UPDATED JULY 17 2016 In my book ‘America’s Gift’, I quote the American Blues historian, David K. Bradford, writing about the nineteenth century African-American street evangelist, Charles Haffer. Born in the 1870s, Charles Haffer was a blind Delta balladeer and songwriter from Mississippi who astutely linked the emergence of blues to the guitar’s new popularity among black musicians…

Updated 20 July 2016 St. Louis’ famous Gateway Arch is 630 ft. or 190 m high. In the nineteenth century, St. Louis used to be called The Gateway to the West St. Louis, Missouri, is a city so steeped in the blues, even the local NHL ice hockey team calls itself after one of the most famous…