St. Louis

History and Music come together in St. Louis

The Loop
One of up-and-coming neighborhoods, The Loop offers shops, restaurants, entertainment, and Blueberry Hill. This restaurant/bar has music memorabilia worth a stop on its own -- collected over a lifetime by owner Joe Edwards. Named after the Fats Domino song, Blueberry Hill also hosts live music and Chuck Berry performs every month in the underground room set up just for musical performances. While strolling along Delmar Boulevard, look down. The St. Louis Walk of Fame has over 100 brass stars embedded in the sidewalks honoring famous St. Louis citizens many of whom are musicians.

Blues Cruise
For great music take a Blues Cruise along the Mississippi (Summers only). Go downstairs and listen to fine foot-stomping hand-clapping music (we saw the Baker-McClaren Band). Get a drink, or perhaps a snack, sit down at the long tables and enjoy.Go upstairs and watch the impressive Arch slide by the lights of the city.

Scott Joplin
Before rock 'n' roll there was the blues, and before the blues there was Ragtime. Scott Joplin, often called the Father of Ragtime, lived in a modest apartment in St. Louis in the opening years of the 1900s. It was in this house that Joplin wrote some of his famous works, including The Entertainer. The restored Scott Joplin House is a National Historic Landmark, and is open for guided tours, which provide the facts and lore about Joplin. Joplin was one of the few black composers who was able to copyright his music. These royalties provided his bedrock income enabling him to compose rather than perform for a living, from good time dancin' music to innovative style blending ragtime and classical. The upstairs has been recreated to the way it would have looked when Joplin lived there although there are no original pieces left.

Next door to the Joplin House is a recreation of the Rosebud bar which figured prominently in ragtime. Today the Rosebud is open for special events and lectures, and provides "cutting competitions"like in the old days, in which two players go head to head composing on the fly.

Sedalia

This tiny town is a must-stop for Joplin fans. In Joplin's day it was a major town made successful as the crossroads of four railroads, but with a big nighttime bawdy business going on upstairs over the stores that lined Main Street. And ragtime was the music of those houses. Joplin performed in the Maple Leaf Club, and there composed his Maple Leaf Rag. The site of the building is now a tiny park with a commemorative plaque (which has seen better days). There's also a great mural on the wall of one of the downtown buildings. Every year the town of Sedalia is the site of the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival in early June presented by The Scott Joplin International Ragtime Foundation and Store, which is also located in Sedalia.

While you're there, stop by the Katy Depot just because it's a charming restored historic site.

And, oddly enough Sedalia is also home to Dale Chihuly's 1999 piece Cathedral Violet Chandelier at the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art located at State Fair Community College Campus.

Branson

Branson is no longer the sleepy quaint town. The action happens on a strip of highway packed with cars, and with theaters and motels, side by side, covering every piece of land. Live music is the lure and there's plenty of it. It is where Middle America parties, and parties well. The mantra recited by almost everyone is Clean, Family Entertainment. You can take your children to any show. While this means that there is no entertainment aimed strictly at adults, it doesn't mean the acts are boring. Quite the contrary. There is rousingly good entertainment. The Haygoods playing at Music City Centre put on an incredible high-energy, high-enjoyment show. You can also find Spirit of the Dance, Broadway style shows, tributes to Elvis and to Red Skelton, and country music galore. Check out the discount tickets available at some of the hotels.

The music also bubbles up through Silver Dollar City. This family fun park started out as a tour of the caverns, which is still available. After a while, the owners thought they would add some activities for folks to enjoy while they waited for their turn on the tour. That gentle idea has blossomed into a family fun park with a country flavor. Equal parts rides, crafts demonstrations, food, and music set amid hills and tower trees.

Kansas City

Kansas City has to be the heart of musical Missouri -- you find live jazz seven nights a week, and often in the afternoons as well. Click on Kansas City Jazz for our jazz club tour. Whether you want to put together your own evening of jazz, or would enjoy an organized jazz tour, the best place for information is JAM: Jazz Ambassadors Magazine or their Jazz Hotline (816-753-JASS/5277).

Music and Missouri -- it's a great combination.