The Hideout's 'Barn Dance' Celebrates 100 Years Of Country Music In The City (2024)

BUCKTOWN —In the golden age of radio, one of the most popular programs was the “National Barn Dance.”

The variety show, also known as the “WLS Barn Dance,” ran for decades on Saturday nights on WLS radio. Listeners from across the country would tune in to hear the familiar singers proclaim, “There’ll be a hoedown in the hayloft tonight!” in the traditional opening number.

The friendly, twangy announcer would go on to introduce country acts like the Hoosier Hot Shots, the Cumberland Ridge Runners and sweetheart couple Lulubelle and Scotty. The comedic banter between the musical numbers was relaxed and conversational, punctuated by a slide whistle and no shortage of cowbell. Often a square dance would be called, and listeners would roll up their living room rugs to dance along at home.

But this bastion of rural culture and country and western music —which even preceded the Grand Old Opry —actually took place not in a cozy barn, but in Downtown Chicago. For many years, the program was broadcast live from theEighth Street Theaterat the corner of8th Streetand Wabash Avenue.

Now, on the 100th anniversary of the very first “Barn Dance,” The Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia Ave., is recreating a classic broadcast to answer the question: “What would an episode of the Barn Dance be like in 2024?”

The celebration this Saturday, titled “Hey, Hey, The Gang’s All Here: A Chicago Barn Dance,” will resemble a live radio show (and will actually be recorded for future broadcast on WFMT). The evening will feature conversation, poetry and a multitude of musical performers, like Tara Betts, Paul Collins, Los Gallos, Girls of the Golden West, Kelly Hogan, Nikki Morgan, Hawk Nebula, Lawrence Peters, The Plant Chicago, Francesca Royster, Andrew Sa and Marvin Tate.

Paul Durica said he first thought of the idea while visiting Tim Samuelson, Chicago’s cultural historian. (Although Durica is director of exhibitions at the Chicago History Museum, this is not a CHM event.) Samuelson had an original WLS microphone in his office, and Durica said he realized that the 100th anniversary of the “Barn Dance” was approaching.

“That’s when the idea began to percolate,” Durica told Block Club. “We decided to use the ‘Barn Dance’ as a jumping-off point to look at the entire century of of country music in Chicago that followed its premiere.”

Last year, author Mark Guarino released the volume “Country and Midwestern: Chicago in the History of Country Music and the Folk Revival,” which also helped serve as an inspiration for Saturday’s barn dance performance, drawing on the city’s long history as an urban home of country music.

“Long before the genre was named, country music flourished on the WLS airwaves, which transformed the music from a local commodity in communities throughout the upland South to living rooms throughout the United States,” said Guarino in an event-related press release.

According to Durica, the distance between urban and rural may be closer than you’d imagine. He said the “Barn Dance” program “connects urban rural spaces … it connects people not just over the airwaves but within communities. Particularly in rural communities, where there might be fewer radio sets, people would gather together to hear the ‘Barn Dance.’ And it helps solidify community bonds out in rural areas.”

As Guarino stated, the “Barn Dance” also helped establish country and western music as a popular genre.

“By the early 1930s, it’s moved into the Eighth Street Theater,” Durica said. “It’s doing two shows on Saturday night; it’s broadcasting not just locally and regionally but across the country. And the live audiences are flocking to it. So every Saturday, you could expect both shows to be sold out. That’s just remarkable to consider. And it was at that height of popularity for well over a decade.”

What was originally known as the “WLS Barn Dance” was followed by the Grand Old Opry just a few years later. The genre of country music in Chicago has certainly had its ups and downs since those days, but has surged within the past few decades thanks to local alt-country labels like Bloodshot Records and artists like Neko Case, Robbie Fulks, Kelly Hogan, Jon Langford and Nora O’Connor.

Durica said you can still trace some of today’s performers to the “Barn Dance” influence. For just one example, Win Stracke, one of the founders of the city’s Old Town School of Folk Music, started his musical career in Chicago as a singer on the program.

“Working on this project really wasn’t about nostalgia, like you would think,” Durica said. “Ultimately, it was about a sort of artistic continuity. Because when you began to look at today’s contemporary country music scene, and some of the people involved in insurgent or alt-country, or whatever you want to call it, many of them were taught by musicians who perhaps had a connection to the ‘Barn Dance’ or were taught by people who had a connection to the ‘Barn Dance.’ A lot of the performers from the ’20s, ’30s and 40s actually ended up sticking around the Chicago area; many of them became teachers or continued to perform. So there’s this really nice artistic tradition that stretches from that period up to the present.”

True to Barn Dance’s history, The Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia Ave., will host two shows Saturday night, complete with an emcee, a house band, a square dance caller and a full array of musical performances. Regular tickets are sold out online, but some tickets will be available at the door on the day of the event on a first-comefirst-serve basis.

A limited number of $200 “Hayloft” tickets are available, whichinclude “a reserved seat at an original Double R table, the exclusive centerpiece, a signed poster, and your name read over the air as a supporter of theBarnDance.” The performance will also be broadcast at a future date on WFMT. For more information, visit The Hideout website.

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