Austin’s Best Honky Tonk

The Broken Spoke is billed as the best honky tonk in Texas and a must-see in Austin. So we went and saw, and danced the Texas two-step. The band was so-so, which might be as expected on a week night, but the ambience was true Texas.

The structure was built in 1964 and has not be remodeled or updated one iota since. But that is OK. All a true honky tonk needs is a bar, a stage, and a dance floor, and Broken Spoke has it all.

Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, and Kris Kristofferson, to name a few, have performed at Broken Spoke. ClanDonnell did not perform, but you can add the clan to the list of patrons.

You might ask yourself – what is a honky tonk, and where did the expression come from?

The definition is whatever you might want it to be, but as an establishment, it usually refers to an inexpensive (cheap?) and sometimes disreputable bar or dance hall where country music is played.

Where did the expression come from? There is some debate, but I’ll go with this explanation from The Iola Register newspaper in Iola, Kansas, on June 23, 1893:

“When a particularly vicious and low grade theater opens up in an Oklahoma town they call it a ‘honky-tonk’. The name didn’t just ‘come from’ anything; it just growed.”