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A honky-tonk (also called honkatonk, honkey-tonk, honky tonk, or tonk) is either a bar that provides country music for the entertainment of its patrons or the style of music played in such establishments. It can also refer to the type of piano (tack piano) used to play such music. Bars of this kind are common in the South and Southwest United States. Many prominent country music artists such as Jimmie Rodgers, Ernest Tubb, Lefty Frizzell, Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Johnny Horton and Merle Haggard began their careers as amateur musicians in honky-tonks.
The origin of the term "honky-tonk" is disputed, originally referring to bawdy variety shows in areas of the old West (Oklahoma, the Indian Territory and mostly Texas) and to the actual theaters showing them.
The first music genre to be commonly known as honky-tonk was a style of piano playing related to ragtime but emphasizing rhythm more than melody or harmony; the style evolved in response to an environment in which pianos were often poorly cared for, tending to be out of tune and having some nonfunctioning keys. This honky-tonk music was an important influence on the boogie-woogie piano style. Before World War II, the music industry began to refer to hillbilly music being played from Texas and Oklahoma to the West Coast as "honky-tonk" music. In the 1950s, honky-tonk entered its golden age, with the popularity of Webb Pierce, Hank Locklin, Lefty Frizzell, Faron Young, George Jones, and Hank Williams.
There are subsequent citations from 1890 in The Dallas Morning News, The Dallas Morning News (Dallas, Texas), August 6, 1890: "Myself and him set and talked awhile and he got up and said he wanted to go to the honk-a-tonk (variety show)." 1892 in the Galveston Daily News (Galveston, Texas) Galveston Daily News, July 26, 1892, p. 6: "Fort Worth, Tex. (...) A youth named Goodman, who arrived here from Wilbarger county entered Andrews' honkatonk on Fifteenth street and was ordered out on account of his age." () (which used the term to refer to an adult establishment in Fort Worth), and in 1894 in The Ardmoreite in Oklahoma. The Daily Ardmoreite (Oklahoma), February 26, 1894, p. 2, col. 1. (Oklahoma Historical Society, Microfilm #110). "The honk-a-tonk last night was well attended by ball heads, bachelors and leading citizens. Most of them are inclined to kick themselves this morning for being sold." Early uses of the term in print mostly appear along a corridor roughly coinciding with cattle drive trails extending from Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas, into south central Oklahoma, suggesting that the term may have been a localism spread by cowboys driving cattle to market. The sound of honky-tonk (or honk-a-tonk) and the types of places that were called honky-tonks suggests that the term may be an Onomatopoeia reference to the loud, boisterous music and noise heard at these establishments.
One theory is that the "tonk" portion of the name may have come from the brand name of piano made by William Tonk & Bros., an American manufacturer of large upright pianosPierce, Pierce Piano Atlas. (established 1881), which made a piano with the decal "Ernest A. Tonk". The Tonk brothers, William and Max, established the Tonk Bros. Manufacturing Company in 1873, so such an etymology is possible, however, these pianos were not manufactured until 1889, at which point the term seems to have already been established.
An early source purporting to explain the derivation of the term (spelled honkatonk) was an article published in 1900 by the New York Sun and widely reprinted in other newspapers. Reno Evening Gazette (Nevada), February 3, 1900, p. 2, col. 5. The article, however, reads more like a humorous legend or fable, so its veracity is questionable.
In this context of the term’s meaning and its possible origin, an example from roughly the same period is the Harvey Oliver Brooks song “They Call Me Sister Honky-Tonk,” sung by Mae West in the 1933 film I’m No Angel.
Honky-tonks were rough establishments, providing country music in the Deep South and Southwest and serving alcoholic beverages to a working class clientele. Some honky-tonks offered dancing to music played by pianists or small bands, and some were centers of prostitution. Katrina Hazzard-Gordon wrote that the honky-tonk was "the first urban manifestation of the Juke joint", and that "the name itself became synonymous with a style of music. Related to the classic blues in tonal structure, honky-tonk has a tempo that is slightly stepped up. It is rhythmically suited for many African-American dance."Hazzard-Gordon, Katrina (1990). Jookin. Temple University Press. p. 84.
As Chris Smith and Charles McCarron wrote in their 1916 hit song "Down in Honky Tonk Town", "It's underneath the ground, where all the fun is found."
In recollections long after the frontiers closed, writers such as Wyatt Earp and E.C. Abbott referred to honky-tonks in the cowtowns of Kansas, Nebraska, and Montana in the 1870s and 1880s.Hunter, Trail Drivers of Texas, p. 832 : "I went to Dodge City, the honkatonk town, cleaned up an bought a suit of clothes, and left for San Antonio, reaching home July 1, 1885." Their recollections contain lurid accounts of the women and violence accompanying the shows. However, in contemporary accounts these were nearly always called hurdy-gurdy shows, possibly derived from the term hurdy-gurdy, which was sometimes mistakenly applied to a small, portable barrel organ that was frequently played by organ grinders and .
As late as 1913, Col. Edwin Emerson, a former Rough Riders commatourist-friendlyonky-tonk party in New York City."Col. Emerson's Novel Party; Rough Rider Veteran Gives 'Old Forty-niners' Honky-Tonk Fandango. The New York Times, February 23, 1913. p. C7 The Rough Riders were recruited from the ranches of Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Indian Territories, so the term was still in popular use during the Spanish–American War.
Honky tonk made its first appearance in the oil boom towns and cattle-driving regions of Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. Over time, it spread west to California and gained national attention through the music industry which was centered in Nashville, Tennessee. Ranging from lyrical themes to dance styles, each of these regions contributed unique features to the honky tonk tradition.
Gilley's Nightclub (Pasadena, Texas)
Gruene Hall (Gruene, Texas)
Typically, in the Texas honky-tonks, there are a multitude of folk dances that are done in the halls. Those being the Texas Two-Step, the waltz, and the polka. A Texas historian, Christian Wallace says that "Everything that's important about Texas culture: barbecue, beer, two-steps, waltzes and polkas" (Wallace 2019). Wallace means that these dances foster social connection not just entertainment.
In 1980, the film Urban Cowboy was released. This movie was set in a honkey-tonk, and began a nationwide spread of the country line dancing. The movie portrayed typical honky-tonk dances and mechanical bull rides, spreading the honky-tonk culture as a whole.
The first music genre to be commonly known as honky-tonk music was a style of piano playing related to ragtime but emphasizing rhythm more than melody or harmony; the style evolved in response to an environment in which the pianos were often poorly cared for, tending to be out of tune and having some nonfunctioning keys.
Honky-tonk music influenced the boogie-woogie piano style, as indicated by Jelly Roll Morton's 1938 record "Honky Tonk Music" and Meade Lux Lewis's hit "Honky Tonk Train Blues." Lewis recorded the latter many times from 1927 into the 1950s, and the song was covered by many other musicians, including Oscar Peterson.
The twelve-bar blues instrumental "Honky Tonk" by the Bill Doggett Combo, with a sinuous saxophone line and driving, slow beat, was an early rock and roll hit. New Orleans native Fats Domino was another honky-tonk piano man, whose "Blueberry Hill" and "Walkin' to New Orleans" were hits on the popular music charts.
In the years before World War II, the music industry began to refer to honky-tonk music played from Texas and Oklahoma to the West Coast as hillbilly music. More recently, the term has come to refer to the primary sound in country music, developing in Nashville as Western swing became accepted there. Originally, it featured the guitar, fiddle, string bass, and steel guitar (imported from Hawaiian folk music). The vocals were originally rough and nasal, as exemplified by the singer-songwriters Floyd Tillman and Hank Williams, but later developed a clear and sharp sound, such as that of George Jones and Faron Young. Lyrics tended to focus on working-class life, with frequently tragic themes of lost love, adultery, loneliness, alcoholism, and self-pity.
Copyrighted and released in 1941, "Walking the Floor Over You", by Ernest Tubb, "Walking The Floor Over You" Sheet Music by George IV Hamilton, SheetMusicNow.com Ernest Tubb, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum his sixth release for Decca Records,[6] helped establish the honky-tonk style and Tubb as one of its foremost practitioners.Morrison, Craig (1952). Go Cat Go! University of Illinois Press. p. 28. . Tubb, from Crisp, Texas, was a fan of Jimmie Rodgers and fused Western swing, which had been using electric guitars for years, with other "country" sounds.Nassour, Ellis. Honky Tonk Angel: The Intimate Story of Patsy Cline. p. 39.
He took the sound to Nashville, where he was the first musician to play electric guitar on Grand Ole Opry. In the 1950s, honky tonk entered its golden age, with the popularity of Webb Pierce, Hank Locklin, Lefty Frizzell, Faron Young, George Jones, and Hank Williams. In the mid- to late 1950s, rockabilly (which melded honky-tonk country with rhythm and blues) and the slick country music of the Nashville sound ended honky-tonk's initial period of dominance.
The Rolling Stones' number-one single and gold record "Honky Tonk Women" (1969) was based on the sound of 1940s honky-tonk artists like Hank Williams. and referred to the reputation of honky-tonk bars as centres of prostitution.. In the 1970s, outlaw country's brand of rough honky-tonk was represented by artists such as Gary Stewart, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, David Allan Coe, and Billy Joe Shaver.
January 2025
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