Music Maker Relief Foundation Drink House Lounge & Exhibition
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 2018 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.
Drink House Lounge & Exhibition
New for 2018, the festival will host the Music Maker Relief Foundation Drink House Lounge and Exhibition in the Blues Stage lobby presented by Telluride Express. 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 14
1:45 pm - 2:45 pm Cocktails and Photos with The Glorifying Vines Sisters
3:30 pm - 4:30 pm Cocktails and Photos Pee Wee Hayes
5:40 pm - 6:00 pm Meet And Greet With Christone "Kingfish" Ingram
6:30 pm - 7:30 pm Cocktails and Photos with Pat "Mother Blues" Cohen
Saturday, September 15
2:30 pm - 3:30 pm Cocktails and Photos with The Glorifying Vines Sisters
4:20 pm - 4:45 pm Meet And Greet with Pee Wee Hayes and Christone "Kingfish" Ingram
5:15 pm - 6:15 pm Cocktails and Photos with Pat "Mother Blues" Cohen
6:45 pm - 7:45 pm Cocktails and Photos with Pee Wee Hayes
Sunday, September 16
12:20 pm - 12:45 pm Meet and Greet with The Glorifying Vines Sisters
1:45 pm - 2:45 pm Cocktails and Photos with Pat "Mother Blues" Cohen
3:15 pm - 4:15 pm Cocktails and Photos with The Glorifying Vines Sisters
5:00 pm - 6:00 pm Cocktails and Photos with Pee Wee Hayes
6:45 pm - 7:15 pm Meet and Greet with Pat "Mother Blues" Cohen
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.
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. Learn more and donate, click here.
Pee Wee Hayes
There’s playing the blues, and there’s living the blues, and then there’s playing and living the blues. That’s where Thomas O. “Pee Wee” Hayes comes in. He spent his earliest childhood years in the south, where his father was a bluesman who ran into resistance when he kept bringing traveling blues musicians to his café. Eventually, he was run out of town, narrowly escaping being lynched, and sent for his family when he found safe harbor in Racine, Wisconsin. At the age of 9, Pee Wee started playing out, first in living rooms and at picnics, and then with his mixed race blues-rock band in clubs and roadhouses in northern Illinois. He knew B.B. King as a young boy, watching with fascination as B.B. plugged in and picked on the family’s front porch. Today, he plays with his brother Charles and, thanks in part to the Music Maker Relief Foundation, is seeing his career as a musician finally taking hold. We believe him when he says, “I just know I can make a hit man. You can feel it, you know?” It’s never too late. Read, listen and watch more here.
Saturday 15th at 3:00 pm (Blues Stage) | Sunday 16th at 3:00 pm (Campground Stage)
Drink House Meet-And-Greet Schedule TBA
The Glorifying Vines Sisters
One of our favorite traditions is going from Oh, Hoppy Day (Saturday’s Grand Tasting) to Oh, Happy Day, when Sunday in the park begins with a rousing gospel set. This year The Glorious Vines Sisters will take the stage with their songs of devotion sung in beautiful four-part harmonies. Gospel and the blues are kindred spirits. Both music forms stem from African-American traditions and culture. Gospel often crosses easily into the secular world - whether or not one is a believer, the joy of gospel music is undeniable. And listening to the Vines sisters sing will indeed fill you with joy and light. The Glorifying Vines Sisters are an act endorsed by Music Maker Relief Foundation, a non-profit that keeps Southern music traditions alive by supporting artists so they can perform their music. We’re grateful for them, for the Vines sisters, and for this beautiful day. Read, listen and watch more here.
Sunday 16th at 11:00 am (Main Stage)
Drink House Meet-And-Greet Schedule TBA
Pat "Mother Blues" Cohen
This is the mother whose house we’d all go to after school. Not for cookies and milk, but for some fired-up blues sung straight from her bottomless heart. Pat “Mother Blues” Cohen grew up in a musical household and absorbed the genre on the front porch at her uncles’ house, one who played guitar and the other on harmonica while the moths beat themselves against the porch light. The woman who idolizes Billie Holiday, Koko Taylor and Etta James got her first gig while still in college. In three short days she had to hire a band and come up with a 30-song set list. She did it with all the style and sass she displays onstage today and the rest, as it is said, is history. She’s been touring with the Music Maker Relief Fund Blues Revue, an organization that supports musicians working in the shadows, lifting them from poverty and into the spotlight. Mother Blues richly deserves her place in blues history. Don’t miss this dynamic performer – colorful wigs, boas, and all! Read, listen and watch more here.
Sunday 16th at 5:30 pm (Blues Stage)
Drink House Meet-And-Greet Schedule TBA
Christone "Kingfish" Ingram
This is the mother whose house we’d all go to after school. Not for cookies and milk, but for some fired-up blues sung straight from her bottomless heart. Pat “Mother Blues” Cohen grew up in a musical household and absorbed the genre on the front porch at her uncles’ house, one who played guitar and the other on harmonica while the moths beat themselves against the porch light. The woman who idolizes Billie Holiday, Koko Taylor and Etta James got her first gig while still in college. In three short days she had to hire a band and come up with a 30-song set list. She did it with all the style and sass she displays onstage today and the rest, as it is said, is history. She’s been touring with the Music Maker Relief Fund Blues Revue, an organization that supports musicians working in the shadows, lifting them from poverty and into the spotlight. Mother Blues richly deserves her place in blues history. Don’t miss this dynamic performer – colorful wigs, boas, and all! Read, listen and watch more here.
Friday 14th at 4:10 pm (Blues Stage) | Saturday 15th at 3:00 pm (Blues Stage)
Drink House Meet-And-Greet Schedule TBA
"What is worth keeping is worth passing on. Help preserve American music"