“Real people, real music, real inspiration. No pretense. It’s not about hair dos and hype. It’s really just about gutsy, gritty music from the soul”,
-Prophet Bar founder Russell Hobbs-.
It takes a prophet like Mr. Hobbs; who in 1985, took the shell of a run down industrial building and transformed it into the beating heart of a once burgeoning eclectic Dallas,Tx arts and music district known as “Deep Ellum”, to restart said heart, so that it may begin again to pump life back into the soul of the city in order to resurrect what has gone to pass.
“Deep Ellum” has born, died, and been resurrected many times in the past. From its inception in the late 1870’s as Freedman town for those that were once slaves, it has bread soul. Artists such as Huddie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter, Robert Johnson, and Blind Lemon Jefferson planted the seed for a tree that has grown to produce fruit the likes of The Butthole Surfers and Tripping Daisy. While the late 80’s and early 90’s proved to be excellent soil for such grass-roots spirit, crime and high-rent choked out much of what once was in the early part of this decade. But now, the faint rhythm is again starting to reverberate through the streets.
Started initially as, “An artistic saloon for the sake of money”, in order to sustain an art/performance space know as the “Theater Gallery”. This heart, The Prophet Bar, quickly became an incubator for sprouting talents such as the New Bohemians,
Tripping Daisy, and the Reverend Horton Heat. It has itself been born again since shocking the traditional rhythms of a traditional Dallas with its controversial bookings, counter-culture lifestyle, and challenging spirit since it’s inception in 1985 at the center of “Deep Ellum”. All the booze was poured down the drain in the late 80’s, Hobbs was “born again” thanks to his janitor, and turned into a carrot juice drinking hippie life outreach center and a restaurant.
In 2007 though, The Prophet bar rolled away the stone and has begun anew along the lines of its traditional roots. Its bookings now range from a weekly jam with “RC”, Erykah Badu’s band director, to Hate Breed, Academy Is, and some old members of Squeeze. You boys and girls out there in internet land should stop by the Big D sometime and have a booze or 6, just make it soon, I hear Russell’s looking for a new janitor.
Words and photos by Dustin Downing
