A country bar that rocks

Monday, Oct. 1, 2007 | 7:02 a.m.

What: Stoney's Rockin' Country | Where: 9155 S. Las Vegas Blvd.

When: Doors open about 7 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays.

Admission: Varies. For information, call 435-4855.

Theme nights: Thursdays are Ladies Night s , no cover and $1 drinks for women. All you can drink beer for $20 on Fridays and Saturdays. Line dance lessons are at 7:30 p.m., Thursdays through Saturdays.

Thirsty cowboys crowd the bar calling for cold beer chilling in a tub of ice. Dancers two-step, electric glide and Cotton-Eyed Joe across the huge dance floor.

This Las Vegas hot spot isn't a chic-for-the-minute ultralounge in a megaresort.

Stoney's Rockin' Country, which opened last month , is a 20,000-square-foot nightclub with a dance floor the size of a house, two bars, a mechanical bull, pool tables, three-lane bowling alley, arcade, $250,000 sound system and room for 1,000 people. There's even a small ultralounge , if you just have to have an ultralounge.

It's awash in cowboy hats, boots and oversized belt buckles. But since this is Las Vegas, you may see some sights you won't find at Billy Bob's in Fort Worth, Texas.

Mixed in with the Western wear are flip-flops and cutoffs. Men bronzed from working in the sun mingle with pale, gangly youths in T-shirts emblazoned with slogans such as "Queen Tour '77." Mohawk haircuts and dyed hair. Pierced body parts. Even a cross-dresser or two.

"I don't like country music," says man-in-black Michael Otto, vocalist for Las Vegas heavy metal band KDT. "I came in for the $20 all-you-can-drink beer. But I like the atmosphere. I'll come back."

He was one of the few complaining about the music, which includes live acts some nights. Popular Southern California group Michael Austin and the Thunder Road Band played for the grand opening. Toby Keith's opening act, Flynville Train, popped in late one night. Other national acts will be booked in the coming months.

On tape, you'll hear a variety of country, from Keith Urban and George Strait to Chris LeDoux, a champion rodeo cowboy and country singer who died of cancer in 2005.

LeDoux is the patron saint of Stoney's.

A sign across the top of one bar reads "God Bless Chris LeDoux" in large, hard-to-miss letters and echoes the sentiment of his 1991 hit with "Even Cowboys Need a Little Rock and Roll."

"I was fortunate enough to meet him and his family," says Stoney Gray, co-owner of the club. "To me he was like John Wayne. He was the guy who rode the horses and sang the songs. He was an outstanding rodeo cowboy.

"A lot of his songs meant a lot to me. 'Even Cowboys Like a Little Rock & Roll' - that's where the influence of rock and country kind of came together for me. Chris LeDoux, with his song, gave me the strength to combine the two musics."

He met his partner, Chris Lowden, racing at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 1999. Fast cars and country music go together like biscuits and gravy.

Gray knows a thing or two about running nightclubs. His father ran several in Southern California, some country, some rock 'n' roll.

Gray managed Rockabilly's, a country place on Boulder Highway, and Gilley's at the New Frontier. Before the casino closed, he began looking for his own place.

He found it a half mile north of South Point and inside the Vegas Pointe shopping center, home to an antique store, a church and, on most nights, a passel of pickup trucks.

"I got a big education in live entertainment from Gilley's, which I brought with me to the new place," he said.

But it isn't a Gilley's clone.

"It has the elements of all the country bars I've been in, and I've been in country bars all over the United States."

He's not too surprised by the success.

"It's not rocket science. You give them what they want."