Sustaining Roots Music (SOOTS) is a community project at Raleigh Charter High School that seeks to preserve the local vernacular culture of the American South, particularly the music of the North Carolina Piedmont. Following the model of the Music Maker Relief Foundation, SOOTS students organize benefit concerts and host guest lectures that connect diverse communities, including local businesses, teenage students, and professional artists, in the common cause of raising awareness and funds for aging musicians. SOOTS has worked closely with CSAS since 2010.
The 8th Annual SOOTS Benefit on April 25th in Raleigh will feature Justin Robinson with his current band, the Mary Annettes. Robinson was one of the founding members of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, with whom he won a Grammy in 2010 for their album Genuine Negro Jig. Robinson left the group in 2011 to pursue his Master’s in Forestry at NC State University. Robinson also teaches violin and is currently in the studio as a producer for multiple local bands’ projects. Aside from the fiddle, Robinson now plays the autoharp and his new harp from Paraguay, which he played for SOOTS students during an energetic Q&A session earlier this month.
To order tickets: www.seatyourself.biz/sootsblues
For more information on SOOTS: www.sootsblues.org