Micheaux Must Go On. One of the nice things about having a great band (The Salt Kings) and a flexible record label RankOutsider) is that you can pretty much indulge about any creative whim that strikes you. In that spirit we are pivoting away from the Chittlin' Circuit project and into the remarkable life of Metropolis, Illinois born filmmaker Oscar Micheaux.

Micheaux's astonishing story sounds like the stuff of myth and legend, but it is all true. After leaving Little Egypt he spent time as a Pullman Porter, traveling all over the US and as far as South America. He then became the only African American to homestead a farm near Gregory, South Dakota. In his isolation he began to pen semi autobiographical novels, starting with The Conquest in 1913 and The Homesteader in 1917. A small, black owned movie studio approached Micheaux about making the standard short film of the period based on The Homesteader, he instead formed his own film company and wrote, filmed, produced and directed the sprawling epic, The Homesteader in 1919. It was a sensation in Chicago and other cities. Then, in a direct challenge to D.W. Griffith's racially charged Birth of a Nation Micheaux released his masterpiece, Within Our Gates in 1920. Audiences were stunned. The film remained lost for almost 70 years until a single copy was discovered in Spain in 1990. His triumph was the equivalent of making Citizen Kane without any financial backing from Hollywood or other connected sources. Micheaux bested Orson Wells in accomplishment, and by two plus decades, yet he is virtually unknown to most Americans.

Micheaux made 43 films during his career and is best known to his small circle of admirers (including me) for his uncompromising vision and his unflinching mission to take on difficult subject matter - no matter what. Staying one step ahead of his creditors he made the films he wanted to make, regardless of commercial viability. He angered as many African Americans as whites, and the film God's Stepchildren, released in 1938, was picketed by the Communist Party at a showing in Harlem as a "racist" movie.

All but six or seven of Micheaux's films are lost to history due to the small number of copies produced outside the normal studio system, and their frequent use.

The songs based on Micheaux are coming fast and furious so we look forward to the journey and adventure on this remarkable subject.