Bluegrass Breakdown

From a good friend and part-time contributor of The Weight:

It comes as no surprise that New York City spawned some of music's greatest movements and housed several legendary world-class venues. However, there is one spot I guarantee most of the natives have overlooked. For years, The Weekly Bluegrass Jam was held each Wednesday night at the Baggott Inn (W. 3rd St.), but after the bar's demise (incidentally, it has become a makeshift jazz club), Sheriff Bob & Co. have loaded the covered wagons and voyaged down the block in search of a new frontier: The Grisly Pear. The Grisly Pear (MacDougal St./Bleeker St.), which happens to serve a wider (and better) beer selection than the Baggot (try the Chimay, Lindemans Framboise Lambic; various English bitters, or course, the obligatory Guinness), is a perfect choice of venue. Part "O Brother, Where Art Thou?," part Pete Seeger, and a splash of hippie-drum circle, the Weekly Bluegrass Jam is an absolute for any fan of the folk/Americana scene -- well, at least as close as it gets for a downtown Manhattan dive...Instruments are welcome.

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For continued listening, try bluegrass brunch at Superfine down under the Manhattan Bridge overpass in Brooklyn; or trade the mighty Mississippi for the less romantic Gowanus Canal at Jalopy on the working class waterfront of Redhook, Brooklyn. Anybody been? Anybody wanna go?

*The Grisly Pear also hosts a worthy Tuesday "trivia night" for those less musically inclined...