I'm going to do something I've only done a couple times before, combine the review of two discs into one piece. I've done it in the past when I've had multiple discs by the same band to review at once or there have been sufficient similarities to make two reviews redundant, as is the case with the two releases -- A Living Past and Experessin' The Blues — under review here. They are so interconnected it makes more sense to review them as a unit.
Both discs are among the first compilation albums released by the wonderful organization The Music Maker Relief Foundation, a non government charitable group offering financial assistance to the generation of musicians who have been forgotten by the winds of time and through the capriciousness of fate have fallen through the cracks.
Well into their eighties, a lot of the artists aren't looking for handouts but just a chance to keep making the music they love and the ability to earn their own keep. But some times in order to do that they need assistance; whether it's to keep the car on the road, buy a lightweight amp they can carry to gigs, or to have enough of their own CDs to sell at a concert.
From the inspired genius and obsession of Tim and Denise Duffy to not let the music of that generation die unnoticed was born a collection of initial field recordings. Like a latter day song-catcher, Tim traveled the length and breadth of the Carolinas. Instead of wax cylinders and a notation book he carried with him his guitar, two microphones, and a DAT recorder in the hopes of at least preserving these songs before the musicians passed away.
But fate wasn't about to let him off the hook that easily, and in the shape of Mark Levinson, founder of Cello Music and Film services, sent him not only the means to turn his rough field recordings into high quality songs, but his first fund raiser. Mark took it upon himself to circulate the tapes among the audio equipment maker and designer community to raise the seed money necessary to establish the Foundation.
If there was one musician among the many Tim worked with that had the biggest influence on him it was the late Guitar Gabriel. Gabriel shows up on both these discs and he's the heart and soul beating and pulsing throughout both recordings. It was through Gabriel that Tim was introduced to the majority of the players and was able to record them in the early days of the Foundation's work back in the late eighties and early nineties.
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