A live-music/neighborhood bar that’s been around in one form or another for about 30 years is currently undergoing a makeover. Keys Lounge co-owners and veteran bluesmen Bobby Counts and Danny Ross have expanded the Southside joint by another 1,000 square feet to 4,000.
The co-owners also have installed a new stage and, perhaps most importantly, have begun scheduling shows by marquee national acts, including Doyle Bramhall, Fort Worth’s Tejas Brothers, and Gary Nicholson, a.k.a. Whitey Johnson, who’ll be playing next weekend with Dallas stalwart Anson Funderburgh (see: this week’s HearSay, pg. 45). Also, a reunion of the legendary Fort Worth outfit The Juke Jumpers is scheduled for Labor Day weekend.
“We’re going to be pushing for bigger shows,” Ross said. “We want to do one or two touring acts per month.”
The co-owners were once Keys regulars themselves — Counts, for about a dozen years, ran a blues jam that often saw sitter-inners of the likes of drummer Bill English (Willie Nelson) and guitarist Pat Boyack (Marcia Ball); Ross, who once played in Funderburgh’s band, has backed Keys regular Holland K. Smith.
The opportunity to buy the club came about two years ago, not long after the previous owner, Jamie Jaimerson, had passed away. Jaimerson’s widow approached the two musicians and asked them to take over the place in a strip mall on Westcreek Court. “It’s a nice neighborhood bar that needed fixed up,” said Ross, who makes his living off his landscaping company. “I’m just trying to have a nice place for people to go.”
In addition to the aforementioned changes, the co-owners also have installed two smoke suckers – apparently, smokiness was a major problem – and expanded the staff to seven. New manager is Jim McNeil, who spent about 10 years managing Jubilation, a popular blues joint that closed about eight years ago, and who also ran Jim’s Food and Blues, a hangout that shut its doors about four years ago.
Ross’ inspiration is the beloved, defunct Como bar The Bluebird Blues Club, where he often jammed with its owner, the late, legendary guitarist Robert Ealey. Keys Lounge, Ross said, attracts “people in their 20s and people in their 80s, black, white, Mexican, bikers – it’s like the old Bluebird, sort of.”
Non-blues music, however, is welcome. “If a there’s a good reggae band coming through …,” Ross said.
There’s live music six nights a week, with two weekly gigs: Johnny Mack and the Bon Ton Playboys every Tuesday, and Neal Drennan every Wednesday.
In the planning stage now are a patio and possibly another 1,000 square feet
of space.
“We’re all about the bands and customers being treated well,” Ross said. “And we’ll spend money to do it.”
– Anthony Mariani
Say Cheesy
Allow me to be frank and/or borderline rude. The Star-Telegram has started distributing a free weekly called DFW.com Ink whose contents include a splash page of photos of people partying at area clubs — if a club owner buys an ad, according to several of my sources, the chances that his or her club will be visited by a Star-T photog during optimal party hours increase exponentially. Sleazy Daily Newspaper Tactics 101. The ostensible purpose is twofold. For Star-T brass, the pics are a cheap way to get people to pick up the paper – if MySpace and Facebook have taught us anything, it’s that people like to look at pictures of themselves. Often. For clubs, the hope is that by showing some of their patrons in party-ous res, virtual onlookers will be inspired to drop by the next time they’re out and about.
Some of the pics, though, have tended to have the opposite effect on me. There have been some featured clubs that I’d been meaning to get around to checking out – until I saw some of their customers in print. Then I was all like, “Whoah! So not my kind of crowd. Scratch that club off my list of 817 places to go.”
No offense to the photog, longtime friend of the Weekly, Velton Heyworth, who frames and lights his pics nicely. (Not sure why he doesn’t ID his subjects, though. If MySpace and Facebook have taught us anything else, it’s that people want to see their names if not in bright lights then at least Times New Roman 10.) And no offense to the people who’ve had their pictures taken: Wearing an Affliction t-shirt or sporting khaki shorts with flip-flops is just fine and dandy. It’s just not for me. And no offense to the Star-T. For the record, we thought of posting reader pics a couple months ago for our web site. We decided not to because A.) we couldn’t afford to, in terms of manpower hours, and B.) we already have MySpace and Facebook pages.
And to the owners of the three or four featured clubs that I haven’t visited and, thanks to DFW.com Ink, probably never will: Stay strong. Just ’cause I’m too cool for school doesn’t mean my friends are. (Fact: Steve and Laurie are not.) — A.M.
Contact Last Call at lastcall@fwweekly.com.
