This October 6 would have been my father's seventieth birthday. His name was Timothy Terrell Austin, known in the blues and soul world as Tim "Awesome" Austin, and for forty years he was the heartbeat behind legends like the Staple Singers and Buddy Guy, while the public never learned his name.
I wrote this one for him, and for anyone who has ever built something real while somebody else got the credit for it. It is also for anyone who inherited something bigger than they realized at the time, the way I inherited a book and a saying that turned out to matter more than the rhythm ever did.
Read the full tribute, his story, and the business lesson he left me: jamielondonclay.com/remembering-tim-awesome-austin/
If this is the kind of work you want to keep seeing, supporting it here means more than you know.
Join the Soulful Sanctuary email list so these stories reach you first.