The Juke Joint Cocktail: Walk Me Down

My favorite weekend of the year is Juke Joint Festival weekend…where my bestest buds and I can get our dance on to real, live blues music legends ALL day & night long in venues ranging from a theatre with a canopy of real stars to an old Delta commissary full of memorabilia and farm equipment to famous long-time Juke Joints owned by Delta natives with Blues Music pedigrees.

I also get to gamble with friends on baby pig races (they love oreos and will race around a track to get one… but then again, who wouldn’t?) watch Monkeys riding Dogs herding Sheep (true story) and generally sample all the best food and drink the Delta has to offer.

For the past eleven years or so, I’ve only missed 3 or four Juke Joint weekends, and only those for VERY important reasons… I mean, I didn’t even miss the year I had a baby that was a month and half old. I pumped in bathroom stalls and sitting out on a picnic table with a scarf wrapped around me when there WERE no stalls, and called home every hour to check on him… Talk about commitment.

Anyway, this year, since we’ve moved farther south we missed it. All weekend I pouted over my Instagram and Facebook feeds as people posted photos of great bands or delicious food. But rather than JUST pout, I decided to pretend like I was there by putting some great Delta Blues on the record player and mixing up a batch of the unofficial Cocktail of Clarksdale Blues travelers and sponsor of the wildest nights in the world, The Walk Me Down. Click below to read more about this delicious (and dangerous cocktail and find out how to make them yourself).

I can’t tell you the trouble I’ve gotten into (or ALMOST gotten into) or how much fun I’ve had after a night that involved Walk Me Downs. Brett always said that he figured that bartenders just pour everything they can into a cup and top it off with Curacao. And after a little research, I learned that he wasn’t all that far off.

You know how crazy wild party nights in New Orleans almost always include a Hurricane? Well, in Clarksdale, you can bet that the wildest nights have a Walk Me Down in involved. I called up Ground Zero, known as Morgan Freeman’s bar and a fun blues joint with solid fried food, stiff drinks, and great music to see what they could tell me about it. I’d never had one before stepping into Ground Zero nearly twelve years ago, so I pretty much assumed it was their invention.

Not so, says Stacey Stanberry, also known as Sunshine, a long time waitress at Ground Zero.  “It’s everything! People love it here since you can just have one and sip on it all night long. It’s one of our best sellers, but we got it from Beale Street. It got started there.”

I asked about “sipping on it” since in my experience they slipped down my throat like the most delicious candy. “I mean, it’s a damn good drink. But it’s got Rum, Tequila, Triple sec, gin, vodka Blue Curacao… with all that liquor you can have one and it’ll be good all night long.”

OHhhhhhhh. So Brett was right. And that’s what happened to my judgement and motor function all those years ago.

I wanted to know more about the Walk Me Down’s origins, so I called around some famous Beale Street establishments. I didn’t find out much beyond the fact that everyone serves one and everyone is happy to claim that their bar invented it. I’m going to keep digging, though, so be on the look out for updates!

When I think about why Walk Me Downs are so great for Blues Travelers, I feel like it’s the fact that it’s a cold, sweet, very strong drink that loosens folks up to dance and dance and dance. At least that’s been MY experience. I hope you’ll go visit Sunshine at Ground Zero (tell her Biz says hi!) and taste one for yourself, and let me know if you hear any more about where it came from!

Enjoy. But make sure you have a wingman to keep you from bad decisions. Or listen to Sunshine and just have one.