The Chitlin' Circuit: And the Road to Rock 'n' Roll

by Preston Lauterbach

Overview

“Lauterbach’s tribute . . . is welcome and overdue.” —Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post

For generations, "chitlin' circuit" has meant second tier—brash performers in raucous nightspots far from the big-city limelight. Now, music journalist Preston Lauterbach combines terrific firsthand reportage with deep historical research to offer a groundbreaking account of the birth of rock 'n' roll in black America.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393082258
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	07/11/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	368
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Preston Lauterbach is the author of Bluff City, Beale Street Dynasty, The Chitlin’ Circuit, a Wall Street Journal and Boston Globe book of the year, and co-author of Brother Johnson: Growing Up with Robert Johnson. He is a former visiting scholar at Rhodes College and a Virginia Humanities Fellow. He lives in Virginia.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Introduction Nondescript Places 1

Chapter 1 A Hundred Dollars Crooked 15

Chapter 2 The Midget Maestro 31

Chapter 3 The Stroll 43

Chapter 4 Sunset 59

Chapter 5 Rock and Stomp Opus 73

Chapter 6 The Loser Goes to the Hospital, the Winner Goes to Jail 93

Chapter 7 The Bronze Peacock 113

Chapter 8 The Gate Swings 131

Chapter 9 'Tween the Tip In Inn and the Church of God 147

Chapter 10 Roy Brown's Good Rockin' Revival 157

Chapter 11 Female Trouble 169

Chapter 12 All Part of the Game 179

Chapter 13 A Little Like Going to Heaven 197

Chapter 14 Crossover 203

Chapter 15 Shootin' and Cuttin' and Shit 215

Chapter 16 The Hardest-Working Man in Show Business 235

Coda Renewal 265

Afterword 293

Acknowledgments 297

Notes 301

Index 323

What People are Saying About This

Barry Mazor

An intensely researched, engaging revelation… This captivating account slips the reader smack into the middle of rock’s own hothouse.

Editorial Reviews

The circuit was a vital part of black culture during its heyday, and its disappearance is to be mourned. It brought a lot of joy to people who didn’t have much, and it brought splendid music to all of us. Lauterbach’s tribute to it is welcome and overdue.
—The Washington Post

Jonathan Yardley

"Mr. Lauterbach uncovers a story as sensational as any day-glo circuit-show poster...The era's hepcat lingo ("ork" for orchestra, "ofay" for "white") and hard-boiled, noir ambience give Mr. Lauterbach a tune he can carry....the book is at heart a well-researched valentine to a lost world of seedy con men, promoters and club owners, the power brokers and hustlers who made the "circuitry spark."

Wall Street Journal - Eddie Dean

"In this terrific popular history, music journalist and first time author Lauterbach uncovers a secret world that involves not only music but also racketeering and bribery, bootlegging, and various scandals. Lauterbach focuses on how the chitlin' circuit developed from the late 1930s to the early 1940s, with a particular emphasis on how it nurtured early rock 'n' roll. A major achievement and an important contribution to American music history."

starred review Booklist

"This sprawling, fascinating history drops readers into a chaotic, dangerous, utterly vanished world. It turns out to be more vibrant than the standard rock 'n' roll mythology. The true dawn of rock lit a landscape in which timeless music got made thanks to every vice and virtue imaginable. Now that's America."

Cleveland Plain Dealer - John Repp

"An intensely researched, engaging revelation… This captivating account slips the reader smack into the middle of rock’s own hothouse."

Barry Mazor

"Remarkable… Lauterbach has resurrected the names and careers of men and women—and, yes, some of the toughest of these people were women—who ran bars, booking agencies and clubs, where traveling musicians could come into a black community, play, make money and go to the next town… It’s a complex, multi-layered story… The Chitlin’ Circuit illuminates a period of American musical history that’s long needed it… Go[es] a long way toward illuminating the life black performers lived off-stage and the conditions they endured while they worked."

Ed Ward

"Highly recommended....relishes the criminal origins of the mostly southern black club scene from the early '30s to the late '60s....a coherent, musically savvy history of a performance culture that until now was known only piecemeal."

Barnes and Noble Review - Robert Christgau

[T]he genius prequel to an oft-told epic.

New Orleans Times-Picayune

Opens new doors in pop-music scholarship as well as American (and African-American) cultural history.

Michaelangelo Matos - The A. V. Club

...crucial to our understanding of late-20th-century pop music and all the more impressive for its exhaustive research. Preston Lauterbach’s book—spirited, studious, surprising, occasionally hilarious—is absolutely persuasive on its subject.

Stephen M. Deusner - PasteMagazine.com

Lauterbach spins the tale with enormous vitality and it’s terribly fun to read. He masterfully explains the complex logistics of the entertainment industry, and studs the book with fascinating, little-known characters. . . . The reader will finish with an overwhelming urge to turn up the volume.

Kate Tuttle - Boston Globe

...crucial to our understanding of late-20th-century pop music and all the more impressive for its exhaustive research. Preston Lauterbach’s book—spirited, studious, surprising, occasionally hilarious—is absolutely persuasive on its subject.— Stephen M. Deusner

PasteMagazine.com

The development of the Southern black club scene receives a sometimes cluttered history.

In his debut, music journalist Lauterbach plots the early years of the chitlin' circuit, which takes its name from "chitterlings," or hog intestines, an indigenous Southern cuisine. Born in the late swing era, the circuit owed its existence to canny entrepreneurs like Denver Ferguson, a numbers racketeer and club owner in Indianapolis' "Bronzeville" district, and Walter Barnes, a self-promoting bandleader andChicago Defender columnist who barnstormed black markets in the South. Their efforts opened the way for other regional bookers like Don Robey (Houston), Sunbeam Mitchell (Memphis) and Clint Branley (Macon). The chitlin' circuit gained traction during the 1940s, as the big bands waned and small combos like Louis Jordan's Tympany Five set the stage for popular R&B acts like Roy Brown, Johnny Ace, Little Richard and James Brown. Frequently citing the black press of the day, Lauterbach tells his story with big splashes of color. At times, the narrative slows as the author trots out endless band itineraries. Possibly the biggest problem with the book is Lauterbach's failure to make a completely compelling case for Ferguson's enduring importance. He devotes most of his space to the Indiana promoter's hometown business, and material about Ferguson's later years, in which he grappled with tax troubles and a messy divorce, add little to the main narrative. Furthermore, Lauterbach ends the story with the arrival of the '50s performers who gained fame in the rock 'n' roll era (and a pointless coda about the destruction of Memphis' Beale Street district). While he alludes to the colorful careers of modern chitlin' circuit artists like Bobby Rush and the late Marvin Sease, whose popularity extended into the new millennium, he leaves that vital story untold.

A lack of organizational rigor derails an interesting tale.

Kirkus Reviews