July 2, 1962: Jimi Hendrix and Chitlin Circuit Food

Brunswick stew with several easy to make recipes below

Here is another story in my series on July and foodways. On July 2, 1962 an eighteen year old Jimi Hendrix was discharged from the United States Army and stood outside the gates of Fort Campbell at the Tennessee-Kentucky border. He needed work but the only thing he knew how to do was play guitar. Hendrix started his music career playing for different bands on the Chitlin Circuit in the early 1960s. A string of black-owned honky-tonks, nightclubs, and theaters, the circuit weaved throughout the Southeast and Midwest. There was the New Era in Nashville; Paschal’s Carousel Lounge in Atlanta ; Chicago’s Regal Theater; The Royal in Baltimore; and New York’s Apollo Theater to name just a few venues. Entertainers called it the Chitlin’ Circuit because some club owners sold chitlin’s and other soul food dishes out of their kitchens. Hendrix used the stage name Maurice James “played with everybody who was anybody on the” the circuit writes Musicologist Oscar J. Jordan III including the Isley Brothers, Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, BB King, and Little Richard. The Chitlin’ Circuit was crucial to artists like Hendrix because it was the only way to perform for their fans during a period when the white largely ignored black artist. Here is a recipe for Brunswick stew which I imagine as Chitin circuit menu item on a cold winter night served up with some piping hot buttered bread to clean out the bottom of the bowl good fashion.

Traditional Brunswick stew recipe: http://itjustdawnedonme.com/?p=258

Vegan Brunswick stew recipe: http://www.beansandgreens.net/?p=119

Off the hook Vegan Brunswick stew recipe: http://veganthyme.blogspot.com/2009/12/vegan-brunswick-stew-topped-with-spelt.html