The Chitlin' Circuit
And the Road to Rock 'n' Roll
Book Summary
Combining firsthand reporting with historical research, a music journalist provides a musical history of the birth of rock 'n' roll in the black juke joints where James Brown and B.B. King got their start. 17,000 first printing.
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NPR stories about The Chitlin' Circuit
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Staff Picks: The Best Music Books Of 2011
The Chitlin' Circuit: And the Road to Rock 'n' Roll is a music librarian's dream. More exhaustively researched than a dissertation on plagiarism, Preston Lauterbach's book brings a long-ignored period of musical history vividly to life. The brainchild of Denver Ferguson, the only black booking agent in the 1930s, the Chitlin' Circuit was a network of black show promoters and venues that stretched through the South from West Virginia to Texas. Ferguson sent big band acts on the road
—Elizabeth Allin
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