Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Chess Records - Chicago Missing An Opportunity to Lure More Tourists?

An opinion piece in Crain's Chicago thinks a sleepy South Loop landmark isn't being promoted enough:
It's one of the best kept secrets in the city: Chess Records, the historic recording studio building where modern electric blues was born. Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones recorded here, and this is where Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Etta James and Bo Diddley, to name a few, launched careers that influenced countless recording stars to this day.  
Today, Europeans who flock to Chicago for Blues Fest want to see it. And when rock stars like Eric Clapton come to town, they are thrilled to walk the same backstairs where blues legends would once carry their instruments up to record. But Chicago has never properly promoted this great international musical legacy, born at 2120 S. Michigan Ave. A small plaque is all that currently marks this storied spot.

(Hat tip:  AR!)

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