Danny Glover stars as Pine Top Purvis, owner of an Alabama juke joint whose glory days are gone and debts are piling up. To save his club, Purvis hires R&B sensation Guitar Sam. But when Sam doesn't show, desperate times call for desperate measures. Now, the only cure for Pine Top's blues is to bust a local guitar-playing vagabond out of jail and have him masquerade as Guitar Sam long enough to fill the club and collect the cash.