Hey, it's Curious City's Jason Mark, and a few weeks ago, Curious City held a live event at the famed Carol's Pub in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood.

We had two fantastic guests.

Chicago journalist, editor, historian, rack-on-tour, live music fan, and photographer of birds, manholes, and other urban oddities,

please give a warm carol's welcome to Robert Larson.

Thank you. Thanks.

Just to my left, to your right,

please welcome Beer and Bar Historian,

the executive director of the Chicago Brew Museum, Liz Garabay.

Hello, hello.

Robert and Liz talked about two topics near and dear to the hearts of curious city fans, the history of Uptown as an entertainment district.

This worker was doing double duty. He was both a bartender and a grave digger.

And he said he should be getting extra pay because he kept having to run back and forth between

the graveyard and the saloon. And the vaunted place of beer and taverns in the history of Chicago.

Back when Chicago first started going in the early 1830s, we already had a number of bars

and they were all along the Chicago River.

And you already had this concept of a local tavern because, God forbid, you get into a canoe

to go to the bar.

We chose carols, not just because it's an uptown, but because it's the last vestige of a thriving country music scene

that flourished in the neighborhood for decades, thanks to an influx of people from Appalachia

after World War II. Appropriately enough, our music for the evening was provided by the

Hoyle brothers, and you'll hear them throughout the podcast.

And she tried to raise me right, but I refuse.

...