Bruce Iglauer, head of Alligator Records, which has been around since 1971, compiled this list of West Side blues spots, most from the Great Migration era.. Check it out! Email him on the site if you have any to add, and put a comment in this blog too. The WEST SIDE LIST HERE
Author Archives: Bonni McKeown
"Barrelhouse Bonni" McKeown, the author of "West Side Blues Blog," has played piano and written about blues music for over 15 years. www.barrelhousebonni.com She has led classes for young and old on how to make up their own blues tune. www.chicagoschoolofblues.org She stayed on the West Side from 2004-05, then wrote articles on West Side Blues for Big City Blues Magazine and has helped promote West Side Chicago blues singer and drummer Larry Hill Taylor (stepson of guitarist Eddie Taylor). www.larrytaylorchicagoblues.com She co-produced Larry Taylor's 2004 debut CD They Were in This House, reissued in 2011 by Wolf Records. She is in the process of producing a movie based on Taylor's life story starring Leon as Larry's stepfather and Guy Davis in the role of Jimmy Reed: The Rhythm and the Blues Bonni returned to stay in Austin in 2017, and continues her efforts to increase blues education to keep kids off the street. She promotes blues as a point of local pride and a possibility for economic development and tourism to benefit the community.
