It is not every band you run across that has a mission beyond just steady giggin’, but then again, as one of the longest-lasting acts around – and with nine straight wins in the “Best Blues Band” category in a popular local poll – the Soulard Blues Band is not just any band.

As bassist and sole remaining founder Art Dwyer will tell you, “Our mission always is just to leave things around a little better than we found ’em.” That ethic applies equally to song arrangements, the mood of the audience and the entire musical scene in this city that birthed such towering talents as Miles Davis, Johnny Johnson, Henry Townsend, Oliver Sain and many more.

He formed the Soulard Blues Band in 1978, “just a long-haired guy in blue jeans and sandals,” motivated in part by memories of the St. Louis of his childhood, when clubs with names like Shalimar and Oasis and the Peppermint Lounge and Sadie’s Personality Bar jumped with live music and people “dressed up looking flashy” any night of the week, and fifty cents’ cover got you in to Ike and Tina Turner’s set at the Club Imperial.

This town has always been alive with world-class players in neighborhoods all over the city,” Dwyer says, and the rest of his band’s roster bears him out. Guitarist Tom Maloney, guitarist Bob “Bumblebee” Kamoske, trombonist John “Wolfman” Wolf and drummer Leroy Wilson create music from both originals and standards that manages to let each player shine without sacrificing the song to overblown solos.

 Indeed, that’s one of the goals in group’s frequent rehearsals, says Dwyer:”We are in the business of supporting each other in playing, to play in unison with each other.” And in so doing, blending seamlessly into the fabric of a city with a deep history in the blues.”