For the past 10 years, the Mississippi Valley Blues Society has auctioned a guitar at the end of their annual Blues Fest. This year, that guitar has a more dramatic backstory.
On May 22, a fire ravaged Musician’s Pro Shop in Burlington, leaving the store severely smoke-damaged and some of the store deemed a total loss.
Dave Klockau, a longtime Mississippi Valley Blues Society volunteer, had visited to the store and had connections in Burlington. After the fire, many instruments were completely destroyed, but some instruments like guitars were still salvageable, he said.
He contacted the owners and acquired the guitar to be the 40th anniversary instrument for the Mississippi Valley Blues Fest.
The guitar is an “autograph guitar,” best for hanging on display and not player-grade, Klockau said.
“The real value in it will be the autographs,” Klockau said.
Last week, the guitar was specially signed by Michael “Hawkeye” Herman, a world-renowned blues musician originally from Davenport.
Herman, now 80 and based in Oregon, has performed and held blues workshops in France, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Norway and across the United States. He still regularly tours and teaches blues to students as part of the “Blues in the Schools” program. Herman has performed at the Blues Fest in prior years, though he will not perform this year due to a conflict, Klockau said.
Herman also helped create BlueSkool, a free music clinic series for young students that occurs during Blues Fest.
In addition to Herman, all musicians from this year’s Blues Fest will sign the guitar before the auction. Musicians at this year’s festival include members of nationally-recognized bands like Doug Deming & the Jewel Tones, Dustin Arbuckle & the Damnations, the Cash Box Kings and Lil’Ed & The Blues Imperials.
Klockau related the 40th anniversary guitar to B.B. King’s famous guitar Lucille. In 1949, King was performing at a venue in Twist, Arkansas, when the building caught fire. King escaped, but ran back inside to retrieve his guitar. He later discovered the fire had been caused by two men fighting over a woman named Lucille. He named that guitar, and all his subsequent guitars, after the woman.
This year’s festival is the first Blues Fest since 2023, after the Blues Society cancelled the 2024 festival due to a cash-flow shortage.
The festival will be held in LeClaire Park in Davenport 3 to 10 p.m. Friday, Sept. 19, and noon to 11:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 20.
Advance tickets are $22 for single-day passes and $37 for two-day passes. Single-day gate tickets are $20.
A full schedule and advance tickets can be found at mvbs.org.
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