As founding executive director of the National Blues Museum, Dion Brown is excited with the possibilities that will come with its late 2015 or early 2016 opening in downtown St. Louis.
As he walked through the space, dust flew and electric saws roared with construction underway. A vision that began in 2012 is now in the home stretch of fruition.
“This is going to be the performance area right here,” Brown said. “We’re going to have speakers that will be placed along the outside of Washington so people can hear what’s going on and be enticed to come in and see what we’re doing.”
He came on board in June of this year after working for several years as executive director for the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center in Indianola, Mississippi.
Based on the light in his eyes, one would think he’s already in the midst of watching Marquise Knox, Big George Brock or any of the other St. Louis blues favorites bring the house down on the National Blues Museum concert stage.
He exuded the same spirit as he spoke while walking through some of the 16,000 square feet of exhibit space that will be dedicated to mostly the past – but also the present and future – of the blues when the organization opens its doors.
“It’s a teachable moment,” Brown said. “We get to show The Great Migration and how the blues started down in Mississippi and then moved up through Memphis, Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis and even Canada going north and California going west.”
This understanding of blues history, however, is contradicted by St. Louis music historian Kevin Belford. In “Devil at the Confluence,” Belford argued that the blues emerged in many places at roughly the same time and the blues in St. Louis had an indigenous development independent of the Mississippi Delta.
With his post at the B.B. King Museum, Brown worked specifically with the Delta blues. He is thrilled that his new position comes with the opportunity to show the broad reach of the genre.
“Blues changes wherever you go,” Brown said. “You’ve got the Delta blues, you’ve got the Chicago blues, the St. Louis blues. I plan on doing a series so that people can see how the blues changes depending on where you live. It has so many sounds. And by us being the National Blues Museum, it gives us a chance to explore all of them.”
St. Louis and blues music have been synonymous since W.C. Handy penned the hit with a title that forever merged the two just over a century ago.
The franchise that grew from his standard “St. Louis Blues” would include a film starring Bessie Smith, and a remake starring Nat King Cole and Pearl Bailey. The song would make the city a permanent backdrop in the blues – beyond the piano-based styling previously pioneered by Scott Joplin’s ragtime and often associated with St. Louis’ interpretation of blues music.
By the second half of the 19th century, the blues’ popularity gave way to soul, R&B and hip-hop.
But Brown envisions the National Blues Museum as a breeding ground and launching pad for the next generation of blues lovers, blues artists and blues historians. It’s a feat he plans to achieve through programming such as seminars, discussions and hands-on workshops.
“You go to these blues festivals and they are predominately white,” Brown said. “We have to reintroduce the blues to young people. People will say, ‘They stole our music.’ No, they haven’t. It can’t be stolen. We’ve lived it. We know it. They appreciate it. Now it can be where we both can appreciate it and all come together.”
He believes the future of the blues lies in engaging the next generation by making the connection between current music and its roots in the blues – as well as bridging the generation gap.
“It’s these young guys like Marquise Knox right here and Kingfish out of Clarksdale,” Brown said. “Kids need exposure to them. They need to see those guys so they can say, ‘That’s me. That’s my age group out there.’ And that’s the sort of thing we hope to provide.”
The National Blues Museum is currently under construction and will be located at 601 Washington Ave. in downtown St. Louis. For more information and updates about the museum, visit www.nationalbluesmuseum.com.
