This week's What’s The Frequency show is devoted to a mural of rock, soul and pop music performers that originally were displayed in a record shop on Sioux City’s westside, then moved around to a few other places.
Now, that mural is an exhibit at the downtown Sioux City Public Museum showcasing Uncle John’s Ceiling Mural, by Paul Chelstad.
According to the museum website, visitors have the rare opportunity to experience the full mural up close in the Museum’s gallery.
We went to the museum to take a look at the murals, hear memories of seeing them back in the day, and to share how this exhibit came to be.
Uncle John Records and Tapes for years was Sioux City’s premier independent record store. Founded in 1972 by friends Mike Duncan and Bob Smith, the original shop was located at 1418 West 3rd Street and became a cultural touchstone for generations of music lovers.
In 1978 Duncan commissioned local artist Paul Chelstad to paint a large ceiling mural for Uncle John’s that depicted the entire history of recorded music from Thomas Edison’s invention of the phonograph in 1877 up through the rock heroes of the late-1970s.
There are both Jazz Era murals and Rock era murals.
Our guests are artist Chelstad, Gia Emory who worked at Uncle John’s back in the day, and Museum Director Steve Hansen, who can tell the story of how the murals came to the museum, where they will be through October 5, as part of a four-month run as an exhibit.
*Click on the audio link above to hear the entire show.
What's The Frequency, Episode 75.
