Illinois Entertainer July 2014 | Page 18

By Rosalind Cummings-Yeates RESPECT FOR THE DEAD W hen Steve Salter was growing up in Muskegon, Michigan in the '50s, there were a lot of blues musicians passing through, performing at small clubs and lounges, only he didn't know about it. "Being a white guy, I never knew about these artists coming to town until I went back and did the research. I was amazed to discover the artists that came. Those discoveries would later connect to what would become Steve's life's work; locating the unmarked graves of organized a blues festival in his hometown of Whitehall, Michigan to raise money in 2008. In 2009 The Killer Blues Headstone Project became a non-profit with a fivemember board. The organization has placed 35 headstones and will count 40 by the end of the year. Moved by his passion for the music and its players, laying headstones is still not an easy process. "It all depends on who it is and where they're at. Some are easy and some are difficult," he says of the Luther Tucker 1936-1993, his headstone was placed in 2009 by the Killer Blues Headstone Project. blues musicians and buying and designing headstones for the bare plots. "They're a lot of people who claim to love the blues but I'm paying back what has already been give to me," he says. Although Steve grew up listening to all sorts of music on the local AM radio station, it wasn't until the '60s that he started consistently listening to the blues. "The British cats brought the sounds back to us and I started going back and researching the artists and I fell in love with it." His love for the blues has colored his life's path on many levels. He works full time in a test lab for an automotive company but the rest of his time is devoted to the Killer Blues Headstone Project. He created the organization in 2007 after a trip to Chicago revealed a shocking truth to him. "I wanted to pay my respects to those who had enriched my life with this art form I loved so I visited the cemeteries where some of the musicians were buried. I was curious about what type of headstones they had and how the world recognized them, "he recalls. "When I envisioned Muddy Waters' grave, I expected a monumental statue to the king of the blues but it was just a flat stone. I couldn't believe it. Then I found Otis Spann's grave and he didn't have a stone at all. That really bothered me." Steve couldn't understand how musicians who played the most significant music that the U.S. has produced, could go unacknowledged, even in death. He decided to do something about it. "I contacted Blues Access magazine and told them that Otis Spann was in an unmarked grave so let's raise money and they did. But I discovered more unmarked graves of blues musicians in New Orleans and they seemed to lose interest. I was a vendor at blues festivals selling t-shirts and CDs, that's where the name comes from, 'all killer and no filler.' I didn't sell anything that wasn't authentic blues. CDs weren't selling anymore so I decided to devote my time to raising money for headstones." He 18 illinoisentertainer.com july 2014 process of locating a musician's burial site and contacting the family for permission to lay a headstone. "I work with grassmarker.com. It's all online. They design and ship a headstone for $300. Cemeteries charge a placement fee to lay the stone. The placement fee is $650 in California, where we did a stone for Ted Hawkins. The average placement fee in Chicago is $425-500. Sometimes they'll waive the fee because we're a non-profit, sometimes not. Lincoln Cemetery in Chicago waived the fee for Papa Charlie Jackson and Joshua Altheimer (the boogie- woogie pianist who played with Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Boy Willi [\