Carnival of Soul

The Illinois State Museum’s Music at the Museum series continues today with a performance by blues and R&B musicians Sally Weisenburg and Don Berbaum.

The pair met in the 1970s, when Berbaum’s band was playing at a St. Louis Club, heard Weisenburg and immediately offered her a place in their lineup. While that band didn’t last, Weisenburg and Berbaum did — both as a now-married couple and as musical co-workers.

“We’re known more than anything for our blues and R&B interpretations but we wear a lot of hats and can also play anything from standards and Motown to instrumental surf music,” Berbaum writes online. “With (the) recent addition of the steel guitar, we’re also very comfortable playing a lot of old country and Texas swing.”

For tonight’s show, the pair will focus on their blues and R&B music. Weisenburg, who handles vocals and keyboard, is a member of the Iowa Blues Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame who counts among her influences the likes of Ruth Brown, Irma Thomas, Aretha Franklin, Howlin’ Wolf, Bobby Bland and Dakota Staton.

Berbaum is a guitarist and harmonica player whose influences include Jimmy Reed, T-Bone Walker and “all the Kings” — BB King, Albert King and Freddie King.

The performance will be at 7 p.m. today in the museum’s Thorne Deuel Auditorium. Admission is $10 for adults and $8 for museum members and children under 12.

Music at the Museum is a monthly concert series produced by Chris Vallillo featuring the best in contemporary and traditional folk and acoustic music.