Jeremy Pinnell brings 'Decades' to Gottscheer Hall on Dec. 4

The Kentucky honky-tonk songwriter plays Ridgewood's century-old dance hall with Tony Hannah; tickets are $30.

Gottscheer Hall has spent the last few years proving that a 1924 social hall on Fairview Avenue in Ridgewood can feel like a honky-tonk two time zones south. On the first Friday in December, it gets one of the more convincing honky-tonk songwriters working right now.

Jeremy Pinnell plays Gottscheer Hall on Friday, Dec. 4, with Tony Hannah opening. The show starts at 7 p.m., and tickets are $30 through Eventbrite. The date was announced Oct. 20, so it's been on sale for a couple of weeks, and for a songwriter who usually headlines rooms of about 400, a hall this size is right in his wheelhouse.

Pinnell comes from the Kentucky side of the Ohio River, and his records have always sounded like it: country songs about working, drinking, faith and family, sung by someone who has clearly lived some of them. His earlier albums, Ties of Blood and Affection and OH/KY, built a following among listeners who like their country closer to the barroom than the arena. One of them even got the Cincinnati Magazine treatment as an upbeat record about life on the Ohio River.

The record he's touring now is Decades, released Oct. 31, 2025, and produced by Shooter Jennings. Ahead of its release, Pinnell shared the single "Barabbas," which a press release billed as three chords and the gospel truth, a pretty fair summary of what he does. Pinnell has also been carrying these songs overseas, with dates in Germany this fall, including Schorndorf on Nov. 14, before he lands in Queens.

The hall's history and atmosphere are a big part of why country nights work there.

Why this room? Gottscheer Hall, at 657 Fairview Ave., was founded in 1924 by Gottscheer immigrants, and it still carries that old social-club feel: wood paneling, a long bar, a dance floor that invites actual dancing. Since February 2023 it has also hosted Honky Tonkin' in Queens, a monthly country party that, according to BrooklynVegan, puts roughly 400 tickets on sale each month and rarely lasts more than a few weeks before selling out. Rolling Stone has written about the scene too, pointing to the hall's history and atmosphere as a big part of the appeal.

That's the audience Pinnell is walking into: a Queens crowd that has spent three years building a real country night out of a German-American social hall, and that knows the difference between a song with a steel guitar on it and a song that means it. The hall has been booking more of that kind of artist lately, with names like Dylan Earl and Sarah Shook & the Disarmers on its calendar.

When to buy: now, if you're going. A $30 ticket for a songwriter at this level in a room of this size is a good deal, and Gottscheer's country nights have a track record of filling up. Eventbrite is the seller, and the listing is linked on this page.

Get there for Tony Hannah at the top of the night, grab a drink at the bar, and leave room on the floor. Pinnell's songs are built for exactly the kind of Friday night this hall was made for.

Sources: Jeremy Pinnell delivers three chords and the gospel truth on new single 'Barabbas' — LINK nky (linknky.com); Jeremy Pinnell streaming Shooter Jennings-produced album Decades — antiMusic (musicpressbox.antimusic.com); Jeremy Pinnell to release Ties of Blood and Affection — WYSO (wyso.org); Jeremy Pinnell's 'OH/KY' — CityBeat (citybeat.com); Jeremy Pinnell Debuts Upbeat New Album About Ohio River Life — Cincinnati Magazine (cincinnatimagazine.com); Jeremy Pinnell, Schorndorf, Club Manufaktur, Nov 14 2026 — regioactive (regioactive.de); Honky Tonkin' in Queens brings a taste of Nashville to Ridgewood's Gottscheer Hall — BrooklynVegan (brooklynvegan.com); Honky Tonkin' in Queens — Rolling Stone (rollingstone.com); Jeremy Pinnell at Gottscheer Hall — Eventbrite (eventbrite.com)