At the end of the 90’s and the beginning of the new millennium, I volunteered art services to the Music Maker Relief Foundation.  I had already started making music inspired portraits and art.  My initial request to the outreach organization to create portraits of poverty-stricken blues musicians, who were hitting their prime in senior years, turned into work of a different sort.  The not-for-profit company asked for volunteer graphic design services.  After resurrecting a large box of old black and white water damaged photos for them, I created the jewel case booklet and designed the cover for the company’s Captain Luke and Cool John holiday CD.  Next, I tackled “Route 66,” an Eddie Tigner cd cover.

Extraordinary experiences resulted from that time, from “Shuck n’ Suck” music festivals on ranches in Georgia, and the Willie King Festival at an off-the-grid spot on the border of Alabama and Mississippi (which was filmed the next year by Steven Spielberg) to a trip with the Music Relief Foundation’s unique board of trustees.  Grammy winner, Taj Mahal, 7 or 8 other notable musicians and I navigated our way to a remote beach in Costa Rica, across from the Osa Penninsula, where the board members brainstormed in the morning, hiked through rainforests and fished in the afternoons and made music in the evenings.