Topic: Honoring Blues and Roots Musicians in Tintypes

[lindy]

Photos from Tim Duffy (Music Maker Relief Foundation)

https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2017/06/08/honoring-blues-and-roots-musicians-in-tintypes/

There's a few faces y'all will recognize in this slide show.

Lindy

[TenBrook]

Thanks Lindy, this is great. I was captured by the photo of Freeman Vines. For some reason I had thought someone had mentioned him here at one point but searching doesn't bring anything up.

Here's a short piece on him. He makes guitars and I assume plays them. There's some great blues playing in the background but they don't show him playing nor make it clear if that's him playing and singing in the background. Anyone know anything more about Freeman?



Also, here's a short bio:
https://musicmaker.org/artists/freeman-vines/

And, here's a short radio piece:
https://beta.prx.org/stories/199706

[lindy]

The musician in the background during the first minute or so of the video is Robert Belfour.

Lindy

[TenBrook]

Ah, thanks Jon. I was hoping someone would have the answer.

[Lignite]

Freeman Vines is one of my neighbors here in North Carolina. I got Music Maker Foundation to contact him as I felt he could use their assistance and that they would enjoy his folk art guitar skills and hopefully give him a little needed exposure. He loves the blues but seems shy about playing in front of people, so I have heard him play very little actual blues music. Whenever I go to visit, he is in his small workshop working on a new guitar. He says he is the "black sheep" in the video because all of his sisters are fairly established gospel singers known as The Glorifying Vines Sisters of Farmville, N.C. They are a fine family and love their brother Freeman very much. Here is an example of some gospel music by the Vines Sisters
;

[TenBrook]

Thanks for the info Lignite. It's very cool to find that a board member not only knows Freeman Vines but was responsible for bringing him to the attention of the Music Maker Foundation which in turn brought him to our/my/the internet's attention. Thanks also for sharing the Vines Sisters video. It's always great to see families where musical and artistic talent runs deep and wide and varied.

[lindy]

Came across this article on this photo collection today:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/photography/2019/07/05/their-ancestral-cultures-have-been-oppressed-forbidden-yet-they-rise-up-singing/?utm_term=.669af5a93846

Looks like the collection I mentioned in the first post in this thread is now available in book form. It includes images of musicians who have appeared at the Port Townsend workshop (John Dee Holeman, Drink Small) in addition to Freeman Vines. Some of the images are repeats from the source in my original post, some are new ones, at least for me.

Check it out:

https://www.timothyduffyphotography.com/blue-muse/bnhqwaa2fgcs0p19is9me1fbs2hvqv

[lindy]

Wow, I did a double-take when I saw this one, do inspect the entire photo carefully ... and the date

https://www.timothyduffyphotography.com/blue-muse/k3sn92asabl56n61k3j3ufiyt8wj8b

[Stuart]

Hey Lindy:

https://seattle.bibliocommons.com/item/show/3454196030

Looks like it's available downtown.

I checked out a copy from KCLS.