Bill Streeter started the blog Lo-Fi St. Louis in 2005 to document the music scene in his new hometown after moving from Chicago. As the filmmaker got to know more St. Louis musicians, he collaborated with them on multiple projects. That includes 12 years of producing and directing Lo-Fi Cherokee — a series of performances by musicians and one-take music videos produced by Streeter at businesses on Cherokee Street in south St. Louis.
This year’s Lo-Fi festivities will take place on Saturday and will feature 12 performances by musicians of varying genres in the span of seven hours.
This year will also be the final Lo-Fi Cherokee, but that does not mean Streeter is finished documenting St. Louis’ music scene.
“Lo-Fi St. Louis will evolve into something else. I'm still exploring ideas at the moment,” Streeter told St. Louis on the Air. “I'm a big fan of ending things. Sometimes [things like] TV shows go on forever, and they really shouldn't. You want to go out on top, and I think we're going to go out on top.”
Singer-songwriter Beth Bombara participated in an early iteration of Streeter’s Lo-Fi experimentation in 2010 when she was just starting her music career. She will close this year's festivities with an evening performance at City Mouse Vintage. Bombara said it feels good to come full circle and perform at the last Lo-Fi Cherokee.
“[Lo-Fi Cherokee] made the general public aware of all of this original music that's going on in the city, which I think is a great thing … giving more visibility to original music that you can go out and see any weekend or almost any night of the week,” she said. “Having somebody say, ‘Hey, we believe in what you're doing and we want to elevate that and put out these videos for you.’”
For more about the final Lo-Fi Cherokee as well as the symbiotic relationship between musicians and filmmakers in the St. Louis region, listen to St. Louis on the Air on Apple Podcast, Spotify or Google Podcast, or by clicking the play button below.
Related Event
What: Lo-Fi Cherokee 2024
When: April 6
Where: Various Locations on Cherokee Street
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Roshae Hemmings is our production assistant. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr. Send questions and comments about this story to talk@stlpr.org.
