“People ask ‘why is the National Blues Museum in St. Louis?’ Well, why is the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland?” said Robert Endicott, chairman of the National Blues Museum’s board of directors.
“It’s because that’s where people got together and decided to do it.”
Actually, St. Louis’ destiny has been tied to the blues music since before W.C. Handy’s classic “St. Louis Blues” set the connection in stone more than a century ago.
But thanks to The National Blues Museum, which opened its doors to the public on Saturday morning, there is now a brick and mortar institution that takes our city’s association to the genre above that of a hub with rich history and a unique sound.
“We are telling the local, national and international story of the blues,” Endicott said. “And we want to make sure everyone connects with those stories.”
Snare drums rattled for two blocks as the Normandy High School Vikings Band helped the museum open its doors with a bang Saturday morning.
The diverse crowd of all ages spilled out into the street – which was blocked off to accommodate the crowd who can now say they were the first of the general public to enter.
After a long night as the headliner for the sold-out Rock N Blues fundraiser the evening before, Blues legend Bobby Rush joined the staff and board bright and early in cutting the big blue ribbon and helped usher guests into the 23,000 square foot institution.
It was Rush’s third visit to the space.
“He saw the exhibit featuring himself and B.B. King and became very emotional,” said Dion Brown, executive director of the National Blues Museum. “He said ‘this is exactly what the blues needs.’”
An experience five years in the making, the intention of the National Blues Museum is to share the story of an oppressed people who used music to connect with one another and eventually the world.
Out of the Mississippi Delta came a form of music so compelling that inspired every corner of the earth and ultimately set the tone for the evolution of popular music through its lovechild Rock N Roll.
Guests will get a taste of that – from Charley Patton, who with his 1924 recording “Going To Move To Alabama” gave the blueprint for Rock and Roll, to St. Louis’ own Chuck Berry, who built upon Patton’s contribution and reshaped American popular music from the 1950s forward through present day.
Through sights, sounds and technological interaction visitors get a chronological breakdown of the blues from the very beginning through real time. And they can create their own post-script thanks to technology.
Those who attend have the opportunity to create their own blues tune with software woven into the stations of the museum.
Interested guests will be guided through creating lyrics, selecting music and laying down vocals and their finished product will be e-mailed to them upon completion.
“They will play it in their own fashion, but one of the greatest things about the museum is that the interactivity will get the young minds back into the blues,” said board member Scott McCuaig.
A unique history lesson
The goal of the museum is to use the blues as an educational tool.
“We want to make sure that they understand it and connect with the stories,” Endicott said. It’s a jump off for so many other important lessons.”
By design blues music creates a safe space for sharing a complicated history.
“The Blues is the soundtrack to segregation, Jim Crow and other crises of black people,” Morgan Freeman said as he narrated the video that introduces visitors to what’s in store for them over the course of their visit.
The Blues is also the musical equivalent to The Great Migration.
It made its way from the plantations of Mississippi and saturated mainstream music in the same way that African Americans left the south for urban America.
This is illustrated by the wall of suitcases that segue into H.C. Porter’s traveling exhibit “Blues @ Home: Mississippi’s Living Blues Legends.”
“I get goose bumps when I look at the suitcases when I think of what they were probably feeling as they came up from the Delta,” Brown said.
Optimistic with a twinge of fear of the unknown, many landed in St. Louis.
They brought their music with them alongside hopes and dreams of a better life.
And in The National Blues Museum, St. Louis will have a position of continuing the genre’s legacy in music history and exposing its power to musicians that can carry it into the future.
“I think that we need this next generation of young people to understand the blues and its significance,” said McCuaig. “It’s such a great and telling art form that we can’t lose it.”
The National Blues Museum is located at 615 Washington Ave. For hours of operation and more information on the National Blues Museum, visit www.nationalbluesmuseum.org.
