Let’s face it – I don’t post unless I really have something worth posting about. I’m going to try to use this format to work through putting together a lecture/presentation that I’ll be giving in a few weeks at AshevilleFM, the radio station where I host a weekly show called “Funkateria.” Funkateria isn’t like the “Gate City Soul” show that I did on WQFS in Greensboro. Yes, there is still local and regional cuts on the playlist, but not as much is at the core of the new show as it was the old show.
That being said, the presentation I’ll be giving at the AshevilleFM will have the GCS material at the core, but will cover more North Carolina info as well. (The title of the lecture is “The Backbone of the Chitlin’ Circuit: North Carolina Funk and Soul, 1963-1979”.) The plan is to film the presentation so hopefully I’ll be able to post it afterwards.
Here’s some of what I’ll be covering, in no particular order:
- An overview and history of what the Chitlin’ Circuit is
- Greensboro as a microcosm of what was happening on the Chitlin’ Circuit during that era
- Stories of the musicians & producers of the era (using interviews from GCS)
- Other stories of recognizable names that had connection to Greensboro and/or NC
- Segregation
- Changes in the Business Model of the Chitlin’ Circuit that eventually killed it (more or less), i.e Disco
I’m going to use the website to add some of this information, all of it not being completely relevant to “Gate City Soul”, but at least it will be tangentially related, and will expand on some of the what I started.
By the way, the film is progressing in fits and starts, as they say. There’s still a lot of work to do, but rest assured, it’s on my mind constantly.
Stay tuned and stay funky!
You can watch the presentation here.