At Laurelthirst Public House, Live Music Plays Every Day Except Weekends

Laurelthirst has been Portland’s home to every peaceful form of America’s love for itself: old-time, bluegrass, folk, hippie gypsy tunes and the kind of country music that seems to come with the dust of the land still intact.

(Megan Nanna)
By Matthew Korfhage

2958 NE Glisan St., 503-232-1504, laurelthirst.com. 11 am-midnight Sunday, 4 pm-midnight Monday-Tuesday, 4 pm-1 am Tuesday-Thursday, 4 pm-2 am Friday-Saturday. Happy hour daily until 6 pm: $1 off wells and micros.

Established: 1988

For 30 years, in a velvet-curtained room filled with local paintings that might that as well be folk art by now, the Laurelthirst has been Portland's home to every peaceful form of America's love for itself: old-time, bluegrass, folk, hippie gypsy tunes and the kind of country music that seems to come with the dust of the land still intact. The Decemberists' Colin Meloy played some of his first shows here. Hell, Zia McCabe of the Dandy Warhols played her first show here as well. If there are travelers from Brazil, they might end up here, too. The space behind the bar is decorated with a mismatched pack of curios and antiques—tricycle, bicycle, roller skates—and the regulars might proudly say they're not much different. Yet still, at the oldest independent music hall in Portland, the live music is as regular as a Swiss clock. It plays twice a day at 6 and 9 pm, every single day except weekends—-when it also plays at noon. Half the time, it's free. And one way or the other, Portland's most dedicated musician, Lewi Longmire, is probably playing guitar with the band.

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