Almost twenty years ago, I listened every Sunday night to a program on local public radio called "The Blues Experience" hosted by Steve Hoffman. The program, in Steve's words, went "back into the alley, down into the roots, deep into the heart of the blues." Steve's blues experience opened up this music to me before, alas, the show and the station which presented it went the way of much public radio.
I was reminded of this old local blues program upon reading a new book by Preston Lauterbach, "The Chitlin' Circuit and the Road to Rock'N'Roll"(2011). The focus of the book is on the small blues combos including Louis Jordan, Roy Brown, Amos Milburn, and Wynonie Harris that played small one-night stands across the South in ragged dance halls and bars in the 1940's and 1950s. In his radio show, Steve showed an evident liking for this period of the blues, and he featured it often. The book gave me a the opportunity to become reacquainted with this music after several years away.
The book considers singers and musicians as well as the black entrepreneurs involved in the production of the music. Lauterbach offers a look at African American community life during the 1930's -- 1950's before the Civil Rights Revolution. The settings and the characters vary. Much of Lauterbach's story takes place in three cities: Indianapolis, Houston, and Memphis. Indianapolis was the home of Denver Ferguson, who ran a policy scheme in the city, owned a nightclub, and organized a touring circuit throughout the South in which musicians played their gigs. In Houston, Don Robey became affiliated with Ferguson and soon became the most powerful figure in the blues in his own right with his clubs, recording studios and contacts. Robey had a strong presence in Memphis, as did two local entrepreneurs, Robert Henry and Andrew "Sunbeam" Mitchell. Engaged in a mixture of legal and illegal activities, these individuals, and their cities, played a large role on the Chitlin Circuit.
Lauterbach shows the nature of African American life in these cities and their entertainment strips. He also captures the many small towns and small out- of- the- way establishments, many without indoor plumbing or other basic amenities, in which African American musicians performed, generally only for a day at a time. Early in the book, Lauterbach discusses and rejects the prevalent notion that performers viewed the Chitlin Circuit as a chore, or a grind, or a drudge. Lauterbach agrees instead with one of his sources, an aged musician named Sax Kari, that the Chitlin Circuit "revealed people of vision and an industry of intricate, far reaching design that struck me as anything but shameful." (p. 9) While there is a great deal of grit, crime, and greed in Lauterbach's book. the overall tone is joyful and nostalgic.
Lauterbach discusses the lives of many of the bluesmen who performed on the Chitlin Circuit. Some of the names will be familiar, while others will be known to blues lovers, and others will be obscure. The well-known performers include James Brown, B.B. King, Little Richard, and Johnny Ace. The bluesmen include Louis Jordan, Joe Turner, Wynonie Harris, Amos Milburn, Roy Brown, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, T-Bone Walker, and others. Unfamiliar names to many readers will include Walter Barnes, who lead a pioneering band through the South in the 1930's and died in a tragic fire while performing in Natchez, Mississippi in 1940.
With the ease of accessing music on the Internet, I was able to listen to several songs Lauterbach discusses as I read. These include "Chicken Shack Boogie" by Amos Milburn, "Good Rockin' Tonight" in the original version by Roy Brown, in the follow-up version by Wynonie Harris, and in the cover by Elvis Presly, B.B. King's recording of "Three O'Clock Blues" and "My Song" by Johnny Ace. (Ace is remembered today because he foolishly killed himself while playing Russian Roulette. He was very popular in his day and his songs continue to be covered.) It will be hard to resist listening while reading this book, and I was thankful, for once, to the Internet.
Lauterbach argues that the Chitlin Circuit played a pivotal role in making rock and roll and that Brown's "Good Rockin' Tonight" has a strong claim to be the first rock record. There are many contenders for the perhaps dubious distinction of founding rock. The better course, to me, is to enjoy these bluesmen for what they are while noting their impact on the latter style. Lauterbach does well in tying changes in the Chitlin Circuit and in African American music to larger social changes. The Depression, WW II, the shift from live performance to recording as the chief source of musical revenue, urban renewal, and the Civil Rights Movement all receive attention in this book for their impact on the blues.
The book is well and colloquially written as Lauterbach writes with relish and a love of his subject. I found the organization of the book confusing in places. It is easy to lose the thread of the story and the connection among the various participants. This book will appeal to lovers of the blues and to readers interested in African American history and in the South.
Robin Friedman
