bobby rush live at ground zero blues club

BOBBY RUSH LIVE AT GROUND ZERO BLUES CLUB MOVIE
BOBBY RUSH LIVE AT GROUND ZERO BLUES CLUB TV

BOBBY RUSH LIVE AT GROUND ZERO BLUES CLUB MOVIE

You’ll see the telltale plaques from the Mississippi Blues trail outside the New Roxy Theatre, a former neighborhood movie house which is under long term renovation by Robin Colonas, who bought it in 2008 after it sat vacant for 30 years. Or take a short walk to the New World neighborhood that decades ago was the center of Clarksdale’s African American blues community and is the birthplace of Sam Cooke. Robin Colonas in front of her labor of love, the renovation of the old New Roxy Theater in Clarksdale, MS. One night he asked first-time visitors from Georgia where they’re from and then launched into a state-inspired medley including “Rainy Night in Georgia” before pivoting to a Nirvana cover. You might catch Lucious Spiller – or he may catch you.

BOBBY RUSH LIVE AT GROUND ZERO BLUES CLUB TV

He’s often sitting to the right of the stage, watching TV while a local or two mingle with international fans streaming through to sit on a stool and feel the local vibe. In reality, Red’s is open whenever owner Red Paden feels like it. If you Google it, you may not find a website, but you will see this: “cash-only, dancing, fast service.” Not to mention good barbecue, cold beer and true blues played live most nights. “There was no blues here when I was growing up,” he says, leading a group of visitors past one of the only authentic, old-time, continuously operated juke joints downtown: Red’s Blues Club at 398 Sunflower Avenue. Plus, in January 2019, he started a new job as executive director of Visit Clarksdale, one which – if you tried keeping up with him walking around Clarksdale – you’d think he was doing his entire life.Īn Australian visitor who plays harmonica sits in for a few songs with Clarksdale native Lucious Spiller at Red’s Blues Club. The competition makes Bubba even happier now as he recently divested himself of some investments. Freeman grew up close by, and moved from Manhattan back to Mississippi to live in Charleston, a town about an hour away. Other investors – Morgan Freeman, Seattle tech CEOs, New Zealand entrepreneurs – are developing restaurants, chocolate stores and juke joints. “She was afraid I’d come home with another building.” “My wife wasn’t afraid of another woman,” he says. For the past 20 years he has been buying old-brick buildings downtown, betting blues lovers from around the world will trek 80 miles south of Graceland. “Twenty years ago, there were only five cars on this street - and they belonged to store owners,” said Bubba O’Keefe, on the somewhat busier streets of Clarksdale, MS he helped animate.īubba’s grandfather was once mayor of this Delta town of 16,000.

Bobby rush live at ground zero blues club