Blues Central, the tiny Anchorage, Alaska blues club that’s operated for nearly fifty years, will shut it’s doors on Saturday night. The iconic club that’s hosted everyone from B.B. King to John Lee Hooker, is from what we have been told, is the only dedicated blues club in Alaska.
Owner Frank Dahl, 69, bought Blues Central at Chef’s Inn around 16 years ago, and has been continuously operating the business, which was founded in 1964. After years of hosting blues music and good times at his bar, Dahl says that he is retiring. According to The Alaska Dispatch, The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, a state-owned public corporation, has bought the building and adjacent lot and will be turning the property into office space.
The Dispatch reports that Dahl has been trying for several years to sell the bar to someone who could keep it running as a blues music venue, but could not find anyone with the financial means to buy the club outright. He is retaining the liquor license and club name, however, in the hopes that someone step forward to carry on the club’s tradition of bringing powerful blues acts to the town.
Dahl says
“I have been all over the world,” John Lee Hooker, Jr told the Dispatch. “And the one place that stands out for me in the whole U.S. is Blues Central.”
