“But finally he gets him a little white girl, mistreats and kills her. Kluxers get on his tail, ’cause it ain’t just about niggers killing’ niggers anymore, you see. And he gettin’ bolder and bolder, and he kills a white woman over near them honky-tonks in Gladewater, and the Klan run him down and cut him where a man don’t want to be cut, tar and feather him, hang ‘im and light him on fire.”
Joe R. Lansdale, The Bottoms

honky-tonk
hon⋅ky-tonk /’hɒŋki,tɒŋk/
noun
a cheap drinking and dancing establishment
syn: barrelhouse
ORIGIN: “cheap night club,” 1924, earlier honk-a-tonk (1894), of unknown origin. As a type of music played in that sort of low saloon, it is attested from 1933.

Hum. I’d always though a honky-tonk was a person who wore their cowboy hat to class.

It’s midnight, and I’ve started another Joe R. Lansdale. Oh, the joys of scaring the piss out of yourself in the nighttime! I highly recommend it. A terrifying book, a flashlight, and a blanket over your head: doesn’t get better than this!