Zephaniah OHora Bringing Skinny Dennis Venue to Nashville
NeW yOrK CiTy! ? !
That’s right. Brooklyn to be exact, and the Williamsburg neighborhood to be specific. This is where the Skinny Dennis honky tonk has been located at 152 Metropolitan Ave. since 2013, giving country fans and country musicians both locally and passing through a place to feel at home far away from the Texas vibe that inspired the place.
Though it’s a local venue, the Skinny Dennis has become nationally and internationally known, especially by traditional country fans who’ve been following the career of country crooner Zephaniah Ohora who has worked as the booking agent and in other capacities for the venue over the years. But if you’re one of those who would never be caught dead in NYC or just don’t have the occasion to make it up there, you will soon have a new opportunity at the Skinny Dennis experience.
A second location of the iconic Brooklyn hot spot will be opening in East Nashville in the spring of 2024 or so. Zephaniah Ohora has made the migration South to Nashville where he officially moved to earlier this year, and is bringing the Skinny Dennis concept with him. Though specific details are still coming together, the plan is for the location to be full-service venue with a green room and the whole nine yards. The NYC Skinny Dennis is more of a bar with a stage as opposed to a proper music venue.
On Saturday, September 23rd as part of the week’s AmericanaFest in Nashville, an event was held at Star Rover Sound in Germantown to help promote the upcoming venue. Zephaniah OHora performed, as did Howlin’ Hurd, Luke Munday, Cristina Vane, Elijah Ocean, Kristina Murray, Brennen Leigh, and Joshua Hedly and the Headliners. Just like the Skinny Dennis in New York, they made sure they had Lone Star Beer on hand to serve.
The Skinny Dennis is named after bass player Skinny Dennis Sanchez who plays a big role in Outlaw country lore. Standing 6’11” and weighing only 137 pounds, he was the bass player for Guy Clark out in Los Angeles, and was also friends with Townes Van Zandt, Rodney Crowell, Steve Earle, Richard Dobson, and others. He died on stage in 1975 at the age of 28 due to heart failure while playing with John Malcolm Penn.
Though the public didn’t know much about Skinny Dennis initially, he was memorialized in Guy Clark’s 1975 version of his song “L.A. Freeway” where Clark sang, “Here’s to you ol’ Skinny Dennis, the only one I think I will miss.” The iconic Outlaw country documentary Heartworn Highway was also dedicated to the bass player.
Though a new Skinny Dennis location may sound exciting, what some Zephania Ohora fans may want to know is when he might have new music on the way. He did feature some new songs during his set. Zeph will be part owner of the new venue, and also handle booking and other duties. OHora doesn’t tour very often, but there’s a good bet you will be able to see him at Nashville’s version of Skinny Dennis come 2024.
September 24, 2023 @ 8:15 am
Great news! I’ve never been to NYC, but have friends in Nashville that’ll make the trip from Austin worthwhile. I first learned of Zeph’s music here on SCM several years ago and he’s since become one of my favorite artists.
September 24, 2023 @ 8:29 am
Well, I’ll take this over another bro-bar on Broadway. That’s for sure.
September 24, 2023 @ 8:32 am
Skinny Dennis in Brooklyn is one of my favorite venues in the world. Such an awesome place to listen to music.
September 24, 2023 @ 12:40 pm
I like Ohora, but genuinely perplexed by the Twitter profile declaring “ Songwriter Zir/Zie/Ze”, but the official homepage bio being slap full of “he”, “his”, “him”, and himself”. Anyone know what’s up with that?
September 24, 2023 @ 1:01 pm
Well if we’re seriously gonna go as far as having “Z” pronouns…if anyone is gonna get them it’s gonna be me (~);} -Z
September 24, 2023 @ 1:21 pm
Looking forward to your next record. Best of luck with your Nashville venture. Thanks for the reply.
September 24, 2023 @ 5:24 pm
I think that’s called humor buddy
September 24, 2023 @ 1:02 pm
I love the Skinny Dennis. First went there shortly after you wrote an article about the country music scene in New York. I wonder if they’ll serve theit frozen coffee in the iconic NY coffee cups at the new place.
September 24, 2023 @ 1:57 pm
I got to see Cristina Vane and have my first Lone Star at the Brooklyn location last year. It was a good night.
September 24, 2023 @ 2:05 pm
As a country music fan living in NYC, Skinny Dennis is a heaven to me. The regular band that plays there most Friday nights, The National Reserve, is as good as it gets. Highly recommend checking them out. Have also seen John R Miller and Willi Carlisle come through town there. Few places like it.
September 25, 2023 @ 11:16 am
Joshua Hedley comes by too. I haven’t been lucky enough to see him there yet though.
September 24, 2023 @ 2:18 pm
Great news, Good luck Zeph with the new venue, and hopefully you can still find time to make some more of your fabulous music, get Graboff to play some steel also!
September 24, 2023 @ 6:17 pm
Great to bring awesome music to Brooklyn but why in the world would you want to bring in Lone Star! Blech!
September 25, 2023 @ 8:00 am
Lone Star isn’t easy to get outside Texas. I was at our local honky tonk in the Midwest over the weekend watching Dallas Moore and his band tear it up. They were out of Lone Star and I thought the natives were going to burn the place down. It’s just expected. But doesn’t mean it’s good! Fortunately Dallas had the whole place doing tequila shots with him and everyone forgot about the mishap.
September 24, 2023 @ 7:22 pm
Love Zeph’s music. Pretty cool he is a fellow Dead fan too. Next time I’m in Nashville, I’ll try and check out this venue.
September 24, 2023 @ 7:46 pm
I liked Zephaniah’s song “All American Singer”. It reminds me a lot of early Merle Haggard especially “I Take a Lot of Pride in What I Am”. It’s good to
See that TRUE country shines even in places like NYC and bringing that brand back home to Nashville. Wish I the best of luck to Zephaniah in his endeavor.
September 24, 2023 @ 9:03 pm
Rob Leines is playing Skinny Dennis in BK in October. Psyched!!!
Zeph has booked incredible bands.
He’s a huge supporter of the Dead community.
Can’t say enough good things about him and Skinny Dennis.
September 24, 2023 @ 9:58 pm
I used to live a few blocks away, as James McMurtey said, “before it went hipster.” Or while it was going, more accurately. The only county bar I could find in NYC in those days (mid aughts) was some real crap hole—and not in a good way—in the East Village.
September 25, 2023 @ 8:03 am
I like both his albums, looking forward to whatever comes next.