B.B.'s Lawnside BBQ is owned by Lindsay and Jo Shannon, a husband and wife team, and they have been featuring live blues music, Thursday through Sunday since 1992. They also host several special events that are held each year, including the Sherwood Center Benefit, The Acoustic Blues Showcase, a benefit for the Kansas City Blues Society, as well as the Hope House benefit which helps abused women.

Lindsay’s credentials are impressive: he is the founding member of the Kansas City Blues Society, a blues radio DJ, and a booking agent for the blues stage at Kansas City’s Spirit Festival. Lindsay’s successful radio show on KCFX, 101FM, The Fox,  “The Kansas City Blues Show,” earned him the Blues Foundation’s coveted “Keeping the Blues Alive” award for blues in commercial radio in 1992.  

When he was a boy, the Kansas City Blues, a farm team of the New York Yankees, played ball at a stadium close to all the barbecue places in the 18th and Vine district, and eating barbecue became part of the ritual. In the ’50s and early ’60s the opportunity to hear blues and jazz music came from AM radio stations including KPRS in Kansas City, and a Little Rock, Arkansas radio station that featured all the blues greats of the time. When Lindsay was in college he got his own smoking pit and began to develop barbecue recipes while listening to the blues.

When you come to Kansas City, be sure to stop by this friendly, family place. It’s easy to get there. As Lindsay says, “To find it, turn right on 85th, then go south about 60 years.”

Visit the B.B.'s Lawnside BBQ website here.