In the late 1980s, Tim Duffy, a struggling musicology student in North Carolina, immersed himself in Winston-Salem's drinkhouse music scene – a raw and authentic center for traditional blues. Witnessing the profound poverty of the Southern blues musicians he befriended, he founded the Music Maker Foundation. Today, the foundation provides vital support to hundreds of older Southern musicians, offering financial aid and tour assistance. The film explores the foundation’s origins with the pioneering artists who inspired it, and follows the current generation carrying on the tradition. It features performances, both archival and contemporary, of Music Maker artists on tour and in the studio, alongside interviews with the artists and Duffy about the foundation, music, and the blues.
