A famous blues venue in Indianola, Michigan, Club Ebony is part of The Chitlin Circuit, a loose network of black-owned clubs and venues in isolated cities in America, with hundreds of memorable moments. has hosted In a recent interview, 89-year-old blues singer Bobby Rush recalled one of his favorites: a scene from BB King’s 2014 Homecoming concert.
King was hanging around listening to an extended take of Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine” when he noticed Rush dozing off. According to Rush, “‘Ladies and gentlemen,'” he began. “My best friend is at home. I’m playing this music. And he’s sleeping over there on top of me.”
The audience laughed and Rush joined King on stage with his harmonica to conclude the Friends’ final performance there, ending an annual concert tradition that began in 1980. King died a year later.
Club Ebony was more than King’s hometown club. Since its opening in 1948, it has provided Indianola’s black community a place to gather to eat, dance, and socialize, giving generations of blues, rock and provided an audience.
King purchased the venue in 2008 from its third-longest tenured owner, Mary Shepherd. BB King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center. After his death, however, it slowly declined under the influence of time and disuse. The mathematics of keeping a 6,400-square-foot club open four nights a week in a town of 9,000 proved too high a hill in the middle of the vast delta.
“The traditional format was financially unfeasible. Times have changed,” says Malika Polk Lee, executive director of the museum. The organization turned Club Ebony into an event space, but in 2021, when the tourism industry began to reopen after a pandemic shutdown, museum staff found the wooden structure in poor condition.
“We noticed structural damage. The roof and walls were deteriorating and water was leaking inside,” he said. “It closed that year, and it was a tough time for the building.”
The museum had no choice but to keep the club closed while it scrambled for help to preserve it, but with grants from the local National Endowment for the Arts affiliate, South Arts, and the city of Indianola. found support in public and private funds, including tourist tax. The dormancy ended on Thursday, and after spending $800,000 on restoration, the venue will once again open its historic doors.
Before mainstream America got its first glimpse of it when Ike and Tina Turner brought the critically acclaimed “A Fool in Love” to “American Bandstand” in 1960, and the same year Ray Charles released “Georgia Before he won four Grammy Awards for the power of “On My Mind” and long before King stunned a crowd of white hippies at San Francisco’s Fillmore West in 1967 and sealed his mainstream success, they were all regulars at Club Ebony.
Indianola businessman Johnny Jones opened it in 1948, at the height of the post-war economy. Emerging industries such as the Ludlow textile mills pumped money into the town, and workers left large salaries at the tables of Juke Joints on Church Street, a notorious home of gambling and vice.
But Club Ebony offered a different experience. Jones’ new club was large and designed to accommodate 1940s big bands such as the Jimmy Lunsford Orchestra and the Count Basie Orchestra. Spreegoers in khaki and pinstripe suits could buy bonded whiskey and bootleg corn whiskey, and men and women danced to jump blues and socialized on the ballroom floor.
“There wasn’t much of a social atmosphere at home,” said Sue Evans, who was married to King from 1958 to 1966 and lived behind the club after her mother, Ruby Edwards, bought it in 1958. ‘ said. “There were a lot of families back then, so no one was going to someone’s house to sit down and be entertained. The club became a social gathering place.”
Venues for the National Chitlin Circuit included glorious palaces in big cities like Indianapolis and Houston, and glorious jukes in small towns. When clubs were unavailable, promoters rented halls. Some shows were held in private homes. One-night-only gigs nourished the ecosystem of the circuit, and clubs, recording studios and record labels sprang up to tap into and spice up the festival.
This circuit was born out of a desire for self-sufficiency. Black musicians, promoters and audiences needed a place to feel welcome and be themselves. Even the musicians in King’s band traveled with messy kits and canned goods when they couldn’t find a restaurant to serve them.
As Mr. Rush put it, some black musicians “crossed over” to white audiences and “crossed out” black clubs, but even when they weren’t welcomed elsewhere, performers I was able to make a living at these venues. According to Evans, Club Ebony’s closure and aging represented a bigger problem: the loss of the black community space that once bound the club.
“There are no clubs open in Delta anymore that can offer that kind of music,” she said. “So much of our culture is heading south. It’s not there anymore. And this is the continuation of that culture.”
Since December 2021, the museum has raised and invested nearly $1 million in electrical, plumbing, kitchen equipment, furniture, paint and more to guide the club in adhering to modern norms and Americans with Disabilities laws. Some features such as the tin ceiling tiles are original.
The exterior has a new pea green paint job, keeping in line with the historical record since at least Shepard took over. On a warm afternoon in early May, staff had set up interpretive panels inside to provide visitors with insider stories about the club. Museum staff compared their work to old photographs to keep it historically correct.
In the 15 years since the museum acquired Club Ebony, music tourism, along with an interest in the past, has given Delta towns like Indianola hope for the future. A historic sign stands in front of the club. Mississippi Blues Trailis a network of over 200 sites important to the evolution of music and its culture, founded in 2006.
“It’s important that black-owned clubs are supported,” says blues historian and author Dr. William Ferris, who spent the summers of the ’60s traveling the Delta. “In the same way black people own land and farm, giving business people and families independence and stability is very important, and music is one way to do that.”
For today’s young black blues musicians, like the 24-year-old from Clarksdale, Mississippi, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram Widely regarded as the heir to the King’s Delta Blues crown, historic venues like Club Ebony are still places to escape the pressure of high-profile gigs at festivals and theaters.
Like the King before him, Ingram makes occasional stops at his local clubs, such as the Reds Lounge in Clarksdale, where he stays for three or four sets, often finishing early in the morning. Club Ebony, where he performed early in his career, will no doubt rejoin his itinerary.
“Every time I go there, I hang out with blues OGs like Mr. Rush and Kenny Neal and soak up the history,” Ingram said. “It takes me back to when I first started, and I feel like it keeps me humble.”
