Preston Lauterbach

Preston Lauterbach is the author of the American music classic The Chitlin' Circuit and the Road to Rock 'n' Roll (2011), which established him as one of the essential chroniclers of Black American musical history. His follow-up, Beale Street Dynasty (2015), recovered the lost world of swaggering musicians, corrupt politicians, and civil rights pioneers who made Memphis's most famous thoroughfare the main street of Black America. His most recent book, Before Elvis: The African American Musicians Who Made the King (2025), definitively answers the long-debated question of who really created rock 'n' roll — restoring credit, and glory, to the Black artists who made Elvis Presley possible.

Lauterbach has also co-authored memoirs with three towering figures in Black music: Brother Robert (2020), with Annye C. Anderson, stepsister of bluesman Robert Johnson; Timekeeper (2021), with Memphis soul drummer Howard Grimes; and Spirit of the Century (2024), the biography of the Blind Boys of Alabama.

The Chitlin' Circuit was named a Best Nonfiction Book of the Year by the Wall Street Journal and the Boston Globe, and an NPR Best Book of the Year. Brother Robert was named a Best Music Book of 2020 by Rolling Stone. Before Elvis was named Best Blues Book of 2025 by Living Blues.

Preston was born in Richmond, Virginia, grew up in San Diego, and studied history at Flagler College, the University of Mississippi, and the University of Virginia. He is a former visiting scholar at Rhodes College and former fellow at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, and lives with his family near Charlottesville, Virginia.