The Chitlin' Circuit

Music journalist Lauterbach has written the definitive history of the musical back roads and back rooms of the southern United States, dubbed the Chitlin' Circuit. From the 1920s through the 1960s, black musicians and their promoters used the clubs of the South to spread their music and eventually to sell records. Artists such as Walter Barnes, Louis Jordan, Ray Charles, B.B. King, Little Richard, and Al Green all worked the circuit in their time, bringing on the dawn of rock 'n' roll, but it is the promoters who take center stage in this tale. Denver Ferguson of Indianapolis built his fortune with a street lottery but came to promote great prerock artists like King Kolax. Professional gambler and club owner Don Robey of Houston eventually came to work with influential acts like Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown and Johnny Ace. The musical battles of Little Richard and James Brown are chronicled as well.