“Chicago ain’t nothing but Mississippi with tall buildings,” says Michael B. Jordan’s character Stack, a Mississippi-born bootlegger, to aspiring blues musician Sammie in the new film Sinners. That line might not make sense to outsiders, but for any Chicagoan like myself with roots in the American South, it perfectly sums up the Windy City’s history and culture.
Sinners weaves together vampires, blues music, and the Jim Crow era, using symbols to highlight how Black people have sustained life in the U.S. despite racism and violence. Although the film is set in Clarksdale, Mississippi, where Delta blues was created, it references Chicago throughout the story, where the music transformed into an electric version whose rhythms are heard throughout the movie and around the city today.
“The blues was brought to Chicago during the Great Migration as a specific regional style that exploded into a huge American cultural phenomenon,” says Sterling Plumpp, a Mississippi-born blues historian and poet.
As seen in Sinners, the Great Migration spurred southern African Americans battling against racial violence and oppression to move to northern cities in pursuit of better lives. Chicago, where twin brothers Stack and Smoke go to live before returning to Mississippi, was a straight shot north on the Illinois Central Railroad. From the 1910s through the 1930s, a massive number of migrants from Mississippi came, including Delta blues musicians with their finger-picking acoustic guitars paired with raw, emotional belting. In their new home, they expanded the genre with an electrified version called Chicago blues—depicted in the last scene of the movie—which transformed the city’s culture in significant ways you can still experience now.
“By 1940 . . . there were blues clubs all over the South and West sides,” says Plumpp. “I could walk four blocks to hear Muddy or Howlin’ Wolf.”
My dad was one of thousands of ambitious migrants who moved to Illinois’s biggest city, leaving Jackson, Mississippi, to become a manager at Western Electric in 1960. Like many of my Chicago friends, I grew up visiting my grandmother in Mississippi every summer, shelling fresh pecans and listening to the rhythms of classic blues tunes on the radio. The scenes in Sinners when musicians play acoustic guitars and harmonicas brought back memories of hearing tunes by B.B. King and Z.Z. Hill while sitting on my grandmother’s porch. Later, I fully felt the music’s impact on my northern home when I attended the annual Chicago Blues Festival as a teen.
“The evolution of Delta style blues into Chicago’s unique sound gave a sense of confidence, maturity, and sophistication to a music with very humble origins.” says Jacqueline Dixon, president and CEO of Willie Dixon’s Blues Heaven Foundation in Chicago. “People associated blues with their perception of Chicago style and mannerisms.” (That style is even depicted in Smoke and Stack’s flashy clothes.)
“I’ve always seen the blues as Chicago’s greatest cultural resource,” says Billy Branch, a prominent, Grammy-nominated harmonica musician. “So many blues musicians’ careers flourished here. These African Americans lived through Jim Crow and sharecropping and came to Chicago and became superstars. Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Koko Taylor, Bo Diddley developed a sound that would give birth to rock and influence musicians like the Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and Elvis Presley. I consider the blues as the pulse of Chicago.”
If you want to dive into Chicago’s blues scene—and moments alluded to in the movie Sinners—check out these spots around town.
Buddy Guy’s Legends
At the end of Sinners, Sammie is played by the elder statesman of Chicago blues, Buddy Guy. A legendary, dazzling shredder who gave informal apprenticeship to Jimi Hendrix, Guy is a seven-time Grammy winner and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee. Like the club in the movie, Legends is covered with photos and guitars from Guy, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Carlos Santana, and others. The venue showcases Guy’s Louisiana heritage in the food, with the gumbo and shrimp po’boy fan faves. At 88, Guy is one of the last living links to the blues migrants, and he’s often seen lounging at the bar or joining acts on stage, which include national and local musicians like Mississippi Heat, Toronzo Cannon, and Nora Jean Bruso. “All year round, our blues clubs attract international fans from Europe, Japan, South America, and beyond. The widespread appeal has never stopped,” says Branch.
Blues Heaven Foundation
The song “Wang Dang Doodle,” which plays in Sinners when Stack enters Clarksdale, was written by Willie Dixon, a pivotal blues musician who helped craft a new sound after migrating from Mississippi to Chicago. There, he helped found the Blues Heaven Foundation—perhaps the most hallowed ground in Chicago blues history. Located inside the iconic Chess Records building, the studio recorded famous stars, including Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Etta James, Chuck Berry, and Willie Dixon himself. Guided tours of the studio (by reservation only) reveal instruments, equipment, albums, and paraphernalia of these pivotal musicians, such as Bo Diddley’s signature hat, Willie Dixon’s bass, and Muddy Waters’s guitar. From June through September, the Record Row Concert Series presents free live blues shows in the museum’s Willie Dixon Blues Garden.
Monument to the Great Northern Migration
Standing at the entrance of the historic Bronzeville neighborhood, the 15-foot-tall bronze monument honors the thousands of African Americans who migrated to Chicago during the early 20th century. Raising his hand in greeting and carrying a battered suitcase, the figure represents the hopes and dreams of the new residents who would help shape the city’s culture and history. Bronzeville was home to most of the famous, long-gone blues clubs of the Depression era, including Club Delisa, the Regal Theater, Tramor Hotel and Café, and the 708 Club.
Maxwell Street Market
For more than 100 years, Maxwell Street Market was a bustling hub of vendors, food, and music that reflected the city’s multicultural community. This sprawling flea market was where Delta blues shifted into what would become known as Chicago blues. Newly arrived southern migrants realized that this popular market was the best place to gain a large audience for their acoustic music. But they needed amplifiers to be heard over the noisy crowds, so they switched to electric instruments, and a new genre was born. The current market has moved a few streets away from the original location, but on select Sundays from May through October, visitors can still shop and sample local eats like the legendary Maxwell Street Polish sausages slathered in onions or Chicago-style hot dogs, while hearing live blues music.
Muddy Waters mural
Stroll down the prominent downtown shopping thoroughfare of State Street near West Calhoun Place and glance up to see the godfather of Chicago blues, Muddy Waters, looking at the city. Rising 100 feet in the sky, the painting was created by Brazilian street artist Eduardo Kobra as a tribute to the city’s towering blues musician.
Rosa’s Lounge
This cozy, family-owned club serves up an exciting mix of traditional and contemporary blues in a dimly lit, welcoming space—featuring several new musicians who are adding their own style to the genre. “There’s a movement of young blues musicians,” says millennial blues artist and radio show host Jacob “Brother Jacob” Schulz. “Rosa’s is the place to hear people like Young Rel, who’s a walking blues encyclopedia, Michael Dammani, Jamaiah Rogers, and Melody Angel—they’re switching things up.”
