Music Maker Relief Foundation's Benefit for the Bayou, a Hurricane Katrina Fundraiser

10/23/2005 05:28AM

Baltimore (Maryland), USA - Music Maker Relief Foundation and Legg Mason are bringing Robert Randolph and the Family Band -- and a jam packed line up of New Orleans and Southern roots musicians who are national treasures -- together for a fundraiser to help the many musicians whose livelihoods have been taken by storm.

The Friday, October 28th, event begins at 8 p.m. and doors open at 7 p.m. at the Ramshead Live in Baltimore, Maryland. Tickets are available through The Ramshead box office at 410-244-01131 or online. All ticket sales ($28) will go to the Music Maker Relief Foundation's New Orleans Musicians Fund.

Musicians from New Orleans coming to Baltimore for the show are Little Freddie King (lost for almost two weeks following the hurricane then surfaced in Houston and bound for European festivals with a CD just out from Fat Possum) and the poets of the French Quarter, Slewfoot and Cary B (whose CD Rainin in New Orleans is stellar). Also opening for Robert Randolph's high- energy sacred steel performances are both guitar wizard Cool John Ferguson and Abe Reid and the Spike Drivers who are legendary performers who call North Carolina home.

Those who attended the Congressional Blues Festival will remember headliner Robert Randolph. An incomparable performer whose music was born from faith and danger and battles in the streets. Robert Randolph found his way up from darkness with help from a most unusual source: the pedal steel guitar.

The New Orleans Musicians Fund was created by Music Maker Relief Foundation an established non-profit dedicated to helping the true pioneers and forgotten heroes of the Southern musical tradition gain recognition and meet their day to day needs by providing grant money for things like medicine, food, rent, instruments. The New Orleans Musicians Fund will help rebuild lives. There are more than 5,000 musicians in New Orleans who need help.

For more info on the New Orleans Musicians Fund call 919.643.2456 or visit http://www.musicmaker.org.

Musician relief sites:

New Orleans Musicians Hurricane Relief Fund

Preservation Hall

Tipitina's Foundation

New Orleans Musicians Clinic (NOMC). Send donations to NOMC Emergency Fund. Funds will be distributed by:
http://www.swlahec.com

Music Maker Foundation

Jazz Foundation of America

MusiCares

NOAHleans

[Photo: Cool John Ferguson].

World Music Central
http://www.worldmusiccentral.org/article.php/20051010082829229