Southern food and the Blues are inextricably linked. Many songs reference soul food staples like cornbread, gravy, and greens. So connected are the two that several musicians even gained southern food inspired performance names: Barbecue Bob, Pigmeat Markham, Jelly Roll Morton, Jodie “Butterbeans” Edwards, Butler “String Beans” May.

A number of blues songs reference the fish fry. Food historian Adrian Miller notes that many plantations allowed enslaved people to rest after noon on Saturdays, and some would use this time to fish and come together in the evening for a communal fish fry. This tradition has persisted long after emancipation.

Soul food is even key to the name for the broad set of venues friendly to African American performers for the middle half of the 20th century: the Chitlin’ Circuit. Named for chitterlings (boiled and sometimes fried animal intestines), the Chitlin’ Circuit plays on the earlier name Borscht Belt, referring to popular performing venues for Jewish entertainers.

See the covers and labels from more food-inspired Blues recordings in our collections in eGrove.

In the display case:

• Sam Price and the "Rock" Band with King Curtis & Mickey Baker. Rib Joint: Roots of Rock 'n' Roll, Vol. 7
• Professor Harold Boggs. God is Soul Food
• Barbecue Bob. Chocolate to the Bone

• Louis Jordan. Saturday Night Fish Fry
• Tempo Toppers. Rice, Red Beans, and Turnip Greens
• Lonnie Youngblood. Soul Food (That's a What I Like)

• Jason R. Girard. The Blues Highways Cookbook
• Preston Lauterbach. The Chitlin' Circuit and the Road to Rock 'n' Roll