Music connects people.

“It’s really hard times in St. Louis and has been,” said Jeremy Segel-Moss, a member of the Bottoms Up Blues Gang and vice chairman of the St. Louis Blues Society. “When we’re looking for positive ways to come together, music is really where it’s at.”

Blues pianist Ethan Leinwand moved 950 miles for that connection.

“I was in New York playing a lot of old St. Louis blues and talking about it,” he told “Cityscape” host Steve Potter. “I just came down here and found the community I was looking for.”

Leinwand is now half of The Bottlesnakes, a guitar and piano duo that will perform at Sunday’s Baby Blues Showcase, which is sponsored by the St. Louis Blues Society.

“The Bottoms Up Blues Gang got together and started this event 13 years ago when I was 25 and we were all getting together and learning our styles,” Segel-Moss said. “It’s become a tradition in St. Louis to feature the young blues acts.”

While the showcase includes many blues styles, there’s a 30-and-younger policy for musicians. “In the blues world, 30 is pretty young,” Segel-Moss said.

The event also will raise money for Play it Forward, which donates musical instruments to children and schools that cannot afford them.

Building on its strong blues history, he said there’s a new interest in blues in St. Louis.

“It has started to re-find itself,” Segel-Moss said. “In a music scene that’s very, very difficult, when people are trying to make a living, blues is still doing well.”

Related Event

Baby Blues Showcase

• When: 6 p.m. to midnight Sunday, Nov. 30, 2014
• Where: B.B.’s Jazz, Blues and Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis
• More information

“Cityscape” is produced by Mary Edwards and Alex Heuer and sponsored in part by the Missouri Arts Council, the Regional Arts Commission, and the Arts and Education Council of Greater St. Louis.

Send questions and comments about this story to feedback@stlpublicradio.org.