Honky Tonk Tuesday Nights Moves On from American Legion Era

The Cowpokes at American Legion Post 82


For nine years come the first week of August, “Honky Tonk Tuesday Nights” organized by Nashville musicians Brendan Malone and Kevin Martin of The Cowpokes has been the small local gathering with massive international impact on country music. Just as much (if not more) than any other weekly event or venue, Honky Tonk Tuesday Nights has helped fuel country music’s neotraditional resurgence.

As an incubator for talent, Honky Tonk Tuesday Nights is an excellent example of how the grassroots can work effectively to build things up from the ground and create a stepping stone for both local performers and folks passing through town on tour. Sierra Ferrell, Margo Price, and others owe appearances at Honky Tonk Tuesday Nights to igniting the spark in their careers.

The weekly event has also made The American Legion Post 82 on Gallatin Pike the unlikely internationally-known music venue. Along with hosting Honky Tonk Tuesdays from the very beginning, Post 82 also boasts hosting super intimate shows from major performers like Hank Williams Jr. and Billy Strings.

But earlier this week amid changes at the American Legion Post, Honky Tonk Tuesday Nights has announced they are officially moving to Eastside Bowl, which is only a couple of miles away, but light years ahead when it comes to parking, plumbing, amenities, room on the dance floor, and many other upgrades to take the weekly event into the future.

Along with The Cowpokes, which also includes Brandon Birkendahal on guitar, Andy Gibson on steel guitar, and John McTigue III on drums, the incredible list of names of those who’ve performed at Honky Tonk Tuesday Nights includes:

Rodney Crowell, Emmylou Harris, Vince Gill, Sierra Ferrell, Warner Mack, Raul Malo, Carlene Carter, Chuck Mead, Charley Crockett, David Ball, Kelsey Waldon, Jim Lauderdale, Luke Bell, Greg Garing, Lillie Mae, Brennen Leigh, James Intveld, Rosie Flores, Dale Watson, Riders in the Sky, Chris Scruggs, Buck Trent, Elizabeth Cook, Nikki Lane, Margo Price, Joshua Hedley, Jesse Daniel, Joshua Ray Walker, Mel Tillis, Stella Parton, Logan Ledger, Country Side of Harmonica Sam, Emily Nenni, Kristina Murray, and many more.

There were two times that Honky Tonk Tuesdays had Rodney Crowell on the bill, and he ended up bringing Emmylou Harris, Vince Gill, and steel guitar player Paul Franklin with him. Jim Lauderdale says he loves to play Honky Tonk Tuesdays because it reminds him of what it was like playing at California’s Palomino Club back in the day. Chuck Mead and the guys from BR-549 say it’s similar to the scene at Robert’s Western World in the ’90s when the neotraditional and punk country enthusiasts revitalized Lower Broadway. Others compare it to the ’70s scene at the Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin.

Beyond everything else, Honky Tonk Tuesday Nights also happens to be arguably Nashville’s greatest weekly dance event, and it starts each week with dance lessons open to the public. It’s also Nashville’s greatest networking event according to local musicians. With so much talent in one place, bands form out in the parking lot, side players are hooked up with solo artists while waiting for drinks, and labels find the next undiscovered star on the stage.

Sierra Ferrell was simply a busking performer that had blown into Nashville and was hanging around the event when they let her get up and sing. Brendan Malone and Kevin Martin later found out that these were some of the first times Sierra Ferrell had ever sung into a microphone as a solo artist. When Kevin Martin would go out of town playing with his other project, Hogslop Sting Band, Ferrell started filling in more regularly. Soon she basically became the lead singer for The Cowpokes. She was eventually signed by Rounder Records after label representatives saw her at the American Legion Post.

Jack White was a regular attendee of the event in its early days, and this is where he made a deep connection with Margo Price who was signed to his Third Man Records label.

“In the early days, we didn’t have a huge crowd. But the night that Margo played, that was the night that it was really off the rails,” Kevin Martin explains. Like so many artists before they make a national impact, Kevin says Margo Price was ‘Nashville famous’ at the time. “There were so many people, I remember thinking to myself, ‘I can’t believe they’re still letting people in here.'”

Just as much as Honky Tonk Tuesday Nights has been about who is on the stage, it’s also been about who is in the crowd. Jan Howard was seen hanging out before her passing in 2020. Robert Plant was spotted in the crowd on numerous occasions. In the early days, Jack White was a mainstay, and Kacey Musgraves could be spotted on the dance floor.

“It would be cool when you were on stage and look up and you’d see Kacey Musgraves dancing, David Rawlings or Gillian Welch dancing. Women would just show up to the legion and stand on the edge of the dance floor waiting for Jack to ask them to dance,” says Brendan Malone.

But since Honky Tonk Tuesday Nights has mostly a built-in crowd, it really doesn’t matter who plays or who shows up in the audience. It’s always packed, and always a good time. They only announce performers the day of or the day before the show. And it’s always had a family atmosphere above anything else.

Brendan Malone (left) and Kevin Martin (right) [photo: Jeomy Reaux]


“We were all just hanging out at the legion. It was our secret bar,” says Brendan Malone. “This was in 2014 before we were playing music there. A friend named Matt Campbell who is a veteran was doing a veteran’s songwriter night there. And so me and Cory Younts from Old Crow Medicine Show, and Hugh Masterson decided to go in there and check it out.”

They were initially drawn to American Legion Post 82 because the beer was cheap and you could still smoke inside. But within an hour, Brendan Malone and his entourage had fallen in love with the people there. “We called Joshua Hedley. Cory called David Rawlings and Gillian Welch, and everyone came on that first night, and the Commander [of the American Legion Post] was like, ‘It’s so great to have y’all here. You should hang out here all the time.'”

Within the next six months, The American Legion Post 82 became like a speakeasy for musicians. Nobody talked about it to other people. You had to know someone going to know about it. Also around the six month mark, the former Post Commander Pete Barnett (RIP) asked the musicians hanging out to start performing. They picked Tuesday because that was the day most Nashville-based musicians are in town.

An Australian musician named Stu Arkoff first fronted the band that formed to play the Legion, and they called themselves the Swampy Tonk Drifters. But when Arkoff’s Visa ran out, they took the remnants of the band and created The Cowpokes. Logan Ledger also became a primary member of the band at that point.

The Cowpokes have had many interchangeable players over the years, with Kevin Martin, Brendan Malone, and steel guitarist Andy Gibson being the mainstays. Greg Garing was in the band for a couple of years, Cory Younts, Brennen Leigh, Chris Scruggs, and others can officially claim to be part of the Cowpokes clan. “Sierra Ferrell calls herself a Cowpoke,” says Kevin Martin. “If someone sat in or subbed in with the band enough for us to give them one of the red ties, you’re a Cowpoke.”

Moving from the American Legion Post 82 to Eastside Bowl certainly feels like the end of an era for both Honky Tonk Tuesday Nights and the American Legion Post 82, though the venue says they will be keeping the tradition going, just with different personnel. But many of the Tuesday Night faithful say they will follow Brendan Malone and Kevin Martin, and they look forward to the transition if for no other reason than the ease of parking.

“That’s going to be everyone’s first reaction. Hey, I can park within view of the venue,” says Kevin Martin. “I’m really excited about the move, and a lot of our longtime attendees are stoked about it. Everybody I ran it by, the reaction was ‘Oh thank God.’ Ya’ll are way past due for moving this thing.”

As management at the American Legion Post has changed, capacity has been reduced, parking obviously hasn’t improved, and some say the vibe has changed. But even though the event is leaving, their keeping the Veteran focus of Tuesday. After all, one of the original motivations of the weekly gathering was to support a local institution that supports Veterans.

Faron Young and George Jones used to be members of the American Legion Post 82, as were Marty Robbins and Ferlin Husky. For all the old Grand Ole Opry stars that served in the military, Post 82 was their Legion.

“Honky Tonk Tuesday Nights has a legacy of being kind to the Veteran community, and we may be moving, but we’re still giving free admission to Veteran and active duty servicemembers,” says Kevin Martin.” It’s important, and a lot of those people are part of our community. And the main issue is that we just didn’t have space [at the legion]. The new dance floor is double the size as the current one. It’s 700 capacity, there’s a balcony, there’s two bars. We’re going to have a bunch of vendors.”

Honky Tonk Tuesday Nights is also teaming up with the official afterparty that would happen next door to the American Legion each week. The Cowpokes will play with Todd Day Wait every week with two other featured acts. And of course, it will all kick off with dance lessons open to everyone.

The last official Honky Tonk Tuesday Nights at American Legion Post 82 is on July 30th, and the first at Eastside Bowl will be on August 6th.

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You can see snapshots from the life of Brendan Malone, Kevin Martin, Nashville’s Honky Tonk scene, and Honky Tonk Tuesdays from a few years ago in the documentary Honky Tonk Moonlight.


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