beer joint

He later recalled that he found Mr. Hopkins playing in “a little beer joint” — improvising songs in a conversational style, telling a woman in the crowd to quiet down, wondering in song about the man from California who had traveled all the way to Texas “to hear poor Lightnin’ sing.”

He founded Arhoolie in 1960 and over the following decades traveled to Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana among other states on a mission that rarely relented: taping little-known artists in their home environments, be it a dance hall, a front porch, a beer joint, a backyard.

“The beer joint in which the middle class American takes no pride can be as much a third place as the proud Viennese coffeehouse.”

One day Dusty came home to find a bass on his bed; that night, he joined Rocky onstage at a Dallas beer joint.

We are haunted by water moccasins and beer joint piano and unclaimed sons.