In September, the future of the Surf Club was looking bright. The Kenilworth Avenue roots music roadhouse in Edmonston, Md., had regained the right to sell alcohol on nights it featured live music. But Thursday afternoon in an email to members of the Twistlist roots music listserv, Surf Club owner James Byrum wrote:

I want to thank everyone for the awesome years of support you have given me. It is with a saddened heart that I confirm all the rumors and make the news official, the Surf Club is closed forever. The property has been sold and will become a laundromat. I'm sorry I couldn't keep the Surf Club going any longer. Many of you know the obstacles that I have faced.  Hope to see you all around on some dance floor somewhere!

The club's last live gig on Oct. 29 featured local blue-eyed R&B combo King Soul.  There were hints of trouble when the bar's website didn't list any events after that date. Byrum has not responded to emails or phone calls since late October.

In August, when I last communicated with Byrum, he indicated that some Edmonston residents wanted him to sell the club in the hopes that a buyer would raze it and build a retail establishment other than a nightclub. Then, he said he had no interest in selling the place that he and his father bought in 2008 from Chick Hall, who had opened the original Surf Club in Colmar Manor, Md., in 1955, before moving it to Edmonston in 1975.

Byrum faced a number of obstacles in trying to keep this Americana music showcase thriving. In addition to unhappy locals and the nearby murder that led to Surf Club's temporary license problems earlier this year, there was the club’s lack of Metro access, changing demographics in Prince George’s County, a small advertising budget—and, maybe most challenging, the limited audience for blues, roots rock, and zydeco.

But now all that will be left are the memories of this cinder block, brick and wood paneled bar with a stage, dance floor and pool tables.  I remember Chick Hall Jr.'s band playing tears-in-your-beer country and honky-tonk sounds to a nearly empty room ten years ago, while more recently the speedy, insistent chank-a-chank of the rubboard in various Louisiana bands kept folks twirling on the dancefloor, as did the guitar sounds of numerous local roots, blues, and rockabilly bands. While some groups will get bookings at Glen Echo, Artisphere, Blob's Park, and elsewhere, none of those locales quite have the same atmosphere. The Surf Club's 56 year run is over.

Local combo Hillbilly Jazz returns to Hyattsville roadhouse the Surf Club tonight.  Hillbilly Jazz was the Thursday night house band there from 2003 until 2009, when this longtime honky-tonk dropped live music and became simply a drinking bar for the neighborhood (that is now mostly Hispanic).  But as noted here, last August Surf Club owner James Byrum began occasionally featuring live music on Thursday nights.

Hillbilly Jazz is led by guitarists Chick Hall, Jr. and Jim Stephanson. Hall is the son of the late Chick Hall, Sr., the bar-owner/guitarist who bought the original Surf Club in 1955 when it was located on Bladensburg Road in Colmar Manor, Md. before taking the name and building the current Surf Club in 1975. The younger Hall, now in his 60s, began playing onstage with his dad as a child. Jim Stephanson has been playing D.C. clubs since the late 1970s with groups such as Jimmy & the Blue Dogs and the Blue Rhythm Boys (who recently played on NPR). He released his first album of all original material, Say Go, last year, joined by members of NRBQ.  It was recently hailed by a DJ at New Jersey's WFMU as one of the top CDs of the year.

As Hillbilly Jazz, Hall, Jr., Stephanson, bassist John Previti, and drummer Brooks Tegler play music inspired by Django Reinhardt, Nashville country, Memphis rockabilly, and more.  Stephanson explained to me via e-mail that Hillbilly Jazz differs from his other groups because it has “an emphasis on arranging twin guitar parts (harmony and octave/unison parts) for Chick and I to play.  Western swing, jazz standards, pop and oldies, gives us a broad range of material to arrange as well as originals that both Chick and I have written.” As Stephanson’s website notes, "[t]he dynamic twin guitar arrangements pay homage to guitar legends Hank Garland, Jimmy Bryant, Roy Lanham, George Barnes, and Les Paul. " (Garland was a Nashville studio musician who played with Patsy Cline and Elvis. Bryant worked on soundtracks for westerns in the ‘50s. Lanham played with the Whippoorwills and the Sons of the Pioneers, Barnes was a swing jazz guitarist, and Paul was a legendary jazz and country player and guitar designer.)

Stephanson is looking forward to bringing the music back to the Surf Club this evening. He writes: “The Surf Club is probably the last club like so many that have disappeared in the last 20 years. Where you can walk in, put your amp on stage and crank it up. It was a music venue for local musicians to learn and ply their trade. You can only learn so much sitting on the couch with your guitar. There is no substitute for the experience of getting on the band stand and working with other players. That's how you really learn your instrument. And on that note Chick Hall is a true gentleman and has always shared his expertise with many a local picker.”

Hillbilly Jazz perform tonight, Thursday January 6 at 8 p.m. at the Surf Club, 4711 Kenilworth Ave., Hyattsville, MD. $ 10. (301) 927-6310

On Tuesday, November 18, 2008, Chick Hall Sr. passed away. He was a musician of enormous talent and a humble man.

Chick Hall Sr. was a country-jazz guitar virtuoso who made Armed Forces Radio records with Glenn Miller. Around 1953, he began playing with his own band, the Chick Hall Trio. After playing for a few years at the Surf Club, on Bladensburg Road in Colmar Manor, Chick decided that he'd like to make the club his musical home, and so he bought the place in 1955 and began playing there 6 nights a week.

The Surf Club transitioned from Jazz to Country Music, and many of the country greats visited, including Jim Reeves and Lefty Frizzell. Patsy Cline sang her heart out at the Surf Club. Jimmy Dean, Roy Clark, Charlie Daniels, dropped by to jam. It was around this time that the Colmar Manor/Cottage City area was in it's heyday, with numerous clubs such as the Crossroads, Rusty Cabins (which turned into Burt Motley's), the Dixie Pig, Angelo's, the Wheel, and Basin Street, mostly all offering live music 7 days a week. There was always a party going on.

Things change gradually. Chick got married early on and had two sons – Chick, Jr. and Chris. In 1975, a developer made a good offer on the Surf Club, so Chick sold the club property, and built another one up the street at 4711 Kenilworth Ave (at the corner of Kenilworth Ave and Crittendon Street), He is survived by his wife of 67 or so years, and his kids Chick and Chris.