KITCHENER — It's been more than 20 years since fans lined the sidewalk of Queen Street South outside a club with legendary status in the music scene — Pop the Gator.

Now, one of the owners of that revered venue, which operated from 1989 to 1994, will conjure up the spirits of that second-floor bar.

Glenn Smith is tapping into the positive and widespread vibes created by his old club with a new venture called Pop the Gator Presents. He plans to run a semiregular series of live shows based at Themuseum in downtown Kitchener, just steps away from where he first introduced world-class blues artists to music fans in this area.

"I am using the cache, the history of Pop the Gator to move forward," Smith says as he sips a cold beer at Ethel's Lounge, a popular bar he owns on King Street North in Waterloo.

Smith has come full circle with Pop the Gator Presents — running shows because he loves the music, not because he is running a business. At this point he plans to do a few shows a year. The frequency will be dictated by the availability of bands and artists, not by a schedule or the need to make the monthly rent.

He started out organizing one-off gigs at the former Legion building on Ontario Street in downtown Kitchener. The first act Smith hired: Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown out of New Orleans.

"I had taken 200 tickets down to Record World on King Street right across from Sam the Record Man, because I knew the guy," Smith recalls. "I went in a week later, like any promoter, and asked if he had sold any tickets, and he had sold all 200 tickets. I thought he was lying to me."

His second show was Robert Cray. Ever since, the irrepressible, loquacious music lover was on a roll, and he never completely stopped.

After staging shows at the Legion building for a while Smith had enough confidence to book acts three nights at week on the second-floor of the now-demolished Mayfair Hotel. He called the place the Hoodoo Lounge. Later, after Smith partnered with three others, Pop the Gator opened in 1989.

Pop the Gator evokes Louisiana swamps and other Deep South cradles of blues and jazz. The New Orleans journalist Keith Spera wrote about the origins of the term in his book "Groove Interrupted: Loss, Renewal and the Music of New Orleans." New Orleanians will "drop to the ground to writhe on their bellies in a late-night practice known as 'popping the gator,'" Spera writes.

Smith laughs when he's asked about the name of his long-closed club. He was the only one of the four founders to vote against it. Smith always thought it had something to do copulating reptiles.

Pop the Gator had an enormous and long-lasting impact. It planted and nurtured a love of real-deal blues among fans here. Mel Brown mentored and inspired some of the leading blues artists in the country today, including Shawn Kellerman, Julian Fauth and Steve Strongman.

By the time Pop the Gator closed in 1994, Smith needed a break, but he still presented shows once in a while. About 18 months ago he organized a 25th reunion show for Pop the Gator that was held at Themuseum. The headliner was Chicago Blues legend Otis Clay, and it sold out in two days.

"I have now morphed that into Pop the Gator Presents," Smith says.

And the shows will be staged at Themuseum, which can easily hold 500 music lovers. Smith uses his liquor licence from Ethel's Lounge for the shows at Themuseum. It is a music promoter's dream come true with washrooms on every floor, an elevator, a private room for the musicians and lots of space to load-in and load-out.

Smith loves venue.

"Like all the other buildings — the Legion, the Hoodoo, the Gator — I am totally enamoured with the building," Smith says. "And it's still downtown Kitchener where I started out."

The first, big show for Smith's latest music-related venture is set for next March when Marcia Ball headlines a night of live music at Themuseum. Ball is one of the world's best barrelhouse piano players from the Gulf Coast. Ball is no stranger to Kitchener. She and Smith go way back.

Ball played the BIA Stage at the 2012 Kitchener Blues Festival to a packed tent and standing ovations. The Alligator Records recording artist, and winner of several Living Blues Awards, plays a rollicking mixture of barrelhouse and rhythm and blues. She's toured and recorded for more than 30 years.

"It's real, there is nothing quite like her out there," Smith says.

Smith first met Ball at the world-famous blues club called Antone's during one of his many trips to Austin, Texas in the 1980s. Ball was a regular at the club that featured some of the best, including Buddy Guy, Bobby Bland, Albert Collins and the late-great soul-funk-jazz-blues fusion guitarist Mel Brown.

Back then Smith was producing one-off shows at the former Legion building on Ontario Street in downtown Kitchener. He hired Ball to play there. Later, she played Pop the Gator a few times as well.

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"Always had dynamite bands," Smith says. "Her drummer back then was a guy named Doyle Bromhall Sr., who was really tight with the Vaughn brothers, and he wrote some of Stevie Ray Vaughn's stuff."

Later, when Pop the Gator started in 1989, Smith hired Brown to anchor the house band that became Mel Brown and the Homewreckers. Smith wants Pop the Gator Presents to be associated with that kind of quality.

In addition to Marcia Ball, the next show at Themuseum includes Ginger St. James out of Hamilton and the Royal Crowns out of Toronto.