that provides musical entertainment (usually country music
) to its patrons. Bars of this kind are common in the Southern
and Southwestern
United States
.
The term "honky-tonk" has also been applied to various styles of 20th-century American music.
The origin of the term honky tonk is unknown. The earliest source explaining the derivation of the term (spelled "honkatonk") was an article published in 1900 by the New York Sun and widely reprinted in other newspapers.
The honk-a-tonk last night was well attended by ball heads, bachelors and leading citizens.
It was moaned by resonant moaners in honky tonks of the southwest.
"This place ain't no damn honkatonk, stranger," reproved the bar-tender... "Folks get throwed outa here sometimes."
Its master whose anonymous dust lay with that of his blood and of the progenitors of saxophone players in Harlem honky-tonks.
Honky-tonks, restaurants and whore-houses.
These honkey-tonks ran wide open twenty-four hours a day... Their attendance was some of the lowest caliber women in the world and their intake was the revenue from the little, pitiful gambling games they operated.
I didn't know God made honky tonk angels I might have known you'd never make a wife You gave up the only one that ever loved you and went back to the wild side of life
It wasn't God who made honky tonk angels As you said in the words of your song Too many times married men think they're still single That has caused many a good girl to go wrong
I met a gin soaked, bar-room queen in Memphis, She tried to take me upstairs for a ride. She had to heave me right across her shoulder 'Cause I just can't seem to drink you off my mind. It's the honky tonk women Gimme, gimme, gimme the honky tonk blues.
I walked into a honky tonk just the other day. I put a nickel in the jukebox just to hear it play.