Ground Zero Opens Tonight
By Rebecca Hood-Adams • Lifestyle Editor • Clarksdale Press Register • May 11, 2001

Ten-nine-eight...

Clarksdale's newest blues blast lifts off today when Ground zero launches at 5 p.m.

The much-anticipated blues club-located at Zero Blues Alley, adjacent to the Delta Blues Museum-provides an answer to the frequently asked tourist question: "Where can I hear live blues?"

Beginning at 9 tonight, and every Friday and Saturday evening hereafter, music lovers can party to the sound of Ground Zero's house band, Big "T" and the Family Band-and others.

"Terry Williams of Dundee, who's a cross between Eric Clapton and Buddy Guy, is our lead guitarist, " said Ground Zero co-owner Bill Luckett, a Clarksdale attorney. "Arthneice Jones will be on harmonica, and we'll have two bass guitar players, Harvell Thomas and Terrell 'Little T' Williams, who is Terry's son. 'Blackjack' Williams will be the stickman at the drums."

The specially assembled house band not only offers the most resonate blues sound since Robert Johnson walked away from The Crossroads; Luckett says customers can expect "surprise" musicians to sit in on any given night.

"Sheila Shuggs has been rehearsing with us," he said. "She does a killin' Chain, Chain, Chain-sounds as much like Aretha Franklin as anybody I've ever heard. Ande Howard Stovall, the executive director of the Blues Foundation in Memphis, will sit on keyboard sometimes.

"On nights like May 27 when the Handy Awards are presented in Memphis, we'll be sending the Ground Zero limo--a six -door 1985 cadillac -- to ferry back anyone interested in jammin'."

Luckett said that there are tentative plans to schedule regular Sunday afternoon sessions open to any musician willing to test his chops and chord for the crowd.

Co-owned by Luckett, Stovall and actor Morgan Freeman, Ground Zero is located in a one-time cotton classing building erected in the early 1900s.

"I've done a little investigation," said Luckett. "The grandfather of the artist Marshall Bouldin had a feed and seed store downstairs when it was known as Delta Grocery and Cotton Co. Upstairs, where we'll be putting several private apartments this fall, are sky lights that provided the natural, indirect light they needed to class cotton samples."

Various portions of the building have housed such businesses as Delta Wholesale Hardware Co., but as a whole the structure has been closed for several decades.

"Howard and Morgan and I had been kicking around the idea of opening a blues club for several years," Luckett said. "We looked at the New Roxy of Issaquena and Red's on Sunflower. But when this building came available, we were just so excited. It was the perfect location. We stand as an anchor at the corner of Blues Alley, less than 100 feet from the west end of the Delta Blues Museum."

The two-story, 15,000-square-foot building, now owned by Luckett, features a unique combination of old and new. Inside, expect an eclectic mix of music memorablilia and Delta deritus paired with pool tables, checker boards and a state-of-the-art Peavey sound system.

"We wanted to preserve the look of a real juke joint--vinyl table-cloths, mismatched chairs, old blues posters on the wall--while offfering a 30-ton air conditioning system, clean and modern restroom and kitchen facilities, and a high-tech mixing board," said Luckett, who plans to provide a place to record CDs above Ground Zero.

Nights and weekends, the club will serve burgers and fish sandwiches, paired with such side orders as fried grits. Beginning Monday, look for plate lunches to be served weekdays between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. under the supervision of Dennis McNeal, the sous chef at Madidi, the fine-dining restaurant Luckett opened down the street earlier this year.

"We're buying all vegetables we can locally so they'll be fresh," Luckett said. "Robert Lane on Friars Point Road is growing an extra big garden for us this year. And no juke joint would be complete without offering whiskey poured from pints, quarts of beer, plus Crown Royal and Colt 45."

Luckett said that while diners will be offered the widest possible spectrum of culinary choices between Madidi and Ground Zero, he's especially pleased that the new Blues Station Cafe in Clarksdale Station, the renovated passenger depot, is also doing well.

"I think we'll feed off each other," he says. "Each success urging another on. All of us are hoping to attract a lot more tourists."

For tonight's Ground Zero opening, where shuffle beard two-steps with a huge dance floor, Luckett offers a sliver of sage advice: "Mothers, Lock up your daughters! We're going to party until the last blues fan faints."