Bluegrass Bar La Traviesa

Although it stands eighty kilometres from the capital, this venue, opened in 1978 in Carrer Girona in Torredembarra, has been fundamental to the survival of Barcelona blues, and above all to its musicians, who found shelter and a stage there in times of chronic scarcity of gigs. Under the captaincy of Juan Luís Pardo, better known as Jota, it began programming live music in 1983, and since then some five hundred concerts have been held there, in which the blues has shared space with bluegrass, rock, country and soul. If in its day it was a wooden building on the outskirts of the town, today it remains exactly the same, though it has been swallowed up by housing estates. Under the wing of the Associació Cultural La Traviesa it keeps its culturally free spirit as always, and it is run by Violeta, Jota’s daughter, who retired in 2016 after 38 years at the head of the business.