Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A disreputable old-time saloon or house of prostitution.
- noun An early style of jazz characterized by boisterous piano playing, group improvisation, and a two-beat rhythm.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A cheap drinking and dancing establishment.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
rough and tumble drinking establishment. - noun music A
loud ,percussive type ofblues piano suitable for noisy bars or taverns.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a cheap drinking and dancing establishment
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Mercy Dee or Mercy Dee Walton, as I knew him, was a typical Texas-style blues and half-boogie pianist, a la Whistling Alex Moore, the great Dallas pianist who is given credit in Texas blues circles as inventing what became known as the "barrelhouse" where they had barrels of whiskey and beer piano style.
From The Daily Growler Wastebasket The Daily Growler 2006
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To tie together a book that covers the colonial-era tavern, the frontier barrelhouse, the high-toned New York City saloon, the German beer-garden, the speakeasy, the cocktail lounge, the gay bar and even the contemporary neo-speakeasy, a writer needs a grand theme.
The All-American Place David Wondrich 2011
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They all come down in a rain of clamoring tambourines and bottleneck slide guitars, clawhammer banjo picking, booming jug band blowing and barrelhouse piano rolls.
FLY FISHING WITH DARTH VADER MATT LABASH 2010
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At the bottom of the post, I included a video of his stunning chase from “The Seven Ups”, which is a straight-up, barrelhouse through the streets of upper Manhattan.
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In a 1930 song called “Memphis Flu,” Elder David R. Curry, pastor of the Oakley Street Church of God in Christ, and his congregation sing over barrelhouse piano runs, hand claps, and interjections of “Praise Jesus!”
FLY FISHING WITH DARTH VADER MATT LABASH 2010
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Well, don't you let nobody, tear my barrelhouse down
Muddy Waters Lyrics 2009
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She wouldn't do nothin 'but barrelhouse all night long
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He carried the splashy, two-fisted style of great New Orleans pianists like Professor Longhair toward modern-jazz dissonance, then back toward propulsive barrelhouse; he sang the lyrics, but only after he had whooped and scat-sung, from baritone to falsetto.
Jazzfest: “Thank God I Made It” - ArtsBeat Blog - NYTimes.com 2007
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He carried the splashy, two-fisted style of great New Orleans pianists like Professor Longhair toward modern-jazz dissonance, then back toward propulsive barrelhouse; he sang the lyrics, but only after he had whooped and scat-sung, from baritone to falsetto.
Jazzfest: “Thank God I Made It” - ArtsBeat Blog - NYTimes.com 2007
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Says the Richmond composer, I thought it would be great to write a sequel showing how [Porgy] goes up north, and on the way he runs into jazz, rag, barrelhouse, jug band, gospel, all the early black folk music styles.
Archive 2006-11-01 Matthew Guerrieri 2006
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