| Sustaining Roots Music
Community Project |
Sustaining Roots Music (SOOTS) exists to foster an appreciation for traditional, Southern music and culture. We believe this appreciation will engage our fellow students in greater communities. We pursue the preservation of artistic wisdom to help create a more perfect world. –Sustaining Roots Music / Community Project of Raleigh Charter High School |
Music Maker artist George Higgs passed away Tuesday, January 29th, at the age of 82 in Tarboro, North Carolina. The mouth-harp player had been facing several health issues in the past few months, and we thank you for all who sent well-wishes to him through Music Maker.
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2013 SOOTS BluesFest Will Be Another to Remember - April 19 @ 7pm
Welcome Back Cake Lovers & Local Art Aficionados.
On Friday, May 17th, SOOTS will host its 8th Annual May Day Cake Bake and 4th Annual Art Farm from 3:00 to 5:00pm. All members of the RCHS community, including RCHS Alumni, are invited.
May Day Cake Bake: this event offers two slices of cake along with almost all the milk you can drink for for $6. All proceeds go to assisting aging musicians through the Music Maker Relief Foundation. This event has consistently sold out, so please contact Mr. Charles Montague (cmontague@raleighchasrterhs.org), SOOTS Founder and Faculty sponsor, to reserve a ticket.
Art Farm: With or without cake in hand, we also invite you to hear the music of RCHS students and peruse the art of alums and current students alike during the ever festive Art Farm. This event showcases our creative side and is a way to network with and support RCHS artists. If you would like to be part of the event as a vendor, again, contact Mr. Charles Montague or alumni Art Farm Coordinator Jenn Hales (halesjl@gmail.com). Artists are encouraged to sell or commission their work to an audience of students and their parents. Please encourage your family and friends to enjoy the fun.
Come catch up with alumni, teachers, and RCHS families. The events will run rain or shine, and we'll smile when we see you either way. Hope to see y'all there, May 17th at 1307 Glenwood Avenue - your home away from home.
SOOTS' 7th Annual Benefit Concert Raises over $1800 - Thanks for a Great Time
Turchi, Hunter and Justin Robinson & the Mary Annettes Brought the House Down - April 19, 2013
On a windswept and rain-soaked evening, those who braved the elements were rewarded with one of SOOTS' best concerts ever. Thank you to the Raleigh Charter and greater Sustaining Roots Music Community for helping our students raise over $1800 to assist aging musicians.
The night began with an energetic set from Reed Turchi who ended his performance with a call and response fueled rendition of "Glory, Glory Hallelujah" in the style of Mississippi Fred McDowell. Reed's slide guitar also accompanied Big Ron Hunter whose effusive "happy blues" brought smiles to everyone in the Long View Center. The music complemented the venue and the warmth of SOOTS' friends and family.
When Justin Robinson and the Mary Annettes took the stage in full costume - an Amelia Earhart meets Victorian Gothic fashion sense - the student-led dance party began. Robinson kept the party alive with a new repertoire, including this piece based on James Bonds' most dedicated love, Money Penny. Robinson also treated everyone to a solo on his latest toy, a full-sized harp. We were mesmerized, and the smiles are evident in this photo of our gang, current and SOOTS alums with our musicians arm in arm.
A special thanks must also go out to our most consistent sponsors and patrons: Cynthia Brown, the Karsten Family, the Carter Family, Lilly's Pizza, Hartsfield and Nash Insurance, Fairway Printing, Sepi Engineering, and Harry's Guitar Shop. We also would like to note our newest sponsors who are already a part of the RCHS community: Design Surfaces, Deco of Raleigh and I.W.C. Sealcoating. We could not put on such a great event year in and year out with out you. A special shout out also to the tireless work of Emma Blondin, Taelor Candiloro and Taylor Hayes. These ladies put on an evening to remember.
Stay tuned to SOOTS for news of our tight-knit community committed to supporting the arts and lives of artists.
2013 SOOTS BluesFest Will Be Another to Remember - April 19 @ 7pm
118 S. Person Street on Moore Square at the Historic Long View Center
Sustaining Roots Community Project of Raleigh Charter High School (SOOTS) is excited to feature Grammy-winning Justin Robinson and his band The Mary Annettes along with Winston-Salem blues statesman Big Ron Hunter and Grammy nominated producer and UNC graduate Reed Turchi for a night to remember - all for a good cause to support the Music Maker Relief Foundation. Join us.
The evening begins when doors open at 7 pm at the Historic Long View Center at 118 South Person Street in Downtown Raleigh. The evening promises to be another for the memories. Come out and hear some Mississippi Hill Country Blues, Piedmont Blues, and the Neo-Alternative Fairytale Folk Music of Justin Robinson's band. Tickets are available online and at the door for $12.
Tickets are available at: http://www.seatyourself.biz/raleighcharterhs
Contact Charles Montague at cmontague@raleighcharterhs.org or (919) 457-3125 for more information.
George Higgs Medical Relief Fund A Success!
Thank you, Raleigh Charter friends and the Questell Foundation (www.questellfoundation.org), for contributing generously to this past winter’s George Higgs Medical Relief Grant. Mr. Higgs was a dear friend of our community who taught our students about the Piedmont Blues and what it was like to grow up in Eastern NC in the 1930s. Sadly, Mr. Higgs passed way in January after many months in the hospital. His wife of 62 years, Ms. Bettye Higgs, and several children, grandchildren and great grandchildren survive Mr. Higgs. SOOTS is proud to have worked with the Higgs and will continue to remember George by assisting his family in any way we can. Thank you Raleigh Charter, once again, for your support.
If you are interested in helping SOOTS help other musicians like George Higgs, then please visit www.sootsblues.org or follow us on Twitter @sootsblues for ways to lend a hand. We hope you will join us on April 19th for our 7th Annual BluesFest Benefit Concert.
SOOTS’ Holiday Mini Grant: MATCHING FUNDS FOR THE GEORGE HIGGS MEDICAL RELIEF FUND
With your support, 2012 was another great success. SOOTS raised over $6,000 to help North Carolina’s aging Piedmont Blues musicians. Through local sponsorship, Raleigh Charter patronage, and the energetic audiences that attended our benefit concerts and 3rd Annual Art Farm and May Day Cake Bake, SOOTS’ students were able to return six different musicians to our stage: John Dee Holeman, Boo Hanks, George Higgs, Ironin’ Board Sam, Ligthnin’ Wells and Tad Walters along with our first feature of Justin Robinson and his new band the Mary Annettes. What an exciting year, but we still have work to do.
In 2008, SOOTS instituted a medical mini grant program at the behest of Music Maker Relief Foundation founder Tim Duffy. Tim encouraged SOOTS to do whatever we could to help one of our favorite musicians, Mr. George Higgs, who has visited our classroom annually to share stories and his deeply rooted blues. Our initial grant helped offset George’s rising bills after falling ill. Then in 2010 we offered George another grant to help pay for the oxygen tank refills he had begun to ration to save money. Unfortunately, in late October of this year, just prior to a much anticipated gig at North Carolina’s Museum of History, Mr. Higgs was placed in intensive care again. He remains in the hospital. When I visited him, I wondered if SOOTS’ students knew how much they had enriched the life of this 84 year-old bluesman as I told him what he meant to us.
If you have attended our past benefit concerts and Fat Tuesday events, then you know how valuable George Higgs is to the Piedmont blues culture. Once again we would like to show Mr. Higgs and his wife that they have our full support. Please join our mission to sustain roots musicians and donate to the George Higgs Medical Relief Fund. We seek to help the Higgs recoup the fee George lost when he had to cancel his gig and to defray the cost of gas Mrs. Higgs has spent traveling from Tarboro to Greenville to visit George daily.
Through January 21st, we will accept donations to meet our goal of raising $1000. Thankfully, we have received a $500 grant check from the Questell Foundation (http://www.questellfoundation.org/) as seed money for this goal. We are confident that the greater Raleigh Charter community can match this generous donation – that we will rise to the challenge together.
Please make any check out to Raleigh Charter High School with “SOOTS: Higgs Medical Mini Grant” on the memo line. Any donations can be given to Charles Montague directly. Cash and coin are welcome. Then look for the success of the fund-raiser via our website (www.sootsblues.org). Thank you for helping us to help the Higgs and please keep an eye out for ever more creative ways our students have publicized this fundraiser via Twitter (@sootsblues) and Facebook. Note the smiles George and Betty Higgs have placed on our students and know that we will return the favor, together.
Sustaining Roots Music Community Project (SOOTS) exists to foster an appreciation for the traditional music and culture of the American South. We believe this appreciation will engage our fellow students in greater communities. We pursue the preservation of artistic wisdom to help create a more perfect world.
In 2006, Raleigh Charter High School rewrote its Citizenship curriculum and asked each of its faculty members to select a non-profit with which to work in order to model more creatively how students could support communities in need. Charles Montague and his students chose to work with the Music Maker Relief Foundation and named their organization the Sustaining Roots Music Community Project (SOOTS). Since 2007, SOOTS has organized six benefit concerts in downtown Raleigh and over a dozen other fundraisers, on and off campus, which have raised $40,000.
SOOTS Receives the "September Spotlight" at Whole Foods
3540 Wade Ave. Raleigh, North Carolina 27607
Thank you!
We would like to thank the greater Raleigh community as a whole, and especially the Wade Avenue Whole Foods for supporting us as the Community Spotlight for the month of September. Whole Foods as supported us annually at our Benefit Concert by providing refreshments for the artists; we couldn’t have asked for anything more and were honored when chosen for the community spotlight this September. As the community spotlight, Whole Foods donates the money from jars at each cash register every day in September.
To celebrate our community spotlight, Whole Foods put on a front porch concert featuring Lakota John Locklear. We are grateful to have Whole Foods as a sponsor, and hope you are too! Thanks to your generous donations, as well as raffle and merchandise sales, we raised over $500 towards supporting elderly blues musicians!
SOOTS' 3rd Annual Carolina Blues Benefit at UNC-CH
Featuring John Dee Holeman & Lightnin' Wells
September 20th - The Love House Lawn, 5-7 pm
410 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill
Free & Open to the Public
Thank you for celebrating Carolina Piedmont Blues Music at SOOTS' 3rd Annual Piedmont Blues on September 20th, it was a huge hit! We would like to thank those of you who took the time to appreciate the music of Lightnin' Wells and John Dee Holeman, as well as UNC Chapel Hill's Love House for facilitating a wonderful evening of blues. We would like to encourage everyone who attended to come to our 7th Annual Blues Benefit on April 19th at the Longview Center in Downtown Raleigh.
Thank you for celebrating North Carolina Piedmont Blues music.
SOOTS 2nd Annual Piedmont Bluesfest on September 30th was a smashing success. SOOTS would like to thank everyone who took time to appreciate the music that our musician partners (Lightnin' Wells and Boo Hanks) were able to put on for a crowd of over 50 people. We would like to encourage everyone who attended to come to our 7th Annual Fat Tuesday Film Festival on February 21st. If you are unable to enjoy the delicious student-made gumbos and the traditional Piedmont music of Ironin' Board Sam, fear not! Our 6th annual Blues Revue will be on April 13th at the Longview Center in Downtown Raleigh, shortly after Fat Tuesday.
The Sustaining Roots Music Community Project (SOOTS) congratulates the Raleigh Charter and greater Triangle community for supporting Boo Hanks, George Higgs & John Dee Holeman at the LongView Center last month. SOOTS raised over $2900.00 to help these talented musicians and their cultural treasures through the Music Maker Relief Foundation.
SOOTS would also like to note that this event would not have been possible without our many sponsors who are listed on Sustainers.
Many hearts were warmed, but we still need your help. Come to the May Day Cake Bake and Art Farm on May 18th @RCHS to support our student artists because you “can have your cake and eat it too” when you support SOOTS.
On November 5th, SOOTS collaborated with the Center for the Study of the American South and the Music Maker Relief Foundation to put on a free concert on UNC-Chapel Hill's campus.
SOOTS raised over $270 in donations and merchandise sales. For SOOTS' student leaders, this event was the culmination of a day of folk life studies at UNC, which included a visit to the American Studies' Archives and a panel discussion with folklorists, ethnographers, and musicians moderated by former SOOTS student and current UNC senior Danny Nowell.
The day concluded with an RCHS reunion of sorts as over 175 guests, many of whom are RCHS alums & current UNC students, enjoyed the musical talents of Lightnin' Wells, Boo Hanks and New Orleans keyboard artist Ironin' Board Sam Moore.
Thank you for supporting SOOTS, the Center for Study of the American South, MMRF and the rich heritage that inspires us all.
Footage: Josh Steadman of SteadyFilm © 2010
SOOTS' 7th Annual Cakebake and 3rd Annual ArtFarm: Thank You!
On Friday, May 18th, SOOTS successfully hosted its 7th annual Cake Bake and 3rd Annual Art Farm, raising just over $1000 in the process. During the event, a total of over 120 cakes were eaten and sold to benefit the Music Maker Relief Foundation and local Blues Musicians. The event was well attended by hundreds of current Raleigh Charter Students and Raleigh Charter Alumni, all of whom were able to enjoy the home-grown artwork and musical performances displayed and sold by the Raleigh Charter Community's own artists.
While the school year may be coming to a close, remember to keep in touch with SOOTS and The Music Maker Relief Foundation for information about future events, beginning with SOOTS' 7th Annual Blues Benefit featuring Justin Robinson & the Mary Annettes with Big Ron Hunter and Reed Turchi who will get our dancing feet moving on Moore Square on Friday, April 19th.
Furthermore, the 8th Annual Mayday Cake Bake and 4th Annual Art Farm will be held at Raleigh Charter High School from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM on May 17th. Tickets for cake will cost $6, and attendance at Art Farm will be free of charge. Come catch up with alumni, teachers and current artists extraordinaire.
$570 Raised to Help George Higgs Breathe a little easier—Thank You RCHS!
Sustaining Roots Music Community Project (SOOTS) www.sootsblues.org
SOOTS is pleased to announce that the RCHS community has exceeded our goal of raising $500 for Piedmont Bluesman George Higgs. Recently, financial hardships have forced Mr. Higgs, who suffers from reduced lung capacity, to choose to use less oxygen nightly in order to save money. This means George is losing that for which he is best known - the ability to play his harmonica in a style that is unique and treasured Down East.
With this Fall 2010 Medical Mini-grant George can buy enough oxygen to keep him playing the instrument that he loves. Thank you RCHS for stepping up and preserving roots music and sustaining the artists who create it.
As an encore – enjoy this streaming photo essay of SOOTS' work with Higgs. We can only do such great work because of your great support.
Footage: Zach Slobing of GOOD, Inc. © 2010
Our Matching Fundraiser for Mr. Higgs exceeded our expectations. With the help of the Raleigh Charter community, SOOTS was able to raise $400.00, which we matched with $250.00 from our 2009 Blues Benefit proceeds.
While we now have less with which to finance our events in 2009-10, the SOOTS student leaders felt the Higgs’ immediate needs were what mattered most. Our students are confident that we can raise more funds later, and for good reason, because the Raleigh Charter community always rises to the occasion.
Also note that if you would like to contribute to the Higgs fund and have not yet, then know we are still accepting donations. The check won’t be matched, but the Higgs can use all the help we can offer. Please make any check out to Raleigh Charter High School with SOOTS Medical Mini Grant on the memo line. Any donations can be given to Mr. Montague directly. Cash and coin are welcome.
Josh Steadman of SteadyFilms Inc. put together this video of Mr. Montague delivering the $650.00 check to the Higgs' last year. Keep checking out sootsblues.org for updates. We’ll be sure to capture some of the Higgs’ smiles for you & know that you should be smiling too.
The 7th annual Fat Tuesday Film and Music Festival: Thank you!
SOOTS' 7th Annual Fat Tuesday Film and Music Festival was a smashing success. With the help of our guests and our sponsors, over $2000 were raised to benefit aging Blues Musicians like Ironing Board Sam. SOOTS would like to thank everyone who made the success possible, including all of our sponsors, parents, volunteers, and guests.
That being said, the excitement isn't over yet! On Friday, April 19th SOOTS' 7th Annual Blues Benefit featuring Justin Robinson & the Mary Annettes with Big Ron Hunter and Reed Turchi will get our dancing feet moving on Moore Square.
Again, we at SOOTS cannot thank those involved with Fat Tuesday enough. Without you all, the preservation of the Blues and the support of musicians like Ironing Board Sam would not be possible.
Furthermore, the 8th Annual Mayday Cake Bake and 4th Annual Art Farm will be held at Raleigh Charter High School from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM on May 17th. The event will feature student-made cakes, student-made artwork, music performed by current Raleigh Charter students and Raleigh Charter Alumni, and almost as much milk as you can drink. Tickets for cake will cost $6, and attendance at Art Farm will be free of charge.
We hope to see you all in May! Have questions? Contact Charles Montague.
Sustaining Roots Music's 6th Annual Blues Revue: Thank you!
On April 13th, 2012 the Sustaining Roots Music Group at Raleigh Charter High School hosted Justin Robinson and the Mary Annettes, John Dee Holeman, and Tad Walters for a crowd of over 275 people, successfully raising over $2700 in the course of the night. SOOTS would like to thank all the people who participated in the event, whether through attendance, sponsorship, or management.
If you were unable to make this celebratory night, remember that on Friday, April 19th SOOTS' 7th Annual Blues Revue featuring Justin Robinson & the Mary Annettes with Big Ron Hunter and Reed Turchi will get our dancing feet moving on Moore Square.
Furthermore, the 8th Annual Mayday Cake Bake and 4th Annual Art Farm will be held at Raleigh Charter High School from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM on May 17th. The event will feature student-made cakes, student-made artwork, music performed by current Raleigh Charter students and Raleigh Charter Alumni, and almost as much milk as you can drink. Tickets for cake will cost $6, and attendance at Art Farm will be free of charge.
We hope to see you all there!
Have questions? Contact Charles Montague at cmontague@raleighcharterhs.org

Thank you to all that came out to hear Dr. Bill Ferris on Thursday, April 28th. This event was made possible by the RCHS History Department and was sponsored by SOOTS. It was a certainly a night to remember, with Dr. Ferris speaking eloquently on his personal relationship to the Mississippi Delta and it's rich musical tradition as well as providing a perspective on the academic aspects of folklore studies. Professor Ferris teaches history at UNC-Chapel Hill and is associate director of the Center for the Study of the American South, as well as the former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. He is widely recognized as a leader in Southern studies, African-American music and folklore. The lecture focused primarily on Dr. Ferris's most recent book, Give My Poor Heart Ease: Voices of the Mississippi Blues. We look forward to continuing a relationship with Dr. Ferris and the Center for the Study of the American South in the years to come.















