Blues Music

Rock & Roll Whirlwind: Nikki Hill never phones it in

Listen to "Right on the Brink"

Killer Blues to Install Headstones at the Graves of Stagger Lee, Milton Sparks This Weekend

All too often we read stories about aging, sometimes-forgotten music legends that slowly wallow away into obscurity. Highly influential music pioneers get left in the pits of financial hell when -- if there was any justice in the music business (spoiler alert: there truly isn't) -- these legends' e ... More >>

Homespun: Miss Molly Simms

Revenants
missmollysimms.bandcamp.com

Roland Johnson

10 p.m. Friday, October 12. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 South Broadway.

Big Muddy Blues Festival Moves Outside for Sunday After a Soggy Saturday

You could see it coming down the street. The wall of downpour that swept through the Big Muddy Blues Festival around 4:30 p.m. yesterday didn't last long, but few stayed outside to weather the last rainy remnants of Hurricane Isaac. See also: Saturday's Big Muddy Blues Festival's Isaac-Updated Sc ... More >>

Big Muddy Blues Festival Lineup and Ticket Information

The Big Muddy Blues Festival, which takes place downtown every year on Labor Day weekend, returns this year with three stages on Laclede's Landing and a headlining set from New Orleans' Dr. John. Tickets are on sale now -- they range from $10 a day for general admission to $85 per day for Gold Lev ... More >>

Bluesweek triples in size, attracting its strongest lineup yet

Happy Birthday Leonard Chess of Chess Records, Home of Chuck Berry and Ike Turner

Musicians such as Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters are once-in-a-lifetime talents. And it's a safe bet that if Chess Records hadn't have made those artists' music accessible to the masses, another company would have pulled the trigger. But fortunately for Leonard Chess, the label he ran with his brothe ... More >>

Jeff Konkel helps document the dying juke joints

Boston Spaceships, Fountains of Wayne, Keb Mo: This Week's New Releases

​Each Tuesday, record-store clerks unpack boxes of albums and restock shelves with the latest releases. This week brings many notable releases, including albums from New Jersey's finest power-pop outfit, Fountains of Wayne, indie hybrid Boston Spaceships and blues guitar fixture Keb Mo.

T-Model Ford

9 p.m. Thursday, May 26. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue.

Mississippi Fever

Mississippi Fever
(self-released)

Documentary Film M For Mississippi Unites Independent Blues Labels

Today is the birthday for a brand new organization called Three Forks Music. The collective is a union of three record labels: Cat Head, St. Louis' own Broke & Hungry Records and Mudpuppy Recordings. The collaboration, inspired by the labels' work making the film M For Mississippi, is an effort to i ... More >>

Tomorrow! Mad Art Hosts Preview of Book, Paintings and CD Involving Pre-War St. Louis Blues

madart.com​St. Louis artist, author and one-time RFT cover illustrator Kevin Belford is a man on a mission: to assert St. Louis' rightful place in the history of blues music. Belford's new book, Devil at the Confluence: The Pre-War Blues Music of St. Louis, is out next month from Virginia Publ ... More >>

Legendary bluesman T-Model Ford keeps on trucking his way on the road

Alvin Jett and the Phat noiZ sweetens the pot with a CD release show for Honey Bowl

Ramblin' Men: It's a hoot and a holler with the Rum Drum Ramblers and its rollicking blues tunes

Spinning Blues Into Lies: Cadillac Records can't handle the truth

Benefit for Jim Koerber, Ike and Tina Turner's Sax Man, This Sunday at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups

Big George Brock

Alive At Seventy Five
(Cat Head)

Muppet Gone to Heaven

Veteran bluesman Bobby Rush charms China, while B-Sides makes a mixtape for Elmo the Muppet’s life.

Scott Miller

10 p.m. Saturday, December 16. BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups (700 South Broadway).

Blue Sunday

Bennie Smith: 1933-2006.

Beat Happenings

Music news you can use

Buddy Guy

Friday, September 9; Roberts Orpheum Theater (416 North Ninth Street)

The Big Muddy Blues Festival

Saturday and Sunday, September 3 and 4; Laclede's Landing (First and Lucas streets)

Rust-Belt Racket

The Black Keys bring old-school flair to their tunes. Just don't call them a blues band.

Fat Boys

A gang of elderly, seedy Mississippi bluesmen come to your home...in DVD form

Roomful of Blues

Thursday, March 31; BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups (700 South Broadway)

Next Best Thing

If you weren't at this landmark blues concert, Lightning in a Bottle will do

Magic Slim and the Teardrops

Sunday, September 26; Broadway Oyster Bar

Don't Leave Me, Baby

The musicians in the Baby Blues Showcase tell you the troubles they've seen

Harpthrob

Blind Mississippi Morris breathes new life into the blues

Magic Slim and the Teardrops

Thursday, May 29; Broadway Oyster Bar

Blue Gem

Reaves-Phillips offers a phenomenal sampling of six legends

Sain Remains

The local blues legend looks back on 40 years in St. Louis

Mississippi Magic

For more than 25 years, singer Terry Evans has been a fixture in roots music. You might not know his name, but you probably know his music.

Taj Mahal and the Phantom Band

Wednesday, April 24; Mississippi Nights

Lloyd's Blues Music Festival

Saturday, Aug. 18; Fox Theatre

Michelle Willson and the Evil Gal Festival Orchestra

Sunday, July 22; Broadway Oyster Bar.

Koko Taylor and Marcia Ball

Friday, June 15; Pageant

Soul Survivor

Twenty-seven years ago, Shuggie Otis released one amazing record. Maybe now it'll get its due.

Country-Blues Confessional

Rory Block has been summoning ghosts of the blues for the past 40 years

Shorty's Groove

Steeped in family and regional tradition, the brothers Dickinson create a variation on the hill-country blues for their North Mississippi All Stars

Bob Log III and 20 Miles

Saturday, Feb. 12; Side Door

Homesick James

Friday, Dec. 10; BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups

REGARDING HENRY

A celebration of bluesman Henry Townsend on the occasion of his 90th birthday

Sound Checks

Lifetime Achievement Award

Best Harp Player: Sandy Weltman