ABOUT 4Blues // Our Board

Blues in a blues neighborhood

Lifting spirits, learning history

Blues is healing music. It’s helped African Americans survive slavery, Jim Crow, and economic systems set up to keep them at the bottom. Simple, powerful rhythms help people tell their story in words and music with all the feelings.  The music strikes familiar chords in all of us. Blues is the root of American popular music—including jazz, r&b , rock, hiphop, even country.

People are waking up to the need to bring this music home to benefit the community.  Musicians are grateful for the work—and elder neighbors are grateful to hear again the earthy, real life inspiring sounds and rhythms they grew up with.

Just as West Virginians intentionally revived their traditional Appalachian mountain music, a focused Black community and allies can consciously reclaim Chicago’s reputation as a blues headquarters.  We aim to direct proceeds  to reward grass roots musicians and benefit the community in terms of education, cultural understanding, economic and tourism development, mental health and violence prevention.

F.O.U.R. Blues stands for “Further On Up the Road”—the Bobby Blue Bland song title that could be applied to our mission to carry this older music on into new generations. Because Chicago schools were disinvested of music over 30 years ago, it will take local youth a while to become familiar with older music and learn to play the instruments once prevalent in the community. 

Using city grants and private donations, the founders of FOUR Blues began working on the revival as individual artists beginning in the early 2000s, presenting free all-ages concerts, history talks, and jams in nonalcoholic venues such as parks, libraries, nonprofit spaces and churches.

FOUR BLUES now builds on this process as a nonprofit public charity.   IRS approved nonprofit tax-deductible 501c3 status for FOUR Blues on June 10, 2025.

 

CONTACT  bonni @ fourbluesmusic.org