Elysium Films’ Ed Blair and Constant Walker are going deep into Delta blues country to direct and post a series of concerts with famous blues stars.
The venue is Ground Zero Blues Club, located in Clarksdale, Mississippi, population 20,000, about 76 miles east of Memphis and owned by home boy Morgan Freeman and his associates Bill Luckett and Howard Stovall.
Longtime music business pros Carol and Gary Vincent of Nashville-based Vincent Productions brought in the Elysium partners for what they foresee as 12 or more shows this year, targeted for TV and DVD sales.
They’d been visiting the club regularly for years “to hear some of the best of Delta blues you can imagine and great authentic blues. The first time we walked into the club we were blown away,” said Gary Vincent, a Northbrook native.
Popular 300-seat Ground Zero is a large, updated replica of an old-fashioned “juke joint.” The funky bar or roadhouse where people danced to live music was commonplace during the Deep South early part of the 20th century. “The original spelling for juke joint was ‘jook joint.’ When the juke box came into play they changed the spelling,” explained Vincent.
At first, the Vincents planned on just producing CDs of the acts that play at Ground Zero on a regular basis. “But we realized film is the way to go. We also realized that including stars would help bring attention to the project,” said Vincent.
He can’t release the names of future performers because contracts aren’t as yet finalized, but assures they are very well known.
