Floyd Lee Ground Zero Full Moon Lightnin

Discontent with the available places to hear live blues music, actor Morgan Freeman and his business partner Bill Luckett opened the Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale, Mississippi. The idea was to bring back the look and feel of an old juke joint (sans the gambling and corn liquor) while creating a stable safe place where the best Delta blues could be heard. Before Ground Zero, impromptu gigs would spring up with little notice in Clarksdale...live music at best was a catch as catch can situation. Boarded up for decades, the building was once used as a cotton sampling and seeding facility, but today, just steps from the old train depot where Muddy Waters left for Chicago, Ground Zero continues the tradition of serving up the blues from the spot where it all started.

While we were passing through Clarksdale, Morgan Freeman extended an invitation to the band to come and play. This show was the first time that I had ever heard Joel play slide guitar. After the show Sam Carr remarked that he had not "heard slide guitar like that since his daddy Robert Nighthawk played". A ringing endorsement considering Robert Nighthawk is considered the finest slide guitar player ever. Sit back and enjoy "Mean Ol' Frisco".