Disaster struck Natchez, Mississippi the night of April 23, 1940. About 300 mostly African-American dancers packed the Rhythm Club to swing to the popular Walter Barnes and His Royal Creolians Orchestra.

Lunceford made his mark here, as so many other unheralded makers of the Memphis Sound have, as a high school bandleader. He taught at Manassas in North Memphis. A historic marker out front of the school commemorates Isaac Hayes, but no public display of affection for the onetime king of swing.

The desecration of the Jimmie Lunceford’s house.

Behold the boyhood home of Booker T. Jones at 666 Edith Street. It's about a block from a great story of resurrected history, the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, built on the vacant lot where Stax Records once stood. Anyhow, you get a feel for the proximity of young Booker T. to the studio. He hung around the Satellite Record Shop adjacent to the recording studio until he caught on as a session musician at Stax. There he helped lay the foundation for Southern Soul. Visitors to the museum should visit this site to develop a greater feel for the roots of soul music that a museum just can't convey. By the way, Aretha's birthplace is under a mile from here, other side of McLemore Avenue and Stax.

In 2007 Preston Lauterbach documented a variety of Southern and Soul and Chitlin’ Circuit venues while working on his book, The Chitlin’ Circuit and the Road to Rock and Roll. These are some of those 2007 profiles, rescued from obscurity.