Music Maker Relief Foundation Returns to Telluride

Music Maker Relief Foundation programming will include artist performances and meet-and-greets, a photo exhibition, book talks from founder Tim Duffy, a tintype photo booth and more!

Music Maker Relief Foundation - dedicated to helping the true pioneers and forgotten heroes of Southern music gain recognition and meet their day-to-day needs.

As the 2019 Telluride Blues & Brews Festival draws closer, we are thrilled for the opportunity to once again partner with and contribute to the endeavors of the Music Maker Relief Foundation (MMRF), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. This year’s programming will include artist performances, meet and greets, a photo exhibition, book talks from non-profit founder Tim Duffy, a tintype photo booth and more!

Drink House Lounge & Exhibition

Back again this year, the festival will host the Music Maker Relief Foundation Drink House Lounge and Exhibition in the Blues Stage lobby. This lounge and exhibition will feature art, listening stations, artist meet-and-greets, and music history/educational programming that reflects Music Maker’s mission and culture. The new Music Maker Drink House will give attendees a chance to interact with these artists and American music history.

Friday, September 13

Saturday, September 14

  • 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm →Cocktails and Photos with Sandra Hall

  • 4:15 pm - 5:15 pm → Book signing with Alabama Slim and Timothy Duffy

  • 5:15 pm - 6:15 pm →Cocktails and Photos with The Como Mamas

  • 6:45 pm - 7:45 pm → Cocktails and Photos with Willie Farmer

Sunday, September 15

The MMRF was founded to preserve the musical traditions of America's South by directly supporting the musicians who make it, ensuring their voices will not be silenced by poverty and time. Through programs dedicated to cultural access, musical development and musician sustenance, the Foundation gives future generations access to their heritage through documentation and performance programs that build knowledge and appreciation of America's musical traditions.

Blue Muse | Telluride Blues & Brews

Blue Muse Book Talks with Timothy Duffy

Wednesday, September 11

  • 4:00 - 6:00 pm Between the Covers Bookstore, Downtown Telluride

Saturday, September 14

  • 4:00 pm Music Maker Drink House at the Blues Stage

Learn about music of the American South during intimate book signings with photographer and founder of the Music Maker Relief Foundation, Timothy Duffy. For over 35 years, Duffy has been photographing and recording musicians in the American South. In 1994, Duffy founded the Music Maker Relief Foundation to help senior musicians meet their basic needs. His book, Blue Muse: Timothy Duffy's Southern Photographs was released earlier this year in conjunction with an exhibition at the New Orleans Museum of Art and garnered press from NPR, the Washington Post, and the Bitter Southerner.

About the book

The tintype is rooted in more than 150 years of photographic method. In this collection of extraordinary portraits, Timothy Duffy brings new vitality to this old form, capturing powerful images of musicians who represent the roots of American music. These American blues, jazz, and folk artists are living expressions of a cultural legacy, made and remade by everyday people and passed down through generations. In the hands of the people in Duffy's portraits, centuries-old traditions find new expression in this digital millennium. Likewise, Duffy's photographic techniques fuse old forms and the original collodion wet plates with modern lighting. In this collaboration between photographer and artist, music and image meet around a history of struggle, adaptability, and creativity. It is this ethos that Duffy captures in his tintypes.

Some of the musicians in Duffy's photographs have found fame, but most have not. While the world finds inspiration in the grassroots creativity of these musicians, barriers of class, race, and place often keep them under acknowledged and obscured. But in these photographs, Duffy demands they be seen.

RT Mulvey | Telluride Blues & Brews Festival

Tintype Photos with Sara Mulvey and Revelry Tintype

New for 2019, the Telluride Blues & Brews Festival will give attendees the opportunity to have their own tintype photographs taken by photographer Sara Mulvey! Not only is this a cool opportunity to learn about tintype, the photo prints make an impressive, lifelong festival souvenir.

tintype john coffer033.jpg

Sara Mulvey and Music Maker founder Timothy Duffy studied under the same artist John Coffer and often share ideas and inspirations. Sara's vision with Revelry Tintype is not only to share the historic process of wet plate photography with those around her but to create stunning images that will hopefully spark the magic in others that first drew her to this art form.

Revelry Tintype’s booth will be located in the vendor area of the festival. Learn more and pre-book a Tintype session with Mulvey here.

Music Maker Artist Performances

The Telluride Blues & Brews Festival is pleased to present traditional blues and gospel sets from Music Maker Relief Foundation artists throughout the festival on the Main Stage, Blues Stage, Campground Stage and at Juke Joint late night shows! Enjoy performances from The Como Mamas, Willie Farmer, Jake Xerxes Fussell, Alabama Slim and Sandra Hall.

Music Maker Relief Foundation

Since their founding in 1994, the Foundation has assisted and partnered with over 300 artists, issued over 150 albums and reached over a million people with live performances in over 40 states and 17 countries around the globe. We are honored to work alongside this compassionate organization in an effort to ensure the continuity of some of the purest and most honest forms of music in American history. Want to get involved? You can change lives with a simple music shop purchase or by making a tax-deductible donation today.

"What is worth keeping is worth passing on. Help preserve American music"

Steve Gumble2019, Music Maker Relief Foundation