Miami opens in every direction. Follow a record and it leads to a studio, a label, a neighborhood. Follow a photograph and the city becomes another kind of archive: storefronts, architecture, street corners, and the people moving between them.
This is Motherlode's Miami: a collection of musical lives, places, and connections. Explore Henry Stone and the world of TK Records; follow Betty Wright, Blowfly, The Cichlids, Charlie Pickett, Celia Cruz, Fred Neil, and DJ Le Spam through the features below. Berenice Abbott offers another way of looking at the landscape. Mac's Club Deuce brings us back to a bar, a friendship, and a story from the road.
Each feature is another entrance. Choose a name, follow a connection, and see where Miami takes you.
Read the 2017 Route 1 field report
PHOTOGRAPHY
BERENICE ABBOTT
One generation records the landscape. The next discovers it all over again.
Sometimes preserving history means putting it back on the dance floor.
PIT STOP
MAC'S CLUB DEUCE
If Miami has a memory, there's a good chance it spent last call at Mac's Club Deuce.
Henry Stone didn't just discover artists. He built the ecosystem that allowed them to become legends.
Long before shock rap, someone else was already gleefully crossing every line.
Every great music city has a voice that tells its story. Miami found one for the ages.
The Cichlids didn't just play South Florida's original punk scene—they helped convince a city it could have one.
Charlie Pickett never chased success. He chased great songs—and left a trail of inspired musicians behind him.
Music has always traveled farther than politics ever could.
Some musicians leave fingerprints on far more records than most people realize.
