"I come from a state that raises corn and cotton.."

High summer in St. Louis, Missouri. I search for refreshment in a nearby cold water bottle, put it against my head, sweating my clothes off, but the dizzling feeling of refreshment lingers only a second. Here it is, that heavy, moist, paralyzing heat. The city pants in relief when the sun starts its disappearing act and the afternoon bows to twilight shade.

This is the city of Rock 'n Roll. The city of Chuck Berry, Ike Turner, Tina Turner, Albert King. Musical history was made in this little town, where the Mississippi river crosses. I make my way for an ice cream, hoping to get some refreshment. 'Let me have that one, yes'. I see girls and boys taking orders and dispensing shakes, cones, sodas, floats, splits and sundaes as fast as their hands permit. Before it's even there, my ice cream is almost completely gone. I glide into ice-cream nirvana. With a white mustache I smile; 'this is réally great.'

We owe almost every piece of our time here to Quinta Scott, photographer of some great books on the Route 66. She was there from the beginning, so she know's her stuff. She has a great new book coming out too, about the Mississippi river. Her website can be found here. Check it out. Thank you Quinta for having us!!

As we drive through Delmar street, the 'strip' of St. Louis, I feel as if I'm re-living the fifties; although I was never there to have lived it, actually. I guess I was born in the wrong decade...
This city makes me listen to Rock 'n Roll music in an old car, with an old radio, and an old guy behind the wheel with an old beard. After we stop for some gas, we go to the Blueberry, where we listen to some sweet fifties music. I wish Elvis would have been there to see it....


"Feelin' the music from head to toe
'Round and 'round and 'round you go
Hail, hail rock'n'roll"

Chicago, "The Pulse of America"

Chicago is "The Windy city" (and rest assure, some Marilyn Monroe-moments have proven this by far ), "The City of The Big Shoulders". It's a Brandy Alexander at the Drake Hotel, a slice of cake at the Palmer House, a good night's sleep at the Blackstone. But it's also called "The Pulse of America", and as for me, this statement is absolutely true. It's The Pulse of The Blues.

It came here from the swampy bluesbayou's and cottonfields of the Mississippi Delta, with people trying to find a job here after the war. Blues became Electric in Chicago, more specifically in the Chess Record Studio's, a place where people like Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Willie Dixon, Little Walter, Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry and even the Rolling Stones recorded some of their biggest songs. Let's not forget: 'Without the blues there were no Rolling Stones', to quote Magic Slim... and without the influence of the Blues on the British Invasion in the Sixties, Rock would look totally different today...

Let's give it up for Chicagoooooooo!!!



After one hot day and a cracking night of thunder, lightning, rain (a lot of it) and heavy wind (of course), we're ready to confront Chicago with it's most precious posession: the Blues.


'You damn right, I've got the Blues,


From my head down to my shoes,


You damn right, I've got the Blues,


I can't win, 'cause I don't have a thing to lose'

(Buddy Guy)