Chicago’s most famous living blues musician is being honored with a lifetime achievement award. Buddy Guy received the award last night at the Grammys. Guy and other artists say their music should be just as celebrated locally. And they wonder...if Chicago is the home of the blues, then why doesn’t it have a permanent home in Chicago?
Back in the 1950s Buddy Guy was a young guitarist living in Louisiana. Like many others he eventually traveled north to Chicago, where the blues scene was thriving.
"Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, all those great guys, cause that’s why I came here. To get a day job and go watch them play at night."
And that’s exactly what he did.
"The beer was 25 cents a bottle when I came here. And when Muddy played there wasn’t no cover charge. The beer was 35 cents. So the 10 cents was going for the band members. Muddy Waters was in the band. And those were the greatest days of my life."
The blues made important stops in Memphis and St. Louis, but Chicago is where it really came alive in the middle of the last century. That’s when musicians like Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf traveled from Mississippi, electrified their down home Delta Blues and recorded it for labels like Chess Records.
You can still see remnants of this history around town. There’s the old Chess Records building on S. Michigan Ave, and then there’s the boarded-up house at 4339 S. Lake Park Avenue.
"This is the house of the blues before there was a house of the blues. Where this was the rehearsal house was the basement."
Barry Dollins directed the Chicago Blues Festival for decades. And the house we visited recently used to be Muddy Waters’. Back in the 1950s, the basement was the famous site of countless jam sessions.
Today, the red brick two flat is in pretty bad shape.
"It’s just depressing just to see that X up there."
That big red X means the house is abandoned and unsafe.
"It’s sad that there was no forethought in what the significance of this building is. And how it could’ve been preserved and utilized."
In some ways, Muddy Waters’ neglected house is symbolic of the overall failure to erect a permanent space honoring any of Chicago’s musical heritage.
Chicago has a few live blues clubs. And a handful of family foundations for local heroes like Jimmy Reed and Willie Dixon. But few landmarks are open to the public and artifacts are scattered all over the place.
"Why don’t we have a blues museum? It comes down to money."
"Well, how would you finance it? And where would you put it?," says Steve Cushing, the host of the syndicated radio show “Blues Before Sunrise”. He says Chicago deserves a blues museum, but isn’t sure how viable it would be.
"It would seem that you would want it in a place that was related to the actual location of the blues. But if you put it on the south side, would tourists, would white folks go down there?"
If something ever does get off the ground, it won’t be called the Chicago Blues Museum. That’s because this guy already owns the copyrighted name.
Gregg Parker is a local guitarist who’s played with the likes of Mick Jagger and Buddy Miles.
"I’m preserving history. They call me the black Indiana Jones. If I can’t find it, it doesn’t exist."
These days he spends most of his time collecting artifacts for traveling exhibitions. I talked to him a few months ago at the former jazz hot spot, the Sutherland Hotel where he had a temporary exhibit of old black and white photographs of musicians.
"I don’t need a building to do what I’m doing. I own it. The blues museum is a state of mind. It’s not a building."
In fact, the address for Parker’s museum’s is a p.o. box number. He once had a storefront space but won’t say why it closed. When I ask when the public could see his whole collection, he got a little defensive.
"I’m not going to tell you my itinerary. You might be a thief!"
Parker shows how fragmented and disorganized efforts are to showcase the blues in Chicago.
Many say the only way to get everyone on the same page and all the artifacts under one roof is for the city to get involved. They point out that City Hall moved mountains for the proposed George Lucas Museum and the Obama Presidential Library.
So why hasn’t it done more for the blues?
The Department of Cultural Affairs sent a statement saying the city celebrates the music with the annual Blues Festival. Every June the Blues fest draws hundreds of thousands of people to Grant Park for a weekend of free music.
But when I went last year I heard tourists say they wished there was more to see while they were in town. Karl Roque came all the way from the Philippines.
"I’ve been to Buddy Guy’s place, but that’s about it. Y: Do you think it would be nice to have a blues museum here in Chicago? Yes. Why not? Maybe it’s about time."
Buddy Guy couldn’t agree more.
"I’ve been begging for it for almost 30 years."
And according to Buddy it may be closer than we think. He told me he’s been working with some folks who want to build a blues museum.
"They already got the building on Navy Pier. Y: So there’s going to be a blues museum? B: A blues experience museum here on Navy Pier."
No one at Navy Pier would comment. But I did get a statement from Tim Wright, co-founder of the so-called Chicago Blues Experience. He says they’re close to finalizing the details, but can’t confirm when.
Two years ago there were reports that the same group wanted to build something in the Loop -- but it never happened. In the meantime, another blues museum is moving full steam ahead.
Built with a mix of public and private funds, the $13 million dollar, 23,000 square foot space will feature interactive exhibits and a theater for live music.
But you won’t find it in Chicago.
The National Blues Museum is set to open this summer in St. Louis.