Knuckleheads Saloon
Encyclopedia
Knuckleheads Saloon is a music venue in Kansas City, Missouri
. The facility is a complex of three stages - a large outdoor stage featuring a converted caboose
to one side as a VIP seating area, a 220 seat indoor stage and a 50 seat lounge known as the "Retro Room". The last doubles as a blues music oriented church on Wednesday evenings when it is renamed the "Gospel Lounge". Live music can be presented on all three stages at once. The venue presents live music five nights of the week, Wednesday through Sunday, with occasional Tuesday concerts.
. A very active train track runs close by the outdoor stage - performers have had to become accustomed to train whistles blowing during shows. Singer-songwriter Joe Ely
was performing his song Boxcar on the outdoor stage when a train came by, blowing its whistle at the right point in the song. Ely said he had "...waited 20 years for a train to come by at the perfect timing".
Knucklehead's Saloon is owned by Frank & Mary Hicks, who owned an auto body shop called Mid-City Collision Repair. They opened a Harley-Davidson
motorcycle dealership across the street from Mid-City in 1997 called F.O.G. Cycles (an acronym for "Fucking Old Guys"), and sponsored street parties as a promotional tool, giving away free beer. In 2001, Hicks obtained a liquor license and the bar opened as Knucklehead's Saloon in homage to a trio of his cycling friends, calling themselves The Three Stooges. In 2004, Hicks closed F.O.G. Cycles to concentrate on the club. Mid-City has a mural
painted on the wall facing Knuckleheads featuring rock, blues and country icons Elvis Presley
, Stevie Ray Vaughan
and Hank Williams Sr.
The location in the East Bottoms on Rochester Street, bordered on the east by Montgall Ave, on the east by the North Chestnut Trafficway overpass and the south by railroad tracks can be difficult to find. The entire East Bottoms area is separated from Front Street and the highway system on the north by five very active sets of train tracks. North Chestnut Trafficway from the south
and Guinotte Ave from the west are generally quicker as both routes feature a bridge over the train tracks.
band Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band
recorded their live album Live at Knuckleheads, Kansas City
and an accompanying DVD in 2007, as did Cadillac Flambe in 2010.
The venue hosts several hundred performers every year, with concerts five nights a week, with two or three different stages operating in a single night.
National acts who have played Knuckleheads include Leon Russell
, Edgar Winter
and his brother Johnny Winter
, Ray Price
, Billy Joe Shaver
, Dale Watson
, Kinky Friedman
, Rodney Crowell
and David Lindley
.
Advance tickets are sold for concerts by most of the national and international acts playing the venue via eTix.
, allowing amateur musicians to play on stage with professionals. The Saturday jam is hosted by Billy Ebeling and Duane Goldston from 1 PM to 6 PM. The Sunday jam is hosted by the band Leveetown from 2 PM to 6 PM.
The venue has television screens and projectors in every public and performer area to present what is happening on the various stages, or an in-house calendar of upcoming events. Each stage has three cameras feeding through a switch to a NewTek
Tricaster video mixer that drives the in-house video and an optional UStream web stream
.
"Keeping Blues Alive" award as Best Blues Club in 2008, calling it "...the place to see live Blues in Kansas City" and "...a premier stop for Blues artists traveling through the Midwest".
Starting in 2005, it has won Best Blues Club from the readers of the Kansas City alternative paper The Pitch, and has won that award for each of the following six years. Bill Brownlee of the Kansas City Star, in a review of a concert by Leon Russell, said "Knuckleheads is Kansas City's premier roots music venue of the last 30 years."
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
. The facility is a complex of three stages - a large outdoor stage featuring a converted caboose
Caboose
A caboose is a manned North American rail transport vehicle coupled at the end of a freight train. Although cabooses were once used on nearly every freight train, their use has declined and they are seldom seen on trains, except on locals and smaller railroads.-Function:The caboose provided the...
to one side as a VIP seating area, a 220 seat indoor stage and a 50 seat lounge known as the "Retro Room". The last doubles as a blues music oriented church on Wednesday evenings when it is renamed the "Gospel Lounge". Live music can be presented on all three stages at once. The venue presents live music five nights of the week, Wednesday through Sunday, with occasional Tuesday concerts.
History
The original building was built in 1887 as a railroad boardinghouse, across the street from the original location of early Kansas City amusement park Electric ParkElectric Park, Kansas City
Electric Park was the name shared by two amusement parks in Kansas City, Missouri, USA that were constructed by Joseph Heim and his brothers Michael and Ferdinand Jr. and run by them...
. A very active train track runs close by the outdoor stage - performers have had to become accustomed to train whistles blowing during shows. Singer-songwriter Joe Ely
Joe Ely
Joe Ely is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist whose music touches on honky-tonk, Texas Country, Tex-Mex and rock and roll....
was performing his song Boxcar on the outdoor stage when a train came by, blowing its whistle at the right point in the song. Ely said he had "...waited 20 years for a train to come by at the perfect timing".
Knucklehead's Saloon is owned by Frank & Mary Hicks, who owned an auto body shop called Mid-City Collision Repair. They opened a Harley-Davidson
Harley-Davidson
Harley-Davidson , often abbreviated H-D or Harley, is an American motorcycle manufacturer. Founded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, during the first decade of the 20th century, it was one of two major American motorcycle manufacturers to survive the Great Depression...
motorcycle dealership across the street from Mid-City in 1997 called F.O.G. Cycles (an acronym for "Fucking Old Guys"), and sponsored street parties as a promotional tool, giving away free beer. In 2001, Hicks obtained a liquor license and the bar opened as Knucklehead's Saloon in homage to a trio of his cycling friends, calling themselves The Three Stooges. In 2004, Hicks closed F.O.G. Cycles to concentrate on the club. Mid-City has a mural
Mural
A mural is any piece of artwork painted or applied directly on a wall, ceiling or other large permanent surface. A particularly distinguishing characteristic of mural painting is that the architectural elements of the given space are harmoniously incorporated into the picture.-History:Murals of...
painted on the wall facing Knuckleheads featuring rock, blues and country icons Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
, Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stephen Ray "Stevie Ray" Vaughan was an American electric blues guitarist and singer. He was the younger brother of Jimmie Vaughan and frontman for Double Trouble, a band that included bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton. Born in Dallas, Vaughan moved to Austin at the age of 17 and...
and Hank Williams Sr.
The location in the East Bottoms on Rochester Street, bordered on the east by Montgall Ave, on the east by the North Chestnut Trafficway overpass and the south by railroad tracks can be difficult to find. The entire East Bottoms area is separated from Front Street and the highway system on the north by five very active sets of train tracks. North Chestnut Trafficway from the south
and Guinotte Ave from the west are generally quicker as both routes feature a bridge over the train tracks.
Performers
ZydecoZydeco
Zydeco is a form of uniquely American roots or folk music. It evolved in southwest Louisiana in the early 19th century from forms of "la la" Creole music...
band Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band
Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band
Chubby Carrier And The Bayou Swamp Band is a Zydeco band from Louisiana founded by Chubby Carrier in 1989.-Awards:Chubby Carrier And The Bayou Swamp Band have a Grammy award for Best Zydeco or Cajun Music Album for their album Zydeco Junkie...
recorded their live album Live at Knuckleheads, Kansas City
Live at Knuckleheads, Kansas City
Live at Knuckleheads, Kansas City is an album by the Grammy winning Zydeco band Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band recorded at Knuckleheads Saloon in Kansas City, Missouri and released in 2007.-Track listing:...
and an accompanying DVD in 2007, as did Cadillac Flambe in 2010.
The venue hosts several hundred performers every year, with concerts five nights a week, with two or three different stages operating in a single night.
National acts who have played Knuckleheads include Leon Russell
Leon Russell
Claude Russell Bridges , known professionally as Leon Russell, is an American musician and songwriter, who has recorded as a session musician, sideman, and maintained a solo career in music....
, Edgar Winter
Edgar Winter
Edgar Holland Winter is an American musician. He is famous for being a multi-instrumentalist. He is a highly skilled keyboardist, saxophonist and percussionist. He often plays an instrument while singing. He was most successful in the 1970s with his band, The Edgar Winter Group, notably with their...
and his brother Johnny Winter
Johnny Winter
John Dawson "Johnny" Winter III is an American blues guitarist, singer, and producer. Best known for his late 1960s and 1970s high-energy blues-rock albums and live performances, Winter also produced three Grammy Award-winning albums for blues legend Muddy Waters...
, Ray Price
Ray Price (musician)
Ray Price is an American country music singer, songwriter and guitarist. His wide-ranging baritone has often been praised as among the best male voices of country music...
, Billy Joe Shaver
Billy Joe Shaver
Billy Joe Shaver is a Texas country music singer and songwriter. Shaver's 1973 album Old Five and Dimers Like Me is a classic in the outlaw country genre.-Biography:...
, Dale Watson
Dale Watson (singer)
Dale Watson is an American alternative country/Texas Country singer, guitarist and songwriter based in Austin, Texas. He's positioned himself as a tattooed, stubbornly independent outsider who is interested in recording authentic country music...
, Kinky Friedman
Kinky Friedman
Richard S. "Kinky" Friedman is an American Texas Country singer, songwriter, novelist, humorist, politician and former columnist for Texas Monthly who styles himself in the mold of popular American satirists Will Rogers and Mark Twain. He was one of two independent candidates in the 2006 election...
, Rodney Crowell
Rodney Crowell
Rodney Crowell is a Grammy Award-winning musician, known primarily for his work as a singer and songwriter in country music....
and David Lindley
David Lindley (musician)
David Perry Lindley is an American musician who is notable for his work with Jackson Browne, Warren Zevon, and other rock musicians. He has worked extensively in other genres as well, performing with artists as varied as Curtis Mayfield and Dolly Parton...
.
Advance tickets are sold for concerts by most of the national and international acts playing the venue via eTix.
Gospel Lounge
Reverend Carl Butler of the New Song Christian Fellowship church started holding church services in 2009 on Wednesday nights in the smallest of Knuckleheads' three performance spaces. They are intended to be for those who work late on Saturday nights, what Butler describes as "a church geared toward service-industry people." Butler is a guitarist and recovering drug abuser and mixes music and preaching, playing "...everything from Merle Haggard to Motown".Jam sessions
Saturday and Sunday afternoons feature open jamsJam session
Jam sessions are often used by musicians to develop new material, find suitable arrangements, or simply as a social gathering and communal practice session. Jam sessions may be based upon existing songs or forms, may be loosely based on an agreed chord progression or chart suggested by one...
, allowing amateur musicians to play on stage with professionals. The Saturday jam is hosted by Billy Ebeling and Duane Goldston from 1 PM to 6 PM. The Sunday jam is hosted by the band Leveetown from 2 PM to 6 PM.
Facilities
The outdoor stage is equipped with a 40 channel mixing board, the indoor stage has a slightly smaller 36 channel board and the Retro Room/Gospel Lounge has a 16 channel board.The venue has television screens and projectors in every public and performer area to present what is happening on the various stages, or an in-house calendar of upcoming events. Each stage has three cameras feeding through a switch to a NewTek
NewTek
NewTek, Inc. is a San Antonio, Texas-based hardware and software company that produces live and post-production video tools and visual imaging software for personal computers...
Tricaster video mixer that drives the in-house video and an optional UStream web stream
Streaming media
Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a streaming provider.The term "presented" is used in this article in a general sense that includes audio or video playback. The name refers to the delivery method of the medium rather...
.
Honors
Knuckleheads was given the Blues Foundation'sBlues Foundation
The Blues Foundation is an American nonprofit corporation, headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, that is affiliated with more than 175 Blues organizations from various parts of the world....
"Keeping Blues Alive" award as Best Blues Club in 2008, calling it "...the place to see live Blues in Kansas City" and "...a premier stop for Blues artists traveling through the Midwest".
Starting in 2005, it has won Best Blues Club from the readers of the Kansas City alternative paper The Pitch, and has won that award for each of the following six years. Bill Brownlee of the Kansas City Star, in a review of a concert by Leon Russell, said "Knuckleheads is Kansas City's premier roots music venue of the last 30 years."