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Preston Lauterbach

Biography

Preston Lauterbach

Preston Lauterbach is the author of the American music classic THE CHITLIN' CIRCUIT (2011), as well as BEALE STREET DYNASTY (2015), BLUFF CITY (2019), and BEFORE ELVIS: The African American Musicians Who Made the King (2025). Preston has co-authored three memoirs with significant figures in Black music, including BROTHER ROBERT (2020) with the stepsister of bluesman Robert Johnson, TIMEKEEPER (2021) with Memphis soul drummer Howard Grimes, and the Blind Boys of Alabama biography SPIRIT OF THE CENTURY (2024). His works have earned book of the year recognition from the Wall Street Journal, NPR and Rolling Stone.

Preston Lauterbach

Books by Preston Lauterbach

Before Elvis: The African American Musicians Who Made the King
by Preston Lauterbach - History, Music, Nonfiction

After Baz Luhrmann’s movie, Elvis, hit theaters, audiences and critics alike couldn't help but question the Black origins of Elvis Presley’s music and style, reigniting a debate that has been circling for decades. In BEFORE ELVIS​, author Preston Lauterbach answers these questions definitively, based on new research and extensive, previously unpublished interviews with the artists who blazed the way and the people who knew them. Within these pages, Lauterbach examines the lives, music, legacies and interactions with Elvis of the four innovative Black artists who created a style that would come to be known as Rock ’n’ Roll: Little Junior Parker, Big Mama Thornton, Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup, and mostly unknown eccentric Beale Street guitarist Calvin Newborn.