of the "jin" in Swahili society.
Duffy began recording blues artists in 1989 during his last semester of study for a master's degree in folklore at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He documented James "Guitar Slim" Stephens, an old blues rounder for the Southern Folklife Collection. in the 1920s and 30s, Slim played around the United States and introduced Duffy to blues artists around his hometown of Greensboro, N.C. Within a year, Slim was overcome by cancer and on his deathbed urged Duffy to seek out an old friend, Guitar Gabriel.
Timothy Duffy found Guitar Gabriel (Gabe) at Piedmont Circle, a housing project in Winston-Salem. Duffy and Gabe became friends and business partners. During the next few years, they played at clubs and festivals throughout the Southeast, traveled to Europe, and performed at Carnegie Hall. When not performing, they looked up the many old performers that Gabe knew. Willa Mae Buckner, a snake handler, traveled as a tent-show performer, played piano and guitar, danced the chorus line, and was a strip-tease artist in the 1950s and 1960s. Cootie Stark played from the Piedmont Blues tradition on street corners and pizza joints until the Music Maker Relief Fund (MMRF) began recording his music in the mid-1990s. Amongst the audio selections is a reunion between Guitar Gabriel and his sister, Lucille Lindsay, recorded in her nursing home; it finds them sharing songs long forgotten.
Timothy Duffy made recordings of these old, sometimes ailing and disabled performers. He was astounded by the economic choices the old performers had to make among food, rent, medicine, and other expenses. in 1993, with the help of Mark Levinson, an audio pioneer in New York, the concept for the Music Maker Relief Fund was born. Around the time of Gabe's death in 1996, musical figures such as Eric Clapton, B. B. King, and Taj Mahal began supporting the endeavors of the MMRF. Today over 100 southern roots musicians, such as Precious Bryant, Willa Mae Buckner, Joe Lee Cole, and Neal Pattman have had their financial burdens eased and their music recorded and promoted through the MMRF. Music Makers: Portraits and Songs from the Roots of America was published by Hill Street Press in 2002; this 194-page book contains black-and-white photographs, a music compilation CD, and information about the foundation and many of its recipients. As of the fall 2003 issue, nine volumes of the Music Maker Rag: The Official Newsletter of the Music Maker Relief Foundation have been produced under the direction of Timothy and Denise Duffy.
Many of the recipients come to MMRF in their final years. The interviews and recording sessions are, in many cases, the only recordings of these musicians, who made a living playing in drink houses and on the streets. Timothy Duffy, along with his wife Denise, traveled with a mobile recording studio from Virginia to Mississippi to interview and record the music from the southern roots traditions of R& B, blues, and gospel. MMRF is located in Hillsborough, N.C., and houses a recording studio and a guesthouse available for the MMRF residency program. Timothy Duffy lives and works with Denise in Hillsborough at the MMRF location. They have two children, Lucas and Lilla.
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Scope and Content
Made up mostly of sound recordings, the Timothy Duffy collection also includes artist files, CD liner proofs, correspondence, photographs, posters, documentation, video recordings, and miscellaneous items. Most of the material relates to the work of the Music Maker Relief Foundation (MMRF) that Duffy and his wife, Denise Duffy, operate in Hillsborough, N.C.
The artist files contain biographical information as well as press and promotional material for seven of the MMRF recipients. Liner proofs of Music Maker compilation and individual artists CDs are in the collection. Included are both the original proofs and black-and-white photocopies. The photographs are publicity photos for five Music Maker artists: Jimmy Dotson, Ernie Hawkins, John Dee Holeman, Ernie Williams, and Henry Spencer. There is one signed publicity photo of The Breeze Kings.
Posters are also included in the collection. Six posters, printed on album-sized card stock, promote MMRF studio-produced CDs (i.e., Guitar Gabriel's Deep in the South ; Neal Pattman's Prison Blues; and Etta Baker's Railroad Blues). Five posters in the collection highlight concerts and blues festivals. For example, one oversized poster details an MMRF concert held at Ziggy's bar in Winston Salem, N.C.
Sound recordings include Timothy Duffy's folklore thesis fieldwork in the Black Mountains of North Carolina at the Greene Acres Picking Party. Using a Marantz cassette tape recorder, Duffy recorded, circa 1990, the major players at the Greene Acres picking party. He interviewed Walt Davis, Ray Greene, and Jeeter Riddle as well as other attendees. Interviews and sound recordings of James "Guitar Slim" Stephens are also on cassette tapes. Using a digital audio tape recorder, Duffy interviewed and recorded more than 100 artists in the southern roots traditions of blues, gospel, and R& B, such as Etta Baker, Willa Mae Buckner, Guitar Gabriel, Cool John Ferguson, Cootie Stark, Essie Mae Brooks, Precious Bryant, Preston Fulp, Macarine Hayes, and Algia Mae Hinton.
There is also sound recording documentation including notes from the original digital audiotape labels and recording logs of each DAT recording that give location, producer, length of tape, material content, notes, and songs recorded.
Of the CDs in the collection, many were produced by MMRF for retail. These include Cora Mae Bryant's Born with the Blues, Sammy Mayfield's Blues by the Bushel and a variety of artists' on A Living Past. The compilation and single-artist CDs are professionally produced as distillations of the sessions recorded on digital audiotapes. Liner notes included with the Music Maker CDs offer stories and anecdotes from more than 100 artists with whom MMRF has worked.
Video recordings related to MMRF include a short promotion piece containing quotes and clips of MMRF recipients, such as Willa Mae Buckner, Cool John Ferguson, Neal Pattman, Beverly "Guitar" Watkins, and Cootie Stark. Within the video montage are clips of the artists performing, traveling between concerts, and at home. Another video recording is a copy of CNN's "World Beat" series that covers the MMRF story with interviews and performance clips by Taj Mahal, Timothy Duffy, Little Pink Anderson, and others. The program also includes a story about older blues artists attempting to reclaim their royalty rights to songs produced in the early 1960s.
The reel-to-reel tape contains two singles by blues musician Jerry McCain.
Rick Adams, Timothy Duffy, and Keith Robinson produced a 45-minute DVD, Living the Blues, with production assistance from Taj Mahal, Denise Duffy, and Brett O'Brien. Interview clips and songs by MMRF recipients explore southern blues tradition topics including learning to play the blues, growing up on a farm, hard times, traveling, "blue love," the role of church, and music as a powerful catalyst.
Miscellaneous items include publicity material from various events, such as coasters and napkins from the Winston Blues Revival with images of Cootie Stark, Neal Pattman, and Beverly "Guitar" Watkins. There are also flyers and program guides from blues festivals and cultural events.
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Series Quick Links
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Series 1. Artist Files, 1992-2001.
Artist files include one or more of the following: biographical information, press and promotional material about the artist, and flyers of festivals and other events where the artist performed. in Henry Spencer's folder, there is correspondence between Music Maker Relief Foundation and Two Scoops Records about him.
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Series 2. CD Liner Proofs, 2001.
Marked-up liner proofs of five Music Maker compilation and individual artists CDs. Included are both the original proofs as well as black-and-white photocopies of the proofs. CD liner proofs include (but are not limited to): A Living Past; Preston Fulp: Sawmill Worker; and Jerry "Boogie" McCain: Unplugged.
| Folder 8 |
CD liner proofs #20044, Series: "2. CD Liner Proofs, 2001." Folder 8 |
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Series 3. Correspondence, 1992-2003.
Correspondence contains a postcard addressed to Tim and Denise Duffy with an image of Howlin' Wolf and a letter from the North Carolina Arts Council's Folklife Grants Committee.
| Folder 9 |
Correspondence #20044, Series: "3. Correspondence, 1992-2003." Folder 9 |
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Series 4. Photographs, undated.
With the exception of two performance shots of Ernie Hawkins in color, the photographs are black-and-white publicity photos of seven artists: Jimmy Dotson, Ernie Hawkins, John Dee Holeman, Drink Small, Sarah Streeter, Ernie Williams, and Henry Spencer. There is one signed publicity photo of the Breeze Kings.
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Series 5. Posters, 1992-2001.
Event and CD promotional materials. Event posters highlight national and international concerts and festivals. These posters are printed on paper, with the exception of one that is printed on heavy woven fiber. Music Maker CD promotional materials consist of posters for Etta Baker, Algia Mae Hinton, Jerry "Boogie" McCain, and others.
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Subseries 5.1. Artist and CD promotional material.
Posters promoting individual artists or advertising audiorecordings.
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Subseries 5.2. Event promotional material
Posters advertising concerts, concert series, festivals, lectures and exhibits. Most pertain to American vernacular music with a preponderance of blues performances, but there are also posters promoting events that explore baseball and agriculture.
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Series 6. Sound Recordings and Related Material, 1990-2004.
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Subseries 6.1. Sound Recordings.
Arrangement: CDs, DATs, cassette tapes, and reel-to-reel tapes arranged by call number.
Interviews, music sessions, and professionally produced CDs of artists in the southern roots traditions of blues, gospel, and R& B. Timothy Duffy's folklore thesis fieldwork in the Black Mountains of North Carolina is also represented. Using a Marantz cassette tape recorder, Duffy recorded, circa 1990, the major players at the Greene Acres picking party. Interviews and sound recordings of James "Guitar Slim" Stephens are also on cassette tapes.