The Chitlin' Circuit

Want to write about music and musicians? You’ll need to understand the world in which they live. And if you’re writing about jazz and rock ‘n’ roll in the middle of the last century, that means a segregated, ugly world where even the most talented were treated as less than human. This was the world of the Chitlin’ Circuit. A dangerous, exciting, lawless network of nightclubs and juke joints from Memphis to New Orleans, Houston to Indianapolis, this topography spawned the popular music we love today. And nobody brings it to life like Lauterbach, whose reporting and language are as… show more.

Lauterbach’s book travels back to the late 1920s up to the 1960s, illustrating the creation of a major strand in the African American music business, and how rock and roll took its first steps into the marketplace. The chitlin circuit was a necessarily segregated touring circuit, giving black performers nationwide a chance to build an audience, innovate with their music, and start a career. This is also a civil rights story, documenting African Americans in a segregated world supporting each other while building independent businesses.

When black musicians started achieving more notoriety and profit in the 1950s and 1960s, and… show more.