Grab your boots and spurs, Vegas officially a ‘Cowboy Town’

Las Vegas is always "Cowboy Town" in December but now it's official, thanks to Las Vegas Events licensing the title song of Brooks & Dunn's latest album as the theme for National Finals Rodeo week.

The country duo's label, Arista, approached Las Vegas Events with an offer to license the song for two years, says Pat Christensen, president of the group that produces the rodeo at the Thomas & Mack Center and secures each night's opening entertainment.

The tune will be heard inside the arena each night and performed live by the duo at the rodeo on Dec. 13. But its presence on TV would have to be ironed out as another agreement with ESPN and the TV production company, Winnercomm.

"I wasn't sure we could get it done in time for this year," Christensen says of the deal that also includes Internet use and could be as beneficial to Brooks & Dunn as it is to Las Vegas. The duo is still the biggest act to play during the NFR this year (at the Las Vegas Hilton, Wednesday through Dec. 15), but has yielded some of its superstardom to younger acts such as Kenny Chesney and Rascal Flatts.

The two-month-old "Cowboy Town" album has reached No. 4 on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart and No. 13 on the overall album chart. The song was not one of the first two singles.

The rodeo seems to be following the drift of Las Vegas as a whole: more informal, club-style entertainment and fewer ticketed headliners. Only the Hilton and Golden Nugget offer a packed country roster like the old days. Ten years ago, NFR week boasted more than two dozen name attractions, which a Review-Journal story described as "not many big stars, but a whole lot of small and medium ones." ...

If you're one of the 5,000 people said to have moved here each month since April 2004, today might be your first crack at "Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance."

But "old-timers" who have lived in the Las Vegas Valley more than three years might have a tough time thinking of any other title that had an extended run on the Strip, then returned as a one-night touring production.

Today's show at the Orleans Arena proves the resiliency of a vehicle that has lasted well beyond the celebrity heyday of Flatley, who hasn't performed it since 1998 (not counting a 10-year anniversary encore last year).

"People love the show. Period," says Bob Cayne, the Las Vegas-based agent and promoter whose Global Entertainment Group continues to place the show's two touring companies around the world.

"It's funny how you find these places and they just respond to it," he says of introducing the title to Korea, Japan and China, among other locales.

But even Cayne is doubtful that the "Lord" would have comeback potential for the Strip. After four years at New York-New York (from 1998 to 2002) then another year-plus at The Venetian (from November 2002 to April 2004), casino executives would have a hard time getting excited about it again. ...

Harmik won't be bringing his Tom Jones tribute back to the Canyon Club inside the Four Queens. He says it was hard enough to establish a show inside a club few people knew about, but he was building numbers nonetheless. "I'm proud of everything my wife (Sherri) and I accomplished since August," he says.

But he says the club never could hold on to a good sound engineer. The final straw was having to share the room with another tribute act -- the Beatles show Fab Forever -- after management assured him that never would happen.

On the upside, Harmik and his wife will renew their vows Saturday in a $100,000 party at his house that will be taped for a Lifetime cable show about big parties. He's crossing his fingers that the real Jones will show up as best man. ...

Celine Dion was so excited by the Las Vegas work of one director that she hired Franco Dragone, of "Mystere" and "O," to stage her headline showcase at Caesars Palace.

Apparently, the same didn't hold true for the director of the world tour that follows her Colosseum swan song on Dec. 15. She picked Jamie King, who -- don't get me wrong -- has staged impressive tours for some of the biggest pop divas, including Madonna, Mariah Carey and Christina Aguilera.

But King also helmed one of the biggest turkeys ever to gobble on the Strip: "Storm," which played Mandalay Bay in 2001 and 2002. King was brought in based on his work with Ricky Martin but was called away for another Madonna tour before he had time to set this one right.

Mike Weatherford's entertainment column appears Thursdays and Sundays. Contact him at 383-0288 or e-mail him at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com.