One of my favorite bars is the Weary Traveler Freehouse on Williamson Street on the near East Side of Madison, Wisconsin. The place has a magical feeling of welcome at any time of night or day. Whenever I’ve walked in, it seemed like the perfect time to be there. I made this painting of the building at night. (I’m going to make a few prints of this – available here).
I played a gig here once in October 2006 when I lived in Madison. I also included a lyrical tribute to the Weary Traveler in a song I wrote called On the Lonesome Road, saying it’s the place I go when “when I get weary.”
I have been there on some very cold nights that I wrote about in another song too, thinking about “winter wind whistling the outside air / inside it’s like we found summer somewhere.”
Here’s some photos of the place below so you get a sense of the interior too. This is the ideal neighborhood bar if you ask me.
Why is it so appealing? I don’t know. Maybe it’s because the light inside the place doesn’t come from TVs. Maybe it’s all the wood on the interior? It’s like standing inside an acoustic guitar.
