Liz Everman signed off during the 6:00 news on WLKY-32 (CBS) tonight for the last time. Personally, I try to be unbiased when it comes to the local news and watch all four networks. However, I wish her the best of luck in future endeavors.
Did the Blues Brothers influence the Chicago blues scene? I have great respect for blues music, especially that of Chicago Blues.
"It made the blues come alive," said James Wheeler, a local blues musician who goes by the stage name Piano C. Red.
"It turned a lot of people on to the blues," said Wayne Baker Brooks, a local guitarist and son of blues great Lonnie Brooks.
Jim O'Neal, who founded Living Blues magazine in Chicago in 1966, said the movie "was one of the factors that contributed to a blues boom" in the 1980s.
The movie soundtrack sold more than a million copies.
"It was the original that set the bar," said Angela Mclain, director of soundtracks for Atlantic Recording.
For artists Aretha Franklin and John Lee Hooker, who already had accomplished careers, it was nevertheless the first time they were featured on the big screen.
"It broadened my audience and it certainly introduced people to me who were not aware of who I was," Franklin said in a 1998 documentary.
Still, Mike Kappus, Hooker's agent at the time, said Hooker greatly appreciated the high-profile appearance, but "the impact of the movie on his career was almost nonexistent."
And O'Neal said there is a downside. Now, "The image of blues bands to many people are two white guys in hats," he said.
But Blues Brothers creator Dan Aykroyd said the movie, along with the House of Blues that he directs, is designed to shine a spotlight on "America's primary export."
"I want people to fill their showrooms and bars and buy their records. That's my mission," Aykroyd said.
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