Sailor step, pivot, shuffle. Or was it forward rock, coaster and then pivot? The line dance instructions come fast and a little unforgiving. I turn to my right and try to mimic the gal next to me. She looks to me for the same guidance—poor choice—and we both share a laugh before scanning the floor for someone who’s clearly in step.
It doesn’t take long to spot the experienced dancer at this weeknight hoedown. She knows all the steps, but more importantly she knows when to break them. A little flair here, a twist there. But me? I stick to the basics.
This is, in every sense, my first rodeo, at least when it comes to a line-dancing lesson at Stoney’s Rockin’ Country. I post up toward the back in an effort to minimize public humiliation—a noble but doomed strategy. A few pivot turns later and I’ve drifted, like an amateur in open water, straight to the front of the class, on full display.
Not that it matters. This roomful of people stomping and sliding across the floor aren’t here to judge. They’re here for the same reasons I am: to have fun, to learn a dance, to surrender to the rhythm and to soak in the scene of one of Vegas’ most popular country bars.
It’s still early at this beloved Town Square honky tonk, but you can feel the room buzzing with the promise of something rowdy. Cowboy-booted guys and gals saddle up to open tables. There’s talk of a bikini bull-riding contest at midnight, and DJ Manda Ryan, who also runs the dance lessons, expertly spins a setlist that draws people to their feet. In no time, cell phones disappear into the back pockets of bootcut jeans, and the dance floor fills up with two-steppers moving under a glittering disco ball while platform dancers giddy-up.
Institutions like Stoney’s serve as a reminder that our country scene is humble, yet growing stronger. In recent years, Vegas has wrangled the attention of globally recognized country stars. In 2024, the Strip saw two celebrity owned country bars open—Blake Shelton’s Ole Red, followed by Jason Aldean’s Kitchen and Bar. And by the end of this year, we’ll have another one with Luke Combs’ Category 10. As country music surges in popularity, Las Vegas is evolving into a country bar capital.
Honky tonk takeover
With National Finals Rodeo operating here for more than 40 years, the wildly popular annual Cowboy Christmas gift show, the Professional Bull Riders Championship, and the 61st Academy of Country Music Awards returning after a three-year stint in Texas, Las Vegas prides itself on being a destination for country-adjacent events.
But the backbone of this growing phenomenon is undoubtedly the local community that keeps country alive year-round.
When it comes to country bars, the town’s big three are Stoney’s Rockin’ Country, Gilley’s and Losers Bar. They all have their respective legends and have only grown deeper connections with regulars over the years.
“Everybody who’s a resident of Vegas has a Stoney’s story. And that hasn’t changed in all these years,” says Paul Lowden Jr., president of Porchlight Hospitality, the parent company of Stoney’s.
Sylvia Johnson and Bryce McEachern hit the floor at Stoney's Rockin' Country.
Stoney’s debuted in 2007 at Town Square, and has since expanded to North Las Vegas with its Stoney’s North Forty location inside Santa Fe Station. Now, it’s making a third home at Sunset Station in Henderson, slated to open later this year.
And it’s all thanks to live music. The brand found its footing and really took off when it added concerts to its programming.
“We found a special area with new artists and emerging bands,” says Lowden. “If you want to see the next Luke Combs or Morgan Wallen, you’re going to get a chance to see them at Stoney’s before they play at T-Mobile [Arena] or Allegiant [Stadium].”
It’s worth noting that Stoney’s Town Square has 18-and-over shows, which is hard to come by with the standard of 21-and-over events in town.
The genre has a long-standing lineage of fandom that trails back generations. It’s easy to see how getting into this scene can feel intimidating or perhaps make you feel like you don’t belong. But that’s simply not the case. Diversity in these spaces is at an all-time, welcoming high. We don’t have numbers to back that up—all it took was getting out and seeing it for ourselves.
Historically, that openness isn’t new; it’s foundational. Vaqueros were the first cowboys, and country music, long considered a working-class genre, has always drawn from artists of color. The Spanish guitar and the African banjo, for example, were essential to what the genre eventually became.
“There’s more accessibility to country than there ever has been. I think that just attracts more country appreciators and fans to Vegas,” says Lowden. “But at Stoney’s, we specialize in our locals. Most of our business comes from our neighbors here in town, so we do kind of have our own niche community.”
That evolution has created a cult of regulars who’ve happily spent their time and dimes at the boot-scooting bar, not only having fun but finding long-lasting connections.
Local couple Sylvia Johnson and Bryce McEachern are a testament to this. After months of being each other’s bar crush, and with a friendly push from Johnson’s friend, the pair eventually succumbed to the meet-cute and began their romance. Three years later they’re engaged, with the bar’s longtime DJ set to play at their wedding—a full-circle moment rooted in the scene that began with them getting out on that dance floor.
Gilley's at Treasure Island
“Country dancing used to be dancing for people that can’t dance,” says McEachern. “Some of the line dances used to be pretty easy—you could get a few drinks in you and get out on the dance floor. Now there are a couple where you better be sober when you learn it.”
What’s kept them coming back to Stoney’s isn’t just their love story. It’s the sense of community that this crowded honky tonk offers.
“We’ve made friends with people we’d never expect to be friends with,” Johnson says. “Like a couple that’s 30 years older than us—that’s the community. There’s such a wide range.”
Stoney’s may be the heartbeat for locals, but the scene wasn’t built on one dance floor alone. The original Gilley’s opened December 1998 at the New Frontier Hotel and Casino and ran until the property closed in 2007. Three years later, it found a new home at the Treasure Island Hotel & Casino, where it has since become a must-stop for visitors looking for an Americana fix.
Losers Bar at MGM Grand offers a more intimate alternative. A favorite among traveling country folk, it pairs live music with a laid-back atmosphere that keeps the night going without the scale of a mega-club.
But now the scene has entered a new phase, with country superstars wanting in on the action.
Boots get bigger
Luke Combs performs "Back in the Saddle" during the 59th Annual Country Music Association Awards on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025, at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn.
Beyond our slice of desert, country’s grip on the mainstream has only tightened in recent years. It’d be blasphemous to call it “up-and-coming,” since country has been embedded in American culture for more than a century. But today, it’s evolving into a true melting pot of sounds and influences, giving quite literally everyone something to latch onto.
Last year, Opry Entertainment Group—the developers behind Ole Red on the Strip—unveiled plans to open a second country themed establishment at the Flamingo. Category 10, the first Vegas location of the franchise founded by Luke Combs in Nashville in November 2024, is scheduled to open on the Strip in Fall 2026.
Category 10 will launch just two years after OEG opened Ole Red, and sits less than a mile away, but it just goes to show that the demand is there—and the appetite for more country bars is only growing. (By the way, the original Ole Red is on Nashville’s Lower Broadway, a district of honky-tonk bars locals have nicknamed “Nashvegas.”)
At a March panel, Combs and Colin Reed, executive chairman of OEG’s parent company Ryman Hospitality Properties, gave a clearer sense of what’s coming next. In front of media and fans who were in town for Combs’ hit-filled show at Allegiant Stadium, the pair detailed the three-story structure of Category 10.
Hurricane Hall takes up the first floor, with its main dining area, central stage and dance floor. The second floor, The Still, will feature a bourbon bar and outdoor patio. And The Eye, on the rooftop, will kick things up a notch with a DJ booth and sweeping views of the Strip.
Category 10, coming soon to the Flamingo on the Las Vegas Strip.
If there’s anyone who understands country bar culture, it’s Combs. Before he sold out stadiums, he actually worked in the bar industry. The “Be by You” star, pleasantly humble in person, shared how he not only ran the door at a tavern in Boone, North Carolina, in college, but he also lived in the apartment above it.
“Let’s just say the establishment that I was an employee of was not exactly in the same realm as this,” Combs says with a laugh. “I’m working there as a bouncer. I’m learning guitar. I hadn’t played a show yet and I remember asking my boss, ‘I would love to play music here,’ and he said, ‘Well, we have in our lease agreement that we can’t have live music because there’s apartments upstairs.’ I said, ‘You’re in luck, because I live upstairs.’”
Combs eventually went on to play his first show at the bar next door and drew 200 people into the room. His employer saw that potential and allowed him to switch to playing at his bar.
“And ultimately, that’s what we want out of this. We want to focus on, as Colin likes to say, ‘The country lifestyle community,’ or whatever it is. Rednecks just want to come in here and drink and listen to music,” says Combs. “That’s what we want to go down at Category 10. It’s no different than that premise. It’s just on a different scale.”
The business model seems to be working. But will another artist-driven concept keep the attention of the thousands who come to Vegas every year?
“This man’s a superstar. He’s very different to the vast majority of artists,” says Reed. “The way to sustain this business is you deliver great service. You deliver great food. You deliver great booze. And the quality of music that we put on that platform is sustainably good ... the experience has to be excellent every single day and that’s what we will do.”
Off-Strip boom
Even beyond the Strip, cultural momentum is taking shape. Station Casinos, attuned to shifting appetites, has moved to meet the moment, installing Stoney’s at Sunset Station and pursuing another large-scale country outpost to anchor the expansion of its newest property.
Moonshine Flats, the concept developed by Good Time Design Hospitality Group, is slated to arrive at the Durango Resort in 2027. The San Diego bar, long a fixture of the Gaslamp District, has built its reputation on its strain of exuberant, high-energy boot-scootin’ across an expansive dance floor, paired with a steady stream of notable live acts. For Ty Hauter, the company’s owner, the move into Las Vegas represents less of a gamble and more of an inevitability.
“I think people want a certain level of production. Just opening a country bar and throwing a band on the stage, or some line dancing, that’ll only work for a while,” says Hauter. “We’re all going to bring something different, but at the same time, I think we’re going to stand out from the others because our production is so high. We live and breathe this stuff and it’s not just a nameplate.”
Moonshine Flats in San Diego
The ambition is sweeping. The venue, as currently conceived, will span nearly 30,000 square feet, with a large performance stage, multiple bars, an outdoor patio, and enough activities to keep patrons partying well into the night. Programming will cast a deliberately wide net, balancing live music with late-night DJ sets in hopes of cultivating a devoted local following.
“What Durango gave us was the opportunity to appeal to the locals, the people that you’re going to see week in, week out,” he says. “We’re going up in size, which allows us to present bigger shows ... to take what we have and put it on a bigger platform in a town known for entertainment. I want to play with the big boys, but I also want to have the flavor of what we’re all about.”
For visitors and residents alike, the horizon appears newly crowded with options, even as familiar standbys continue to hold their ground. There is, in this moment, a sense of expansion without abandonment.
I left Stoney’s that night with a curious mix of bravado and nostalgia, like a million-dollar bullrider in borrowed boots, already anticipating a return. Charley Crockett played on the drive home, and I admit, it felt good to play the part of an urban cowboy. It feels better, still, to recognize the deeper context that made the experience even possible.
