Columnist Jerry Fink: Lounges remain part of fabric of Las Vegas

Friday, March 30, 2001 | 4:25 a.m.

Editor's Note: Beginning today Accent writer Jerry Fink will write a weekly column focussing on the burgeoning lounge scene in and around Las Vegas.

Unless a lounge entertainer dies, it's hard for him or her to get any press these days. The spotlight is on massive showrooms, while lounges have been relegated to the wings.

But the lounge scene in Las Vegas is very much alive. The small clubs may not be at center stage, as they were after Louis Prima defined the venue in 1954 at the Sahara's Casbar Lounge, but they are all over the map, adding their splash of color to the local entertainment spectrum.

You find taprooms featuring live performers tucked away inside casinos, restaurants and hotels. They sit in the middle of strip malls, or stand alone on dark streets in old neighborhoods.

There are hundreds of inconspicuous clubs in our area where the entertainment is free, or so cheap it seems free -- and a lot of it is surprisingly good.

Whether you like rock 'n' roll, jazz, country, blues, pop, rap, doo-wop, meat markets or poetry readings, there's a bar stool with your name on it somewhere in Las Vegas.

In the weeks ahead I look forward to visiting a few of the pubs where a person can still find entertainers who are there because they love to entertain and would be doing so without pay. Performers who could be the next Clint Holmes or Lee Greenwood, both of whom spent years honing their skills in lounges in Las Vegas (and elsewhere) before moving into showrooms and recording careers.

"It's where I learned how to entertain six people in a bar, and four of them didn't care if you were there or not," Holmes, the headliner at Harrah's, recently recalled.

The England-born entertainer attended the lounge school of hard knocks for about 12 years, playing in clubs from Lake Tahoe to islands in the Caribbean.

"I would do three shows a night, sometimes as many as five," he said. "It was a grueling learning experience."

One thing he learned was that he didn't want to spend his entire career in lounges, not that there is anything wrong with that.

"Some peope want to be lounge acts," he said. "But it wasn't what I wanted."

Holmes was playing at a Reno lounge 20 years ago when he decided to change directions after watching Bill Cosby's stage show.

"Someone opening for him had a suite in the casino's hotel, and he only did one or two shows a night. I called my agent and asked him how I could get that job." Holmes recalled. "He said, 'You can't. You're a lounge act.' I said, 'But I do the same thing as that guy,' and he said, 'But you have a lounge band.' "

Even though he was making a good living in lounges, Holmes disbanded his group in 1980 and began to work his way into showrooms.

"It was the worst year in my life, financially," he said. "But it worked. I started opening for Joan Rivers and Bill Cosby and a lot of others."

Grammy Award-winner Greenwood also exited the lounge scene about 20 years ago, after hit songs such as "God Bless the USA" opened the door to showrooms and concert halls. Before his mega-hits, Greenwood spent almost 20 years in lounges, beginning when he was in high school in California.

"I wore the lounges out," Greenwood said during a phone interview from Nashville, Tenn., his base of operations.

Greenwood was a mainstay on the Las Vegas lounge circuit, where he became an icon for those who dream of super-stardom.

"The lounge musicians and singers work very hard to get noticed, just to make a living," Greenwood said. "When I started out in lounges, I wasn't struggling to be big. I was just trying to entertain."

Greenwood, who lives near Nashville with his wife, Kim, and their two young sons, said he will always have fond memories of Las Vegas and its lounges. In fact, he hopes to return to a Las Vegas showroom to perform from 16 to 36 weeks a year.

"For the next year I'm working toward finding a (second) home in Las Vegas," he said.

Chances are he may visit a few lounges while he's here. Both he and Holmes still like the scene.

"My favorite hang is at the Allegro, where Rocco and Steve perform," Holmes said. "I go over there at least once a week to get my music fix."

The Allegro Lounge is at the Bellagio, which is also home of the Fontana Bar where Jimmy Hopper (another Holmes favorite) plays.

Other local entertainers Holmes sees whenever he can include the Treniers ("One of the greatest lounge acts of all time"), Sweet Louie and Sonny Charles (the Checkmates, who appear regularly at Arizona Charlie's East and West) and Earl Turner (a regular at the Rio Bamba Lounge).

"There is something more casual, more loose about the structure of a lounge," Holmes said. "It's fun. Whatever happens, happens. Anybody can jump up onstage.

"I love the lounges."