Local filmmaker Giles McCrary has produced and directed a documentary about one of the most storied clubs in all of Texas: The Cellar. You Must Be Weird or You Wouldn’t Be Here is filled with never-before-seen photos and 8mm footage of the downtown place on West Berry Street (that’s still going strong, BTW). Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimmy Vaughan, Johnny Winters, Shawn Phillips, Bugs Henderson, John Nitzinger, and ZZ Top’s Frank Beard and Dusty Hill were just a few of the performers who played The Cellar. Comedian George Carlin also developed his shtick between sets and late at night there. You Must Be Weird will be screened as a work in progress on Sun., Nov. 21, at 2 p.m. at the Tandy Lecture Hall of the Downtown Fort Worth Library (500 W. 3rd St.). Admission is free. Must be 13 or older to attend. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion featuring music historian and writer Joe Nick Patoski and Cellar veterans and experts.
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Not that Cellar….the one downtown. No relation.
Thanks for the correction. I regret the error.
Here’s a link to a story I wrote about the history of local rock clubs, and The Cellar figures prominently:
http://archive.fwweekly.com/content.asp?article=6618
You forgot to mention that Jimi Hendrix also played the Cellar just before his big break. That’s what I’ve heard, anyway. I was there once as a 15 year old punk. My friends father was the lawyer for the Cellar. We met the owner Pat Kirkwood. All I remember is the topless girls serving drinks to the beatniks and bikers sitting on floor cushions. Needless to say it made a big impression. Don’t you find it odd that the Chamber of Commerce is embracing the club now that it’s no longer exists just as they have with Hell’s Half Acre.
Want to to see a bizarre pic of Pat Kirkwood and then Mayor of FW Tom Mc Cann as he signs a proclamation for National Beatnik Week? It was published in LIFE magazine in 1960. Check it out here:
http://www.arvel.com/kirkwood.htm
Live is Evil spelled backwards.
–Cellar saying
I bet some of the above mentioned played at Mother Blues way back when…