Who says kids today are apathetic? Not I, especially after talking to the crew at SOOTS -- the Sustaining Roots Music Community Project, a group of Raleigh Charter High School students who put on benefit concerts to help out the old-school blues players who need assistance. The students have shown impressive initiative in recent years, and they'll be putting on their fifth annual blues benefit concert Friday night. Read all about it here.

Congratulations to Raleigh Charter High School's Sustain Roots Music (SOOTS), which finished in the money in the Pepsi Refresh Projeject. Voting closed Monday in an online poll in which the top-10 vote-getters received $5,000 grants -- and SOOTS came in at No. 8. The money will help fund the benefit shows that the group puts on to raise money for Hillsborough-based Music Maker Relief Foundation, which assists older and impoverished blues musicians throughout the South.

We're down to the final day of voting for the Pepsi Refresh Project; and, as it stands right now, Raleigh Charter High School's Sustaining Roots Music (SOOTS) is in the money at No. 9. If SOOTS is still in the top-10 by the time voting ends, it will earn a $5,000 grant to go to the work that Music Maker Relief Foundation does, supporting older impoverished blues musicians. So on this Memorial Day, take a moment to vote one last time. Represent!

For the past few years, a group of Raleigh Charter High School students have put on fund-raising concerts through a community-service organization, Sustaining Roots Music (SOOTS). The money goes to the Hillsborough-based Music Maker Relief Foundation, which does wonderful work supporting older impoverished blues musicians.

The SOOTS crew is looking to augument its fund-raising through a contest sponspored by Pepsi, in which the top-10 vote-getters will each earn a $5,000 grant. Voting closes on the last day of the month; and at the time of this writing, SOOTS is in 15th place. So let's see if we can bump them up a little closer to the top-10. Vote early, vote often, vote here.

Speaking of upcoming outdoor shows, Durham's American Tobacco Amphitheatre has put out a 10-show schedule for this year's Music on the Lawn series. Sponsored by WUNC-FM's Back Porch Music, the lineup draws from the roots and Americana end of the spectrum:

April 30 -- Chatham County Line

May 21 -- Mike Cross

June 4 -- Uncle Earl

June 18 -- Kickin' Grass

July 30 -- Laura Boosinger & Josh Goforth

Aug. 13 -- Stillhouse Bottom Band

Aug. 20 -- Thad Cockrell

Sept. 10 -- Gravy Boys

Sept. 17 -- Paul Brown and the Mostly Mountain Boys

Oct. 8 -- Music Maker Relief Foundation showcase with Cool John Ferguson, Captain Luke, John Dee Holeman, others

Sunday's paper has a story I've been meaning to do for a while, a "Tar Heel of the Week" feature on Tim Duffy. Duffy and his wife Denise run Hillsborough-based Music Maker Relief Foundation, in which capacity they truly do the Lord's work -- helping out impoverished older blues musicians, who have been ripped off their whole lives. Thanks to the Duffys' work, Etta Baker, Macavine Hayes and hundreds of other artists have enjoyed a measure of comfort and recognition in their later years.

"I'm a big fan of Tim's work," says Don Flemons of Carolina Chocolate Drops. "I own a good deal of all the albums he's done with Music Maker, which are amazing pieces of American music. And we've greatly benefitted from Music Maker -- Tim managed us for free during our first eight months, and opened his connections to us. That was very helpful. He and Denise are great and wonderful people who go out of their way to help folks. I highly recommend him for being able to get his people paid and working, on top of documenting their music."

Check Sunday's story here; and for further background on Music Maker, there's also this 1999 feature.

Word from Music Maker Relief Foundation headquarters is that Winston-Salem bluesman Macavine Haynes died in his sleep Monday morning. He was 65 years old, and his most recent Triangle performance was at Durham's Broad Street Cafe on new years eve.

"Macavine had a wonderful, soulful, almost childlike warmth and happiness," says MMRF head Tim Duffy. "He was internationally known, toured Australia and over 10 countries in Europe. Wherever he went, people just loved the guy. But he died with his boots on -- asleep at a jook joint."

If you've got any scratch left over from holiday shopping, or if you're well-off enough to need another tax deduction for 2008, consider making an end-of-year donation to Hillsborough-based Music Maker Relief Foundation. Music Maker provides financial assistance to older blues musicians, many of them impoverished and in ill health, and this year's economic downturn has taken a fearsome toll on the organization's donor base.

John Dee Holeman and the late Etta Baker are among the musicians who have benefitted from MMRF help in the past. Holeman is also one of several MMRF acts playing a new years eve show Wednesday at Durham's Broad Street Cafe, along with Cool John Ferguson, Captain Luke and others. And for more about the work MMRF does, check here.