© MICAH B RUBIN

  • Bradfordville Blues club

    Deep in the Tallahassee, Florida countryside, Bradfordville Blues Club (also known as CC’s), rekindles the blues flame and serves up a lifeline to the bygone era of southern juke joints. The club draws local and national musicians, with legends like B.B. King, Ray Charles, and Clarence Carter, performing in the cinderblock and portrait-lined space. The club’s intimacy—so elusive at modern music venues—captures audiences as they sway and twirl and dance to bluesy beats.

  • Deep in the Tallahassee countryside, The Joey Gilmore Band performs at the Bradfordville Blues Club, a juke joint that opened in 1964, 2015
  • The club’s walls are decorated with painted portraits of legends including Clarence Cater and Percy Sledge
  • Keyboardist Sonny Boy Williams
  • Dottie Kelley, the band’s featured singer
  • Cheap beers and great tunes keep the audience on their feet
  • Robert “Hi-Hat” Carter on the bass
  • The geographic history of juke joints stretches from Mississippi to Florida
  • The club’s entrance
  • Joey Gilmore
  • Dottie Kelley
  • Dottie Kelley

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