I want to revive an old project that featured overlooked people, places, and history of American music, ranging from juke joints that host live blues to unmarked historical landmarks, and musician interviews. I welcome your contributions, so get in touch via the Contact tab if you have material, and I’ll post the strong stuff on the homepage and archive it here.
Blog
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Features
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The Stroll Then & Now: Monroe, LA
“We are now driving down DeSiard Street, the stroll in Monroe, Louisiana,” wrote chitlin’ circuit pioneer Walter Barnes in 1936. DeSiard buzzed back then, at least in Barnes’ infectious, up-tempo telling. “The Red Goose Barber Shop is the place where all the boys have their grooming done…Lovely Brown’s Beauty Shop is where all the ladies […]
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Chitlin’ Circuit Landmark: The Hippodrome
The vacant lot at 500 Beale Street has stories to tell. The site of a skating rink-ballroom called the Hippodrome, it was the scene of many a wild night. It figures significantly into The Chitlin’ Circuit and the Road to Rock ‘n’ Roll as the career launch pad for Johnny Ace, known as rock ‘n’ […]
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The Jerry Lee Lewis Ranch
The Lewis Ranch | 1595 Malone Rd |Nesbit, MS | (About 30 minutes south of Memphis) When I pilgrimate to Jerry Lee Lewis’s home in Nesbit, Mississippi, I’m never sure whether I want The Killer to be home or not. On one hand, it would be nice to know that I’m standing only a dozen […]
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Al Green’s Full Gospel Tabernacle Church
787 Hale Road Memphis, TN 38116| 901-396-9192 After cementing countless encounters with a voice that speaks directly to the genitals, in 1976, Al Green found Jesus. While Green reports his conversion happened after a visit to Disneyland, local rumors link his conversion to an incident reminiscent of the death of Henry IV, involving an adolescent […]
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The many homes of Elvis Presley
Elvis left the building. Many times. Although only two of Elvis’s many homes, his birthplace in Tupelo and deathplace of Graceland, get sustained publicity, the King spent much of his abbreviated life at other fine, and not so fine, Mid-South residences. Some remain, some are Gone with the Wind, but a survey of them demonstrate […]
