Editorial
Dallas has played live since the 1920s, when Blind Lemon Jefferson and the country blues singers worked the streets of Deep Ellum east of downtown. The quarter went quiet for decades and came back loud, and the stages there now carry the same lineage of guitars and late nights. Across the city, jazz balconies and roadhouse pubs keep their own traditions. We mapped the eight rooms where Dallas still plays.
East of downtown, the old blues quarter holds the city's deepest run of live rooms.
Beyond Deep Ellum, the patios and pubs carry the music north and east.
For the full Deep Ellum night, Club Dada and Three Links sit a few doors apart and rarely disappoint. For jazz with history, the Balcony Club beside the Lakewood Theater is the city's most romantic room. Poor David's Pub carries the songwriter tradition Dallas has kept for half a century. Most of these charge a cover on show nights and take walk ins otherwise. Check the calendars first, because the best bands in Dallas still sell out the small rooms.
Mei-Lin Zhao writes about the history and culture of city drinking. She traces each room back to its lineage, its music, and the neighbourhood that shaped it.