Ground Zero is a blues club in Clarksdale, Mississippi, US that is co-owned by Morgan Freeman, Memphis entertainment executive Howard Stovall, and businessman Eric Meier. [1] Attorney Bill Luckett was also co-owner until his death in 2021. [2] It got its name from Clarksdale being historically referred to as "Ground Zero" for the blues. [3] [4] It opened in May 2001 [3] and is located near the Delta Blues Museum. In the style of juke joints, it is in a repurposed, un-remodeled building, vacant for 30 years, that had housed the wholesale Delta Grocery and Cotton Co. [5] Mismatched chairs, Christmas-tree lights, and graffiti greet one everywhere. Blues fans in Clarksdale welcomed it as a place where local musicians have a chance to work regularly. [6]
The menu consists of traditional Southern foods, and the restaurant has live blues music playing Wednesday through Saturday. In addition to the food and music, there are seven upstairs apartments that can be rented.
Ground Zero is also associated with Ground Zero Biloxi located in Biloxi, Mississippi. [7] [8] [9]
Considered to be in the birthplace of the blues, Ground Zero has hosted local, national, and international performers. Artists include:
Since 2022, Ground Zero has merged Delta Blues with symphony music from around the world through the Symphonic Blues Experience. [15] Performances include collaborations with:
Ground Zero has appeared in many television shows and publications, including:
Coahoma County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 21,390. Its county seat is Clarksdale.
Clarksdale is a city in and the county seat of Coahoma County, Mississippi, United States. It is located along the Sunflower River. Clarksdale is named after John Clark, a settler who founded the city in the mid-19th century when he established a timber mill and business. Clarksdale is in the Mississippi Delta region and is an agricultural and trading center. Many African-American musicians developed the blues here, and took this original American music with them to Chicago and other northern cities during the Great Migration.
The Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, Mississippi, United States, is a museum dedicated to collecting, preserving, and providing public access to and awareness of the musical genre known as the blues. Along with holdings of significant blues-related memorabilia, the museum also exhibits and collects art portraying the blues tradition, including works by sculptor Floyd Shaman and photographer Birney Imes.
Jack N. Johnson, known as Big Jack Johnson was an American electric blues musician, one of the "present-day exponents of an edgier, electrified version of the raw, uncut Delta blues sound." He was one of a small number of blues musicians who played the mandolin. He won a W. C. Handy Award in 2003 for best acoustic blues album.
David "Junior" Kimbrough was an American blues musician. His best-known works are "Keep Your Hands off Her" and "All Night Long". In 2023, he was inducted in the Blues Hall of Fame.
Juke joint is the African-American vernacular term for an informal establishment featuring music, dancing, gambling, and drinking, primarily operated by African Americans in the southeastern United States. A juke joint may also be called a "barrelhouse". Juke joints were the first secular cultural arenas to emerge among African-American freedmen.
Robert Mugge is an American documentary film maker. He has focused primarily on films about music and musicians, but some of his earliest films were not music focused and he is now continuing to branch out as his interests and work evolve.
Area code 662 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the northern half of the U.S. state of Mississippi, including the six counties that are part of the Memphis metro area. It also includes the cities that are home to the state's two largest universities, Oxford and Starkville.
James "Super Chikan" Johnson is an American blues musician based in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He is the nephew of fellow blues musician Big Jack Johnson.
The Mississippi Blues Trail was created by the Mississippi Blues Commission in 2006 to place interpretive markers at the most notable historical sites related to the birth, growth, and influence of the blues throughout the state of Mississippi. Within the state the trail extends from the Gulf Coast north along several highways to Natchez, Vicksburg, Jackson, Leland, Greenwood, Clarksdale, Tunica, Grenada, Oxford, Columbus, and Meridian. The largest concentration of markers is in the Mississippi Delta, but other regions of the state are also commemorated. Several out-of-state markers have also been erected where blues with Mississippi roots has had significance, such as Chicago.
Riverside Hotel was a hotel in Clarksdale, Mississippi, in operation since 1944. The fourth marker location on the Mississippi Blues Trail, famed for providing lodging for such blues artists as Sonny Boy Williamson II, Ike Turner, and Robert Nighthawk, it was previously the G.T. Thomas Hospital, in which Bessie Smith died in 1937.
Po' Monkey's was a juke joint in unincorporated Bolivar County, Mississippi, United States, outside of Merigold. The juke joint was founded in the early 1960s and was one of the last rural juke joints in the Mississippi Delta. It ceased operating after the death of operator Willie "Po' Monkey" Seaberry in 2016.
Smithsonian Channel's Sound Revolution is a documentary television series hosted by award-winning actor Morgan Freeman. Documentary footage, expert interviews and musical performances trace the origins of be-bop, jazz, rock 'n' roll and soul music, all emanating from “ground zero” – Clarksdale, Mississippi – and the Mississippi Delta. Each hour-long program is filled with recent performances, largely from the Montreux Jazz Festival, featuring performances by: B. B. King, Ike Tuner, Buddy Guy, Etta James, Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, Robert Cray, Miles Davis, The Neville Brothers and many others. The show premiered in November 2008 on Smithsonian Networks. It was scripted by British writer Joe Cushley, directed by Chris Walker and produced by Alan Ravenscroft.
Sam Carr was an American blues drummer best known as a member of the Jelly Roll Kings.
Michael Vincent Band is a New England–based blues and rock band led by guitarist Michael Vincent. The regular lineup includes bass guitarist Dan Mack and drummer Dan Hewitt.
Christone "Kingfish" Ingram is an American blues guitarist and singer from Clarksdale, Mississippi, United States, who became a well-known performer as a teenager. His debut album, Kingfish, was released in May 2019. In addition to his own albums, musicians he has recorded with include Eric Gales, Buddy Guy and Keb Mo. He has shared the stage with well-known blues artists and younger blues musicians such as the Tedeschi Trucks Band, Samantha Fish, Bob Margolin, Eric Gales, Mr. Sipp, Rick Derringer, Guitar Shorty and Buddy Guy.
Kingfish is an album by blues guitarist and singer Christone "Kingfish" Ingram. His first album, it was released on May 17, 2019, in CD, LP, and digital formats.
Red Paden was an American juke joint owner. He was the owner of Red’s Lounge in Clarksdale, Mississippi, one of the "last places in the United States to offer authentic Delta blues in its natural setting" according to The New York Times. Paden died on December 30, 2023, at the age of 67.
Live in London is an album by blues guitarist and singer Christone "Kingfish" Ingram. It documents a concert performed at the Garage in London on June 6, 2023. At this show Ingram was accompanied by Deshawn Alexander on keyboards, Paul Rogers on bass, and Christopher Black on drums. Ingram's first live album, and third album overall, it was released by Alligator Records for streaming and as a digital download on September 15, 2023, as a two-disc CD on October 13, 2023, and as a two-disc LP on November 10, 2023.
William O. Luckett Jr. was an American politician, attorney and businessman. He unsuccessfully ran for Governor of Mississippi in 2011 and served as Mayor of Clarksdale, Mississippi from 2013 to 2017. He was also a founder and board member of the Pinetop Perkins Foundation. From May 2001 till his death, Luckett also co-owned with business partner Morgan Freeman the Ground Zero Blues Club. He also co-owned the Madidi Restaurant with Freeman from 2001 to 2012. He was also a member of the NAACP.
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