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

Lauterbach, Preston

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393342948 ISBN 13: 9780393342949

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012

Synopsis

“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. 34 illustrations

About this title

About the Author:

Preston Lauterbach is the author of Beale Street Dynasty and The Chitlin’ Circuit, a Wall Street Journal and Boston Globe book of the year. He is a former visiting scholar at Rhodes College and a Virginia Humanities Fellow. He lives in Virginia.

Review:

Lauterbach's first book is a rocking read and a deserving tribute to the people and places who were the foundations of rock and roll.

A great read, well-written, and insightful. Highly recommended to anyone interested in the seedy history of American popular music.

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.

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.--Eddie Dean

Lauterbach's writing is as energetic as a Little Richard song (a performer who started on the chitlin' circuit and crossed over to national fame).... a rocking read and a deserving tribute to the people and places who were the foundations of rock and roll.

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.--Robert Christgau

Lauterbach has written the definitive history of the musical back roads and back rooms of the southern United States.... a great read, well written and insightful. Highly recommended to anyone interested in the seedy history of American popular music.

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

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. --Eddie Dean"

...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"

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0393342948
• ISBN 13: 9780393342949
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368