While the hipsters and city folks pick their folk, bluegrass and alt-country down on Ballard Avenue, the real Western Washington cowboys and cowgirls are sweating their hearts out on the dance floor at the Little Red Hen. For 40 years, the Greenlake bar has been sitting just off the main drag, around the corner from Gregg’s Cycles, unassumingly quiet and nondescript from the outside. When it opened all those years ago, the LRH was just a restaurant and bar. It took them 20 years to start welcoming local country bands. But, since “around 18 to 20 years” ago, they’ve maintained a steady schedule featuring the best local country bands and artists—holding up the long tradition of country music in Seattle as the last remaining club dedicated entirely to the genre.
Manager Ron Shmerelson isn’t afraid to brag about the bar he calls his second home. “We’ve got all the top local country bands. We were voted top bar in town for pick-ups. Picked best karaoke in the city in five different [lists].” When asked where he believes most of their clientele comes from, Shmerelson says he believes they’re serving a community of country music fans that stretches from Tacoma to Everett, although people come in from far and wide. “I’ve taken reservations from Denmark,” he says. “With the website up, we get people from all over the world.”
Walk in the door, and you’re instantly transported outside the city limits, or so it feels. Cowboy hats are only outnumbered by cowboy boots. It’s a gritty, down-home, rural feeling that separates the Little Red Hen from every other bar in town that welcomes Americana artists. While some of the house bands pepper their sets with blues and southern rock jams, most of the music that takes place here is classic-style country music—the kind that makes you want to grab a partner and own the floor. For all the city folks who aren’t as familiar with the Texas two-step and other styles, country dancing lessons are free every Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday night.
Six nights a week, stellar live bands rock the place with old school country classics—Cash to Acuff, Haggard to Hank, Sr., occasional originals—giving the dancers an opportunity to put their new moves to work.
House bands for country dance parties include Knute Bell and the Blue Collars, who grace the stage frequently. Other local bands that have rocked the Little Red Hen include the Buckaroo Blues Band (who play as much country and alt-country as they do blues). The Rolling Blackouts, whose classic-style country music is, as all good country music is, a solid tribute to rural life.
There’s also country music karaoke every Wednesday night at 9 p.m., and a full menu to accommodate you through breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Pull tabs are at the bar, drink specials on Wednesdays.
May 13th, 2008 at 9:31 am
Thanks for covering the Hen- I’ve been going there for years and agree it’s one of the best venues in the city. Definitely the most authentic too. Love your magazine and all the stuff you cover. The new site is awesome too! Congratulations and keep up the good work.
May 13th, 2008 at 11:46 am
Do not be deceived by the name Buckaroo Blues, they are a solid country band and NOT a blues band. A little rock now and again but not the blues as mentioned above. So definitely come two step, waltz and swing dance to the Bucks tunes.
May 13th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
The blues comment came from the band’s website, where they describe themselves as a “mixture of new and classic country, rock, blues and the occasional surprise song (cow-funk, anyone?).”