A Country Night Out : At Denim & Diamonds, the Big Draw Is Dancing, Dancing and More Dancing

Remember the urban cowboys?

In the early ‘80s, men and women who’d never known anything but concrete under their feet were discovering the joys of pressed Jordache jeans, boots and Stetsons. Ersatz chipkickers were discarding Donna Summer for Dolly Parton, and bars from Marina del Rey to Hollywood were inviting lawsuits by installing that Taurus of Torture, the mechanical bull.

The mechanical bulls are now gathering dust in some distant warehouse, but country is back.

“1991 was a grand year for country music, perhaps the grandest ever,” proclaimed Billboard magazine last month. Texan Garth Brooks became the first country artist to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard pop charts. NBC is finding success with a Sunday-night variety hour, “Hot Country Nights.” Even the syndicated show “Hee Haw” has cut the cornpone and undergone a face lift to appeal to the new, younger market.

The neo-urban cowboys (and cowgirls) are more interested in the two-step and the electric slide than being thrown from the backs of mechanical bulls. Call them Urbane Cowboys.

The Palomino in North Hollywood is a longtime favorite for live music and a training ground for future stars like Dwight Yoakam and Rosie Flores. The Longhorn Saloon in Canoga Park and the Forge in Glendale both offer dance lessons and live bands. The Rawhide in North Hollywood caters to gay and lesbian cowpokes. In the San Gabriel Valley, the Western Connection serves the San Dimas community.

The Silver Bullet and the Foothill Club in the Long Beach-Signal Hill area are two of the largest country-dancing venues, and major new Western nightspots are opening in Anaheim and Riverside.

In an anonymous-looking business park on Ocean Park Boulevard near the Santa Monica Airport, a club called Denim & Diamonds is the hottest club to bring the Western experience to Angelenos. Since its opening last May, the club has drawn hundreds of people each night to dance to the music of new country artists like Vince Gill and Kathy Mattea.

“That dance floor is like the 405,” says general manager Joe Esposito as nearly 100 people spin and shuffle to Dwight Yoakam’s “Little Sister.” (Like the freeways, the dance floor also has a diamond lane; it’s reserved for two-steppers.)

Denim & Diamonds is a full-service facility, with three dance floors, several bars, three pool tables, video screens and food--sandwiches, salads and pasta in the $5-$6 price range. The men’s room attendant even dispenses Red Man chewing tobacco along with the usual amenities.

The big draw, though, is dancing, dancing, and more dancing, and the club offers free instruction seven nights a week. Denim & Diamonds is also completely accessible to the handicapped, and there is a group of regulars who take to the dance floor in their wheelchairs.

Travis Tritt and a few other country stars have been in, according to Esposito. On a recent Thursday night, NBC took over the club for a taping of “Hot Country Nights,” and near-panic ensued when Garth Brooks arrived in a baseball cap and a Pittsburgh Steelers sweat shirt. “We literally had people climbing on the roof trying to get in,” says Greg Stewart, the club’s director of operations.

Country purists might quibble with some of the aspects of Denim & Diamonds. The carpeted floors are immaculate, not coated with the traditional mulch of sawdust, peanut shells and cigarette butts. The music is also billed as “a shot of country with a splash of rock and roll,” and the deejays sometimes break up the mix with the Rolling Stones and Hammer. Live-music aficionados might also be dismayed to discover that Denim & Diamonds relies almost entirely on recorded music--by customer preference, according to Esposito.

Gary Light, who goes out about twice a week to various Western clubs, went to Denim & Diamonds on opening night, but he hasn’t been back. “It’s a nice club, but it’s not a real get-down, get-funk place,” says Light, who prefers the atmosphere of the Palomino.

“This is the nicest and friendliest of the clubs,” says Richard Kelley, a Denim & Diamonds regular. Kelley’s only complaint is that the club gets too crowded on the weekends. “On Friday and Saturday nights, I head out to Chatsworth or the Valley,” he says.

“There’s a whole network of people out there,” Kelley adds. “You can go out to the Valley and see the same people you were dancing with the night before.”

One thing most patrons agree upon: Western clubs provide a much more comfortable way to meet people than discotheques or undergrounds--as evidenced by the groups of women who come in by themselves. “You feel comfortable here asking someone to dance or being asked,” says Kelley’s companion Elle Moisdon. The two met on the Denim & Diamonds’ dance floor.

Does this mean that the new breed of country clubs is a ‘90s variation of the old singles bar, with cacti replacing the ferns?

Kelley shakes his head no. “You come here to dance first. Then you get to know each other. Then maybe you date.”