Hi my name is Steve and I'm kicking off a fundraising campaign to get my former colleague and good friend Chan Maurice Evan's documentary film off the ground. Chan sent me some early clips of the content and I couldn't stop watching.

They Called Me a Sellout: Being Black in the “White” Rock & Roll Industry

I am coming to you my community, friends, and family for your support in representing this project. I believe illuminating this often overlooked sub-culture of black American rock artists will provide a fascinating look at the what these artists experience at the human level. Your support in this is gratefully appreciated and certainly not taken lightly. Thank you.

This documentary series began as an autobiographical venture into Chan's life growing up in a medium-sized Illinois suburb as a sort of outcast. Chan is a Black American that happens to prefer the sounds of Rock, Pop and Alternative music. His enthusiasm, growing up, put him at odds with his family and Black friends. Before they really understood him, they teased him, calling him a sellout, wondering why he would “listen to that white-boy music.” Seeing his baseball cap and guitar, people he knew as friends, but often strangers, in the audience would shout and call him “Hootie,” as Darius Rucker was the only person they could relate to him. Back then, he hadn't realized that Rock and Roll was the product of the Blues, negro spirituals, African rhythms and musical scales that came directly from the bowels of slave ships, cotton fields, and his Black American ancestors. However, Chan was far from the only Black rock and roller.

In his career as a music educator, he worked with hundreds of children, mostly white, who knew little of this history, including many of the adult staff and students he has met. Through this film, Chan hopes to attract more Black students to this music and affirm their curiosity and enthusiasm for all kinds of music.

When most people think of the origins of Rock and Roll, they think of The Beatles, Elvis, Led Zeppelin, the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones, and many more. But, those musicians were heavily influenced by (some plagiarized) songs from musicians like Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Richard, Ike Turner, Big Momma Thornton, Otis Blackwell, and Chuck Berry whose contributions went largely unrecognized and uncompensated to scale. The industry of Rock and Roll was largely built off the backs of Black artists that endured the Jim Crow era of the 1940s to 1960s. Black artists (usually men, since women were largely barred from the scene) toured the Chitlin’ Circuit, a series of underground speakeasies, clubs and juke joints that allowed Black musicians. In the rare cases when they were allowed to play at a restricted club, they performed behind curtains and entered through the rear entrance of these venues.

In this project, Chan interviews contemporary Black Rock and Roll musicians to examine how these legacies persist today. His interviews will include some luminaries in Rock, including radio pioneer Bernie Hayes, his wife, Blues music performer, Uvee Hayes, and Ben Kenney, most recently of the band Incubus, and formerly of legendary rap group The Roots.

Steve Ewing of St Louis band The Urge kicks off the series. Chan includes Black musicians who play on more modest stages, to reflect on how their Blackness inspired or challenged their musical paths. Chan explores what changes have been made—for instance, how have artists like Fishbone, Bad Brains, and Living Colour challenged the barriers between “White” and “Black” Rock and Roll? And he will explores and celebrates the possibilities for the future of Black artists in Rock.

With your financial support, Chan will be able to do the following:

Travel to KC MO, Chicago, Nashville, NYC for interviews

Purchase Netflix approved video equipment, set lighting, memory storage and editing and mixing facilities upgrades

Upgrade equipment transport to interview sites

Artist support during episode production

Ultimately, 3220 Productions plans to partner this series with STL based production and distribution companies and networks. Chan is working with sites like the National Blues Museum, the Vashon Community Center at Harris-Stowe State University, School of Rock, STL Rock School, COCA, STL CVPA and nonprofits that work with teens to display the series so that he can reach as many people as possible, especially those younger Black artists like me who are wondering where—or whether—they have a place in the kind of music that has brought me so much joy.

View full episodes and excerpts from the docuseries ‘They Called Me a Sellout’ here.

youtube.com/YOUPEOPL_music

Sincerely,

Steve Peterson for Chan Maurice Evans

Filmmaker and musician