Chicago Blues Beat is a great way to enjoy the Chicago Blues music scene up close and personal from anywhere in the whole wide world. These Blues are more than a musical style or genre, but a culture. In Chicago, it is also a vibrant community of artists, venues, associated businesses, and fans. It is our hope that the rest of the world can enjoy this community. Chicago Blues has a worldwide following of fans and artists.
How we started
Chicago Blues Beat began as a true labour of love in the 90’s when the internet looked a lot different. It seemed to be more potential than utility. There were no iPhones or Facebooks. Few venues and fewer artists had any web presence. We started with the idea of getting more venues to provide live Chicago Blues music. We morphed into a support resource for venues, artists and fans.
What we have
The first versions of ChicagoBluesBeat.com the website included photo journaling of some great artists at some great venues. Many of those venues and artists are now gone. The archives of those galleries now serve as a visual history of that period. The sidemen have often moved up to the headliners and are filling the shoes of the greats that have passed on. We consider these archives to be a treasure in themselves.
What we were
We published a blues schedule manually. This meant we collected the data, from the venues and artists and manually posted them. There were no calendar apps or venue sites that could do this for us. The information and support we tried to provide are now provided by newer websites and webzines that do a much better job than we could ever have hoped to do with the resources we had. We applaud those websites and hope to give individual praise and attention to them in upcoming posts.
What we are now
This latest iteration of www.ChicagoBluesBeat.com still intends to support our artists, venues, and fans but will look at Chicago Blues as a world-wide community. We hope to include Chicago suburbs from as far away as Tokyo and London and Cefalu (where my family is from).
Always
We thank you for your continued friendship and support.