Wednesday, May 30, 2007

National Recognition For an Uptown Treasure

CHICAGO -- For fans of '70s country music, Carol's Pub in uptown Chicago will make you feel like you've stepped right back into the glory days of George Jones, Waylon Jennings and Merle Haggard. If Conway Twitty were there to personally greet you, he'd say, "Hello darlin', nice to see you. It's been a long tiiiime."Yes, it certainly has been a long time. This nondescript building has been a "country and western" bar for 35 years, at least. Carol Harris, 49, has owned the place since her husband, Ted, died 14 years ago. He had run it since 1972. If you were to darken the doors on Thursday, Friday or Saturday nights now, you'd still hear a lot of country music from the 1970s with longtime band Diamondback gliding through classics by Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Ray Price, Tanya Tucker and Hank Williams."It just seems like there is no more live music in the city, at least country and western," Harris says. "There are very few places and it's always been country and western here. In fact, a long time ago, people said, 'Turn it into a disco bar or rock,' and we just stuck with country and western."

Continue reading at CMT.com:

5 comments:

  1. Thanks for posting this story. I've been to Carol's several times over the past year and it's always fun. The crowd is much more diverse than your average bar, and people are just laid back and having a good time.

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  2. Isn't that where Jeffrey Dahlmer picked up one of his victims?

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  3. After a little googling, it looks like the place where Dahmer picked up one of his victims was called Carol's Speakeasy, which closed down long ago.

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  4. Just refrain from using the washrooms... I cant even believe that the health department lets them stay open.

    I have seen better in vacant buildings.

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