A Trip to St. Louis
So, I have this book that was just published. It’s called “Ghosts of St. Louis: the Lemp Mansion and Other Eerie Tales” and you should buy it if you love real-life ghost stories. You can find it at Amazon.com and other book websites and it’s by Schiffer Publishing.
But anyway… since it is about haunted places in St. Louis, I had to come to St. Louis to try to promote the book. I had a radio station appearance on a morning radio show scheduled along with a book signing at a local bookstore all set up. I have to say, if you are a fan of the blues and jazz, and you live in Chicago or want to visit Chicago, that’s great. However, if you want to expand your horizons, you absolultely cannot forget to visit St. Louis.
St. Louis is the birthplace of Miles Davis, for example. There is Blueberry Hill, the club and restaurant in the area of University City known as The Loop. It is just another city that you cannot swing a dead cat in without hitting a jazz or blues club. In fact, I have to say that St. Louis is a great music town in general. It always has been.
Chuck Berry is from St. Louis. It’s a stop along the Mississippi River and you just know that it’s one of those places where traveling musicians often stopped and got off of riverboats with their guitars and instruments and played to make enough money to eat and then continue their trip down the river. New Orleans may be thought of as a great place for jazz and blues, as is Chicago, but St. Louis certainly cannot be ignored.
I once went to a jazz club here, a small, tiny thing in the heart of the city, and met with a bunch of friends. A jazz bland played in the room next to the one I was sitting in. It was a guy on drums and the leader of the band was sitting there blowing into a long piece of PVC pipe like a diggery-doo (sorry, if I misspelled that to any aboriginal people or Australians). Yes, it’s just that kind of town.
It’s all of 300 miles south, south-west of Chicago. It is a great city loaded with lots and lots of history. There is a walk-0f-fame in U-City. There is music everywhere. There are clubs all over town. Really, you can’t go wrong no matter what you taste in music is here in St. Louis.
I don’t want you to think I am narrow-minded, you know.
Comments Off