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Forbes
10 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Morgan Freeman And Eric Meier On ‘Symphonic Blues Experience' Tour
Eric Meier (left) and Morgan Freeman (right) co-own Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale, ... More Mississippi, partnering for this summer's launch of the 'Morgan Freeman's Symphonic Blues Experience' concert tour Since 2001, actor and narrator Morgan Freeman has owned and operated Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale, Mississippi, celebrating blues music in the birthplace of the artform. Located just about a mile from the infamous crossroads at the intersection of Highways 61 and 49, where lore has it that legendary bluesman Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil, Ground Zero showcases the sound of blues artists young - like 26 year old phenom Christone 'Kingfish' Ingram, who was born in Clarksdale - and old - Bobby Rush, 91. While he was born in Memphis, Tennessee, later moving to places like Chicago, Illinois and Gary, Indiana, Freeman was raised in Charleston, Mississippi, about an hour northwest of Clarksdale in the Mississippi Delta region, where he discovered blues music. 'Well, my mother was a musician. And she played the piano. So, me and music were kind of intimate early on,' Freeman explained during a recent video call. 'I don't know when I first actually heard the blues - but I was no more than 5. I don't know that it actually resonated with me - it was just sort of there. But I think by the time we got up to rock and roll, I knew where rock and roll came from.' Co-owned by legendary actor Morgan Freeman, Ground Zero Blues Club has operated in Clarksdale, ... More Mississippi, the birthplace of blues music, since 2001 Freeman, 88, was born in June of 1937, a year before Johnson's death at the infamous age of 27, about two years prior to the start of World War II and 14 years before Ike Turner's 'Rocket 88' began racing up the charts as arguably the first rock and roll single. This summer, Freeman traces the evolution of the blues as part of 'Morgan Freeman's Symphonic Blues Experience,' a concert tour launching Friday, July 25, 2025 in San Francisco, California, crisscrossing North America into November. The show itself features a live symphony orchestra backing a blues band on stage in each market in addition to a visual component narrated by Freeman tracing the unique path of the blues as it moves north out of the Delta through places like Memphis and into Chicago, where it was first electrified, as well as its impact on rock and roll, influencing British Invasion acts like The Beatles and Rolling Stones. The 'Morgan Freeman's Symphonic Blues Experience' concert tour launches July 25, 2025 in San ... More Francisco, running across North America into November 'This is kind of like any start up where you keep prototyping and piloting it but the general concept is remaining the same, which is, how do you take kind of the soulfulness and energy of blues music and pair it with kind of the refinement and gravitas of the symphony? It's super hard to do,' said Ground Zero president and co-owner Eric Meier. 'What is music about? Rhythms,' added Freeman. 'And classical music and blues music you're able to synthesize. By that, I mean you're able to bring the two together seamlessly. It's surprising how well it works.' On paper, adding blues to classical music doesn't necessarily add up. Blues is driven by improvisation whereas classical is a far more precise, exacting sound. But on stage it does, with the live orchestra providing a cinematic backdrop that helps Freeman drive the narrative. CLARKSDALE, MS - SEPTEMBER 23: Actor Morgan Freeman poses on the pool table at Ground Zero blues ... More club on September 23, 2005 in Clarksdale, Mississippi. (Photo by) Following pilot performances in Savannah, Georgia, Dublin, Ireland and Salzburg, Austria, the 'Symphonic Blues Experience' examines the roots of a distinctly American sound. 'Look, it's storytelling, right? It's emotion,' Meier explained. 'And we're very blessed to have our music director, Martin Gellner from Vienna,' he said, referencing the versatile composer who frequently collaborates with famed film score composer Hans Zimmer. 'But the beauty of what Morgan is doing is really providing that backdrop of this 100 year journey. And, obviously, we're doing some very cool photo imagery to accompany the storytelling that kind of helps you fill in the pieces,' Meier explained. 'When we did the Savannah venue, we didn't have that. Now we've started and I think it adds a lot of depth to the exercise and to the event,' Freeman concurred. 'You think of the symphony orchestra and you don't think of storytelling. It's just classical music. Now, with the blues, it's storytelling. Put those two together and I think what happens is that the blues is enhanced.' The legendary crossroads of highways 49 and 61 outside Clarksdake, Mississippi. In the juke joints ... More around Clarksdale, Mississippi, Robert Johnson was known as the kid who could barely play the guitar he often carried. Stories are told of musicians inviting Johnson to join them on stage, knowing that, before he got very far, the audience would be laughing. He disappeared for a while. When he returned, no one who heard him could believe he was the same man. He blew everyone away, playing the songs that would make him famous, among them "Cross Road Blues" and "Me and the Devil Blues." Rumours started and a myth was born: Johnson did a deal with the devil here at the crossroads of highways 49 and 61 and sold his soul in return for his musical abilities. | Location: Clarksdake, MS, USA. (Photo by Louis Quail/In Pictures Ltd./Corbis via Getty Images) For Freeman, this tour is an opportunity not to portray the experience of another but to detail his own while examining the story of a sound closely aligned with American history, one which grew out of field hollers in the south at places like Dockery Plantation, 45 minutes from Ground Zero Blues Club, where future blues artists like Johnson, Charley Patton and Howlin' Wolf all worked. Reembracing the blues was born out of a move back to Mississippi, where Freeman still lives today. 'I was living in New York. And I began to get ill. Concrete buildings, tall buildings - you were living in a cave. And that just began to get to me very, very viscerally,' he began. 'On one of my trips back to visit my parents - I think it was 1986, might have been '83 - I realized that this was where I was most comfortable. Life was most agreeable for me,' said Freeman of making the move. 'And that realization made me decide with my then wife that we would make our home here in Mississippi. A little town of Charleston where I was until I was 6 and a half years old. It's sort of ancestral grounds. Well, Mississippi is anyway. But along with that came back this appreciation for the original music: and that's the blues.' In Clarksdale, 40% of residents live below the poverty line. But embracing its blues roots has begun to help revitalize the town, with places like the crossroads and Ground Zero standing as legitimate tourist attractions, hallowed ground boasting visits from legendary rockers like Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant. Kingfish was born there with contemporary blues artists like Ghalia Volt spending time there. Anthony 'Big A' Sherrod, who performs on stage as part of the 'Symphonic Blues Experience,' calls Clarksdale home and teaches music as part of the Delta Blues Museum's blues and education program. The Ground Zero Arts Foundation stands as the philanthropic arm of Freeman and Meier's club, with a portion of proceeds from the 'Symphonic Blues Experience' finding direct placement within the Clarksdale community, a critical element of the outing. 'It's essential,' said Meier. 'You look at Kingfish - clearly a child prodigy. But he learned his craft at the Delta Blues Museum and played on stage at our club at the ripe old age of 12 or 13. And people like Anthony Sherrod and others kind of helped teach him. If he didn't have that exposure, I would imagine he'd be living a very different life at this point,' he said. 'So, our goal is a portion of the proceeds. And we've got an album we're going to release and it's also to benefit the local artists through supportive services - which includes education. There's healthcare needs and just basic business planning. And we want to make sure that we're doing our best to support the artists and artist community.' While a sister location has operated in Biloxi, Mississippi since 2022, Ground Zero Blues Club's Clarksdale location will celebrate its 25th anniversary next year. Successfully navigating COVID while supporting artists via a series of livestreams, the club thrives today as an economic driver in the Delta region. CLARKSDALE, MS - SEPTEMBER 23: Actor Morgan Freeman waits for his turn to shoot pool against local ... More musician James "Super Chikan" Johnson at Freeman's Ground Zero blues club. (Photo by) For Meier and Freeman, the goal at the heart of the 'Symphonic Blues Experience' tour was simple. 'The reason we're doing this is because it's hard to get to Clarksdale a little bit. So, we kind of said, 'We're gonna come to you.' And, fortunately, the symphony kind of becomes the vessel in which to tell the story of the blues here,' said Meier. 'Now I'm in the blues business at this late stage - partly because of just happening to be in the right place at the right time,' said Freeman with a smile. 'Bill Luckett and I were working on getting the restaurant started across the street from where we were working and saw a young couple of backpackers. And Bill, being the social maven that he was, went out to talk to them,' said the actor, citing Luckett, the former Clarksdale mayor who partnered in Ground Zero until his death in 2021. 'Well, they were obviously lost. And it turns out that they were looking for some place to hear blues music. They were in the Mississippi Delta in this storied place - well, we couldn't tell them. So, that was a catalyst,' he explained. 'It's all a music experience of America rooted in the blues,' said Morgan Freeman. 'I think it's absolutely a story of a people. And a lot of the music is anchored there,' he continued. 'You're listening to lament, sorrow, love lost, love won. Where am I going?' he explained. 'Put that to music and it's magic.'
CNN
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- CNN
The blues live in this Mississippi Delta town
See More Videos On the surface, downtown Clarksdale, Mississippi, looks largely the same as it did decades ago: a collection of historic brick buildings lining wide avenues faded to postcard sepia. But local Bubba O'Keefe has a retort ready for visitors to his hometown who eye the city's aesthetic as anything but authentic Southern charm. 'People come here and say, 'Oh my gosh, this place is going down,'' says O'Keefe, the tourism director for this Mississippi Delta city of 14,000, with an implied wink. 'I say, 'Well, you should have seen it 25 years ago. We're on the way up.'' Jokes aside, he makes a solid point. It was a Saturday night in Clarksdale 25 years ago that inspired blues aficionado-turned-Clarksdale champion Roger Stolle to move to town. Somehow, in a city with a deep blues history that claimed to be the home of the legendary crossroads — where according to lore, Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil under cover of darkness for his dazzling slide-guitar chops — he couldn't find a lick of live music anywhere. 'What was disturbing about it is that nobody was particularly disturbed,' says Stolle, founder of Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art, which serves as a de facto welcome center for visitors to Clarksdale. 'It didn't seem amazing to them like it seemed to me, that Clarksdale would be quiet on a Saturday night. You could either luck into the greatest thing ever, or it was crickets.' MORE AMERICA'S BEST TOWNS TO VISIT 2025 1. Ithaca, NY 2. Missoula, MT 3. Asheville, NC 4. Bend, OR 5. Annapolis, MD See all 10 towns How we picked the Best Towns to Visit Share your picks for our top towns in 2026 Few musicians working today know this better than singer and multi-instrumentalist Charlie Musselwhite, a blues legend who was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi, and moved to Clarksdale a few years ago after spending decades in places like Chicago and California. During his youth in the 1950s, Clarksdale's streets on Saturdays were crowded with people, pickup trucks and mules pulling wagons. 'My earliest memories are of Clarksdale, and it was just a booming town,' Musselwhite says. 'Then I slowly saw it almost become a ghost town. And now it's coming back.' Thanks to years of efforts by Stolle, O'Keefe and plenty of other believers, music fans can now find live music seven nights a week in the blues capital recently fictionalized in the hit vampire flick 'Sinners,' which leans heavily into the region's musical heritage. According to O'Keefe, tourism tax receipts are steadily rising, improving 16% since 2016, and blues-related clubs, shops and cafes started by locals and transplants are fueling the success. 'The thing about Clarkdale is, you have to experience it,' O'Keefe says. 'It's blues in an authentic setting. And when you walk around downtown, it's like being on a movie set. You're walking back in time.' Prev Next Nothing says Delta like a good party, and Clarksdale can throw down with the best of them. In fact, it's home to more than a dozen music festivals where blues legends perform and revelers dance along at one of the city's two-dozen venues (as well as its street corners, outdoor stages and just about anywhere you can plug in an amplifier). One of the first collaborations between O'Keefe and Stolle, Juke Joint Festival, is now one of the region's marquee annual attractions. Beginning as a 15-act fest in 2004, the 2025 edition in April featured more than 100 blues performances and attracted thousands of visitors from 47 states and 26 foreign countries. The latest addition to the festival circuit is the recent Son House Tribute Festival, a three-day celebration of the pioneering bluesman's music. Outside of those events, though, the party plays on at venues like Ground Zero Blues Club, the famed hall co-owned by Academy Award-winning actor and local Morgan Freeman, where acts like Super Chikan and Anthony 'Big A' Sherrod perform regularly on a graffitied stage in a former cotton warehouse. Even local-made-good blues phenom Christone 'Kingfish' Ingram, who took guitar lessons at the Delta Blues Museum next door, is known to turn up for a set when he's in town. 'Everything in this building is on purpose,' says Tameal Edwards, the club's booking manager. 'Some people are like, 'Y'all need to upgrade this,' and we're like, 'Nope.'' Rest assured, all the usual amenities are functional and sanitized — but there's plenty of built-in character to draw visitors into an authentic juke experience. While we're talking about juke joints, a few blocks away on Sunflower Avenue is Red's, a classic juke serving cold beer, live music and big personalities. Owner Orlando Paden, who inherited the club from his father, Red Paden, reopened the spot in time for the 2024 Juke Joint Festival and has kept Red's Old Timers Blues Festival alive on Labor Day weekend. While the beloved Delta Blues Alley Cafe burned down in March, plenty of recent restaurant-bar arrivals have absorbed the crowds. With live music on the menu every day, some venues trade off nights, giving visitors a look at the up-and-coming venues popping up in downtown storefronts, like The MatchBox, Buster's Down Home Blues Club and Bad Apple Blues Club. One of the regular performers at all of them is Laura 'Lala' Craig, a California native who makes her living playing music primarily with Super Chikan and by teaching piano to local students. Like many of the city's more recent additions, she fell hard for the blues and moved to Clarksdale permanently around the time Stolle arrived to make it her life's work. 'If you know the old-school tuning forks, they sort of buzz, they resonate,' says Craig. 'It's like I get these tuning-fork things at my back, like my Root Chakra that tells me, 'Oh my goodness, this is gonna be some epiphany, it's gonna change my life.' And I just felt that way the entire time I was here.' New lodging options are giving visitors more reasons to stay in town and experience more, O'Keefe says. The town's most famous overnight accommodations are found at the Shack Up Inn, a collection of rustic shacks where sharecroppers once lived, that's also home to a music venue decorated in a roadside-Americana motif. But being three miles south of downtown means it's largely an experience of its own. Meanwhile, new lodging options at places like the Travelers Hotel, located in the heart of the city within walking distance to most of the restaurants and entertainment, enable a more immersive Clarksdale visit. ESSENTIAL CLARKSDALE EAT: Local barbecue at Abe's or Deltafied fare at Hooker Grocer DRINK: A pint at Red Panther Brewing Co. and or brews at Red's STAY: At Travelers Hotel or the luxurious Clark House Inn SEE: Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art and the Delta Blues Museum Ann Williams, who owns the property with her husband, Clarksdale native Chuck Rutledge, fell in love with the city's 'gritty' character and designed the hotel to get people to explore. Without in-room TVs to distract them, guests can congregate in the hotel's ground-floor common area and lowkey bar to pregame before heading out on the town. 'We want people to either be in the lobby meeting folks from somewhere else or meeting locals, or be out supporting local music venues and bars and restaurants,' Williams says. 'Who wants to go sit in your hotel room all night and stare at a box, you know? Get out and do stuff.' Nearby, the Auberge Hostel rents rooms designed for families or individuals, as well as lower-cost, dormitory-style bunk rooms, while The Lofts at the Five and Dime offers a homier treatment with suites that include full kitchens. Clarksdale cooking isn't all typical Southern soul-food fare. In fact, many of the dishes you'll find on local menus are influenced by New Orleans cooking as much as the Deep South. One of the newest arrivals to the Clarksdale culinary scene, Levon's — after a Great Dane named for The Band's Levon Helm, a Deltan from just over the river in Arkansas — deftly commingles Cajun-Creole classics like gumbo and boudin balls with crossover dishes like blackened catfish, putting a Crescent City spin on a local delicacy. Another new arrival, Meraki Roasting Company, is a non-profit coffee roaster that teaches life skills and entrepreneurship to local teens and incubates new businesses. One of those startups, Lil Sistas, serves pulled pork, smoked turkey legs, collard greens, cornbread muffins and breakfast staples Thursday through Sunday under chef Micheal Williams. Named for Tutwiler native and 'Boom Boom' bluesman John Lee Hooker, the Hooker Grocer & Eatery serves up local beers by Red Panther, a new downtown brewery started by the Travelers Hotel folks ('the best place to go on a Sunday afternoon,' says Naomi King, an Australian transplant who owns Levon's). On Hooker's menu, diners will find po' boys, shrimp, and Deltafied takes on fare like the French dip, which is loaded with brisket smoked onsite. Guests looking to explore beyond Clarksdale's blues scene can tour Cutrer Mansion, which inspired some of playwright Tennessee Williams's most outlandish characters and settings, then learn about the region's history on a Jeep tour with Delta Bohemian Tours. For outdoorsy types, Quapaw Canoe Company guides single- or multi-night canoe trips on the Mississippi River, which flows just 10 miles west of downtown. New developments on the horizon for Clarksdale visitors include Wild Bill's II, a Clarksdale location of the legendary Memphis club, and a proposed permanent RV park within walking distance of downtown hotspots — another anchor to get people to discover the Clarksdale blues experience. 'Clarkdale, it's a serendipitous scavenger hunt,' said O'Keefe. 'And you'll turn up some interesting things.' Jim Beaugez writes about music and culture from his native Mississippi and has been published by The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Smithsonian, Oxford American, Outside and Garden & Gun. Far more than Mount Rushmore
New York Times
04-06-2025
- Business
- New York Times
‘Sinners' Goes Beyond Horror and the Blues for Clarksdale, Miss.
ACROSS THE COUNTRY The community effort and attention around 'Sinners,' a blockbuster horror movie, became an opportunity to talk about investing in the Delta town that built the blues. WHY WE'RE HERE We're exploring how America defines itself, one place at a time. 'Sinners,' a blockbuster movie about blues music and vampires, has brought new attention to a Mississippi Delta city working to rebuild itself. By Emily Cochrane Photographs by Rory Doyle Emily Cochrane and Rory Doyle reported from Clarksdale, Miss., after watching 'Sinners.' (No spoilers ahead.) Almost as soon as the supernatural horror movie 'Sinners' opened in April, word began to spread among the residents of Clarksdale, Miss. It wasn't just an ode to blues music, a showcase of Black Hollywood talent or a gory Southern vampire story. It was about them. It was about Clarksdale. The film and its worldwide success have brought a burst of attention to the small city in the Mississippi Delta, known as the birthplace of the blues. Set there in the 1930s, it follows twin brothers — both played by Michael B. Jordan — and vampires who are lured by the music performed in their juke joint. Clarksdale's unexpected moment in the spotlight has galvanized a number of young Black residents, some of whom successfully lobbied the director, Ryan Coogler, to visit last week and screen 'Sinners' at an auditorium. It has also gotten people there talking — not for the first time — about how to transform Clarksdale's rich musical history into economic growth that will benefit those who live and work there. Tell Us About Where You Live Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
01-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
The Mississippi town behind the box office hit Sinners
When Edna Nicole Luckett sings the Blues on the stage at Red's, her voice, deep and soulful, echoes against the walls. The juke joint in Clarksdale, Mississippi is one of the last of its kind in the region, a landmark for a bygone era of American music. "I was raised in Delta dirt, sunshine and flatland that goes on for miles and miles," she sings, as people nod their heads and stomp their feet to the beat. Ms Luckett, like many who were raised in the Mississippi Delta, grew up listening to locally-crafted Blues music and singing in her church choir. It's experiences like hers - and places like Red's - that are getting a fresh moment to shine with the box office success of Ryan Coogler's film Sinners. The genre-defying film has earned more than $300 million (£22 million) globally, against a $90m (£67m) budget, and attracted the world's attention to a historic small town. For the those who live there - and especially those who still sing the Blues - the spotlight is welcome, in no small part because of Coogler's careful respect for their history. "I'm protective of how the Mississippi Delta is represented," Ms Luckett said. Clarksdale was the place where blues legends like Sam Cooke, Johnny Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters got their start, but its significance was mostly known to music lovers. Like other small towns in the US south, Clarksdale has faced struggles. The town, home to 14,000 people, lost its only movie theatre in 2003. That meant that residents couldn't even watch Sinners in their hometown - until now. After a local appeal, Mr Coogler agreed to bring the film to town for six free showings this past week. The charge was led by Tyler Yarbrough, a Clarksdale native, who wrote a public letter to the director after seeing the movie in a nearby town. Set in 1932, Sinners tells the story of twin brothers, both played by Michael B Jordan, who return home to Clarksdale after World War One. Combining elements of musicals, horror and period drama, the movie fuses vampire lore with meticulous historic research about that time and place in America. "Beneath the horror and fantasy, your film captures the soul of this place: our history, our struggles, our genius, our joy, our community," Mr Yarbrough wrote. He told the BBC he was moved to see this place represented with careful detail. "It was time traveling back to 1930's in Clarksdale, in our town, so this is the lives of my great grandma," he said. "The history from the farms to the juke joints was on full display." Mr Coogler, who also made Black Panther and Creed, said it was his Uncle James, a Mississippi native who loved Delta Blues, who helped inspire the film. Although the movie was ultimately filmed in Louisiana, he visited Clarksdale to do extensive research. "I never got to come here until working on this script," Mr Coogler told a crowd of 1,500 on Thursday. "It blew my mind — I got to meet musicians, I got to meet community members. It really changed me just to come here and do the research." While some remnants of the town depicted in the film remain, like many towns in America, its storefronts have been emptied and modernised - though it still enjoys tourist interest for its history. Odes to some of Clarksdale's blues legends, like Robert Johnson, are colourfully painted onto the sides of buildings, reminding people of the history of the streets where they walk. One of those streets used to be home to Delta Blues Alley Cafe, a blues joint owned by Jecorry Miller that burned to the ground last month. Mr Miller wants people to have a better understanding of the history that lives on the streets on Clarksdale and the movie is a way to grasp that. "The movie itself is going to be great for the town - we get nine times the population of our city that comes to visit the city every year, now it could be ten or 11 times the population that visits Clarksdale," Mr Miller said. "People being here spending their dollars is a great thing for us." And local residents said the attention is all the more welcome because they see themselves and their culture in the film. At the Thursday screening, longtime Clarksdale residents relished the details. Ms Luckett, the Blues singer, was listening to make sure the characters' dialect sounded right. She watched to see if the land in the backdrop of the film was as flat and green as it is in real life. "It was," she said with a smile. Ryan Coogler on Sinners, The Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz, Book Bans in the US
BBC News
01-06-2025
- Business
- BBC News
The Mississippi town behind the box office hit Sinners
When Edna Nicole Luckett sings the Blues on the stage at Red's, her voice, deep and soulful, echoes against the walls. The juke joint in Clarksdale, Mississippi is one of the last of its kind in the region, a landmark for a bygone era of American music."I was raised in Delta dirt, sunshine and flatland that goes on for miles and miles," she sings, as people nod their heads and stomp their feet to the Luckett, like many who were raised in the Mississippi Delta, grew up listening to locally-crafted Blues music and singing in her church choir. It's experiences like hers - and places like Red's - that are getting a fresh moment to shine with the box office success of Ryan Coogler's film genre-defying film has earned more than $300 million (£22 million) globally, against a $90m (£67m) budget, and attracted the world's attention to a historic small the those who live there - and especially those who still sing the Blues - the spotlight is welcome, in no small part because of Coogler's careful respect for their history."I'm protective of how the Mississippi Delta is represented," Ms Luckett said. Clarksdale in the spotlight Clarksdale was the place where blues legends like Sam Cooke, Johnny Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters got their start, but its significance was mostly known to music other small towns in the US south, Clarksdale has faced struggles. The town, home to 14,000 people, lost its only movie theatre in 2003. That meant that residents couldn't even watch Sinners in their hometown - until now. After a local appeal, Mr Coogler agreed to bring the film to town for six free showings this past charge was led by Tyler Yarbrough, a Clarksdale native, who wrote a public letter to the director after seeing the movie in a nearby town. Set in 1932, Sinners tells the story of twin brothers, both played by Michael B Jordan, who return home to Clarksdale after World War One. Combining elements of musicals, horror and period drama, the movie fuses vampire lore with meticulous historic research about that time and place in America. "Beneath the horror and fantasy, your film captures the soul of this place: our history, our struggles, our genius, our joy, our community," Mr Yarbrough wrote. He told the BBC he was moved to see this place represented with careful detail."It was time traveling back to 1930's in Clarksdale, in our town, so this is the lives of my great grandma," he said. "The history from the farms to the juke joints was on full display."Mr Coogler, who also made Black Panther and Creed, said it was his Uncle James, a Mississippi native who loved Delta Blues, who helped inspire the the movie was ultimately filmed in Louisiana, he visited Clarksdale to do extensive research."I never got to come here until working on this script," Mr Coogler told a crowd of 1,500 on Thursday. "It blew my mind — I got to meet musicians, I got to meet community members. It really changed me just to come here and do the research." A changing town embraces its roots While some remnants of the town depicted in the film remain, like many towns in America, its storefronts have been emptied and modernised - though it still enjoys tourist interest for its to some of Clarksdale's blues legends, like Robert Johnson, are colourfully painted onto the sides of buildings, reminding people of the history of the streets where they of those streets used to be home to Delta Blues Alley Cafe, a blues joint owned by Jecorry Miller that burned to the ground last Miller wants people to have a better understanding of the history that lives on the streets on Clarksdale and the movie is a way to grasp that."The movie itself is going to be great for the town - we get nine times the population of our city that comes to visit the city every year, now it could be ten or 11 times the population that visits Clarksdale," Mr Miller said. "People being here spending their dollars is a great thing for us."And local residents said the attention is all the more welcome because they see themselves and their culture in the the Thursday screening, longtime Clarksdale residents relished the Luckett, the Blues singer, was listening to make sure the characters' dialect sounded right. She watched to see if the land in the backdrop of the film was as flat and green as it is in real life."It was," she said with a smile.
