If you say the words “live music scene” in reference to Washington, the likely response from most people would fall into one of two categories: surprise or confusion.

The surprise comes from many a weekend drive down Main Street, when the dinner rush is over and only the lights of the Turnage Theater are beckoning. There seems to be nothing “going on.”

Confusion stems from the fact that Washington’s live-music scene exists, though few seem to be privy to the larger picture of when and where it takes place.

There is the obvious place, the Turnage, with its neon marquee and bright lights on a quiet street. Behind the door of Notes Café, on Market Street between Main and Second streets, Greenville college bands regularly rock the house. On the east side, Main Street almost dead-ends into Backwater Jack’s Pebble Beach Stage, where locals gravitate from spring until fall, munching on sweet potato fries and listening to the likes of Carolina Still, Lightnin’ Wells and Victor Hudson, to name a few.

Then there’s the least obvious of all: the Union Alley Coffee House.

Finding the Union Alley Coffee House is easy, if you know where it is — all the way at the back of the Inner Banks Artisans’ Center on Main Street. For the past two years, it’s been the Beaufort County Traditional Music Association’s live-music venue, hosting numerous critically acclaimed acts from across the state and beyond. It’s an intimate setting, family friendly, the walls hung with the resident artists’ work.

The Union Alley Coffee House — UAC for short — ends its regular performance schedule for 2011 early in order to make time for the holidays.

“In December, everyone seems to be awfully busy with families and Christmas parties,” said Linda Boyer, BCTMA member and communications maven of the UAC. “It just makes more sense to start back again in January.”

“We have some good shows coming up this weekend and next weekend,” wrote Rob Cuthrell, BCTMA president, via email. “These will close out our second season.”

Friday brings Roger Allen, an outlaw country singer-songwriter-guitarist to the stage at UAC, followed by Anne and Pete Sibley on Saturday at 8 p.m. The Sibleys gained national recognition in 2009 when the couple won the “Great American Duet Sing Off” on “A Prairie Home Companion.”

It’s the Beaufort County Traditional Music Association that brings the musicians to the UAC, though often the performances can’t quite be pigeonholed as traditional — Chambergrass, a duo performing Nov. 19, plays a unique combination of classical music ornamented by bluegrass.

According to Boyer, UAC “provides an opportunity for folks to come down and hear some good music,” and maybe get an education on a new definition of traditional music.

For more information about the Union Alley Coffee House’s upcoming performances and music workshops, visit www.unionalleycoffee.com.