Joe Edwards caps off the foreword to the new book St. Louis Sound: An Illustrated Timeline, out March 15, by writing: “Pop, rock, jazz, blues, rhythm & blues, gospel, hip-hop, classical, opera, folk, bluegrass, country—you’ll discover it all in St. Louis Sound.”
The all-but-comprehensive compendium, by Steve Pick and Amanda E. Doyle, begins with the rattles, drums, and flutes of Cahokia’s Mississippian culture and progresses all the way through 2017 to Old Salt Union, the “bluegrass band for people who don’t like bluegrass bands,” whose bass player is Jesse Farrar, nephew of another local band member, Jay Farrar of Son Volt.
Stay up-to-date with the local arts scene
Subscribe to the weekly St. Louis Arts+Culture newsletter to discover must-attend art exhibits, performances, festivals, and more.
That’s what makes St. Louis Sound so much fun: tracing the connections among bands, gigs, and musicians. Take Uncle Tupelo, the alt country band from Belleville, Illinois, that included Farrar, Jeff Tweedy, and Mike Heidorn. The group split in 1994, but Tweedy went on to front Wilco and Farrar to lead Son Volt. And Festus native Brian Henneman, who played guitar for Wilco, also led another area band, The Bottle Rockets.
“There are so many people who are here and who have always been here, nurturing those offshoots,” says Doyle. Back to Edwards’ point, the book also serves as a record of the diversity of performers (from Kim Massie to Bunnygrunt to Chuck Berry to the St. Louis Symphony) and venues (Laclede’s Landing to Off Broadway to The Pageant) that call or once called St. Louis home, as well as some interesting highlights from out-of-towners. Were you one of the lucky ones who saw The Beatles play Busch Stadium in 1966, after John Lennon said the band was bigger than Jesus?
