Entertainment on a Dime: $3 Blue Grass

Crazy Strings Kick Up Dust at The Silver Dollar

"The Silver Dollar? That dive? Really?"
"Yes. Really," this is the same conversation I have with each person I tell about Crazy Strings.
"So, Bluegrass, eh?"
"Yeeup," me again.

But what I really want to say is that it might look like a dive from the outside - torn awning, pigeon-dropping-covered-Elvis-mannequin, the Scott Mission right beside it - but from the inside it's a regular 'ol bar with a stage. Really not as seedy as it could be, and full of affluently dressed late teens who don't have school on Thursday morning. I also want to say the band is phenomenal and you'll wish you could be whisked away to West Virginia to sit on a bail of hay, or a rickety porch swing, by the second song.

My two dates and I show up early, 10pm. There are maybe 12 other patrons, not including the band, scattered throughout the dimly lit room. I wonder out loud if people have forgotten about the Wednesday night tradition, after the band/venue took about a year off. I later realize no one had forgotten, they just show up later than us working gals.

The band, Crazy Strings, better known outside The Silver Dollar Room as The Foggy Hogtown Boys (oh so reminiscent of The Foggy Bottom Boys, no? I'm not sure if they're being clever and intentionally referencing the well known movie band or if it's just a coinkydink) play three sets of about half an hour.

I've been going to see Crazy Strings for a few years now and I've been bragging about them to everyone I know for the same length of time. Comprised of 5 members (sometimes more), a fiddle (sometimes 2), a banjo (sometimes 2, if I'm lucky, i have a huge crush on banjos), an acoustic guitar (usually 2), a stand up bass, a mandolin, and a whole buncha voices, the FHB are one of the most exciting blue grass bands this side of the border. They tour from coast to coast, have been written up in magazines and newspapers including NOW, and are finally receiving the recognition, I think, they deserve.

By midnight the long front room of the silver dollar begins to fill up, and those who have been there since 10 start to get rowdy, and those who're getting rowdy start to dance. There are always drink deals, and drinks with food deals. And keep an eye open for a vintage suitcase filled with rows of CDs. Take a listen to a few tracks from their many albums in "Music."

Wednesday nights are awkward, it's not quite party time, but you're starting to get in that mood. I highly recommend, just about as highly as one can recommend, that you pull a few friends together for a Wednesday night at the Silver Dollar. Get ready to dance, even if you've never two-stepped or foxtrotted, you'll get the hang of quick feet and swinging your partner 'round the floor!