Sarasota, Fla., has a lot to offer residents and tourists, including one of the nation’s finest blues festivals. Founded in 1991 by the Sarasota Blues Society, the Sarasota Blues Fest is the city’s largest musical festival, drawing tens of thousands of people during the annual single-day event.
It blossomed two years after its creation, when Barbara Strauss took over. She served as producer beginning in 1993 and landed many international blues stars including Buddy Guy, the late Solomon Burke, Gregg Allman, Little Feat, Little Milton, Booker T. & the MGs, and Delbert McClinton.
Her devotion to the event and its success caught the eye of Extreme Tix and its entertainment division, Three Zebras Entertainment. She sold the festival to those firms in 2010, but she is still quite involved in the music scene—to St. Louis’ benefit. She is helping make the National Blues Museum on Washington Avenue a reality.
“Sometimes things just come together. This is one of them,” she told me from Sarasota. Strauss said she spoke with NBM board member Devon Allman, award-winning Blues artist and member of the famed Allman musical family, about “turning a dream into a reality.”
“It’s such a great project. It’s now going from dreams to reality,” Strauss says.
That really began in late December, when Pinnacle Entertainment invested $6 million in the National Blues Museum. “Before that it was a lot of great people with great intentions,” she said.
Strauss immediately got to work by redesigning the NBM website and helping implement the “Buck Up for the Blues” fundraising initiative. Last week, the NBM also showcased its front door at 615 Washington Ave. The current plan calls for a museum with exhibition space, a classroom, and theater. It will center on the history of the Blues—but also its influence on rock, jazz, R&B, country, and other musical genres. It promises to be an interactive museum with a blues lab.
“We need everyone’s help,” says Strauss. Donations can be made at the website in amounts ranging from $25 to $1,000 (any level contribution is accepted), and there are various gifts and membership levels based on amounts.
Mike Kociela says Buck Up for the Blues is “a chance for St. Louisans to support a civic asset that will draw international tourists as well as create new job opportunities for people in the community." Kociela is a NBM board member and founder of the Bluesweek Festival.
“The museum is really going to be special," Strauss says. "I’m so thrilled to be a part of it all."
