5 replies to this topic

[Bismo]

This week Shotgun & I are off on a blues trip we've been wanting to do for many years, a trip to the birthplace of the blues, the Mississippi Delta! It won't be as long as we'd like so we won't see as much as we'd want, but it should be a blast. Four nights in Clarksdale, then one night on Beale Street on the way back. We'll be hitting several blues clubs as well as a blues festival, and we're hopefully seeing BB King's museum in Indianola as well. And, we gotta find our own crossroads. (Though Buster made me promise I wouldn't sell anything to anybody!)

We're also hoping to get up on stage in Morgan Freeman's Ground Zero Blues Club when they have their weekly jam this coming Thursday night (8-11pm Central Daylight Time on June 3rd). For anyone that might be interested, the club streams its blues music live over the internet so I'm copying a message I sent to some friends at work that tells how to log in and watch if it's your thing. If not no need to read further.

- Bis


Time for our Delta trip at last! We're hoping to get up on stage to jam at the Mississippi blues club we're staying at this week (yup, we're sleeping upstairs there!). A couple of folks have asked for the link as this club streams live to the internet (Wed-Sat nights) so if you time it right, you can see us! It'll be fairly late at night Eastern time but if (and only IF!) you think you might want to try and watch, read on....


The club is Morgan Freeman's Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale, MS. The jam night is Thursday, so we're expecting we'll be up there sometime that night, between 9pm and midnight Eastern time (the jam runs 8-11pm CDT). From watching recent jam nights there myself it looks like they don't often bring the jammers on stage during the first hour, so most likely we'll be up sometime after 10pm... but no way to know for sure exactly when, or if it might be in that first hour after all. At a jam you go up when they call on you. But 10pm to midnight would be the safest bet I think.

There's also a slight chance we could get up there later in the evening on Wednesday night, like between 11p and midnight EDT, but that's not too likely. Thursday should be a pretty sure thing.


So if you do want to watch our jam use this link:

Ground Zero Blues Club Music Live Broadcast

You will need to create an account to log in here, it's free and easy but you can use a junk email address, certainly. Click the "Create New Account" link at the top right to do so. (Or the "Login" button if you've already done that.) Once logged in the video stream will open. It can be maximized if you hover your mouse over the vid window to bring up options.


This is a fairly new link as they just changed video servers two weeks ago... so if you have any probs (meaning if they change anything again!), here's the LONG way to get to the video:

Ground Zero Blues Club - Ground Zero for the Blues in Clarksdale!

At the bottom of the left column you'll see the link for streaming live music, click there.

After Morgan's intro (which you can skip), you'll go to an index page... click the left-most choice, "Live from Ground Zero Blues Club".

This brings you to another index page (sigh), click the second black box, "LIVE "Ground Zero Blues Club" LIVE". then proceed as above.

[Jim Ridgeway]

Very Cool, Bis. Have a great time. There are some wicked BBQ joints along the way, too. Blues and BBQ...maybe heaven on earth!

[cheoperative]

I'm gonna try my best to catch that live broadcast! Hope you guys make it up on stage and boogie woogie!

[Bismo]

Okay, we had a fantastic time, and I've left a chunk of my soul in the Delta so I hope we go back soon! We stayed in the Ground Zero apartments, check out this familiar-looking staircase that lead from the blues club up to the apartments:



We could swear we saw a crucifix at the top of the stairs!

Full set of photos HERE.


We also got to jam on stage twice... Thursday evening we played in the jam as expected, and did pretty passable renditions of "Shotgun Blues" and "Driving Wheel". Saturday night the feature band (the All Night Long Blues Band that night) invited us back up for two again, "Let the Good Times Roll" and "Thrill is Gone".

We didn't get much vid from Thursday as my wife's computer froze at home before we went on, alas. (She was trying to record us over the live internet feed from the club.) A friend at work got a series of 15-second vids from that night (all his cellphone could do), I'll get those stitched together and uploaded at some point. But son Buster and my wife did get our Saturday night set at least:

Let the Good Times Roll

The Thrill is Gone

We felt a bit unprepared Saturday as we hadn't expected to go up that night, but we managed okay I think. Thursday was better since we chose the songs and the keys ourselves.

We also went crossroads-hunting, found where the Southern cross the Dog, hit BB's museum and a blues fest in Leland... all in all a great blues pilgrimage and I hope to get back there!

[Steam McQueen]

The staircase is great! Sounds like a great trip, Bis. When you guys were in Clarksdale, Mississippi did you inquire about the "original" Bluesmobile they have there at the Plantation? Not that it matters as we have quite a few pics of it here already.

Is the world's oldest Holiday Inn still standing in Clarksdale? lol hey I hear it's true

http://www.bluesbrotherscentral.com/forum2/public/style_emoticons/default/icon_cool.gif

[Bismo]

No, must admit we spaced totally on that Dodge... It's funny too, 'cause Walt (the sound engineer in the club, who we becaqme quite friendly with) kept hinting, "Have you guys gone out to Hopson yet?" And we kept sayin', why the hell do we want to go there, it's basically a hotel now? NOW I remember, LOL!! As you say, no biggie anyways, we've seen the pics but thanks for the reminder.