In this Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2013 photo, a woman pushes a stroller past the site of the National Blues Museum, set to open next year, in St. Louis. Casual Blues fans may not immediately think of St. Louis when considering the genre, but organizers of the project say the city has its own rich musical history making it a deserving home for the national museum.ST. LOUIS – Die-hard music lovers, casual fans and globe-trotting tourists readily embrace Chicago as the home of the blues, spurred in large part by the Great Migration northward of Southern blacks in the early and mid-20th century.
Robert Johnson, the genre’s godfather, famously sang of “Sweet Home Chicago,” and the Chicago Blues Festival draws more than 100,000 people each summer.
But come next year, the National Blues Museum won’t find a home in Chicago, but in a rival Midwest city 300 miles to the south.
St. Louis has its own deserving musical history, organizers of the project say, with hometown heroes such as Ike Turner, Albert King and, of course, Chuck Berry. It’s a legacy most prominently commemorated in the name of the city’s National Hockey League team, the St. Louis Blues.
“We date way back,” said museum organizer and music promoter Dave Beardsley. “Chicago didn’t really blow up until the ’50s, ’til Muddy (Waters) plugged in and went electric. We go back to W. C. Handy (who would later write “St. Louis Blues”) in 1893. … Our roots are far deeper than anyone knows.”