1,000 miles from Nashville, country music is thriving on Long Island

A white-collar analyst by day, Mark Huber is known to many as the “Cowboy of the Bar” every Tuesday night at The Nutty Irishman in Farmingdale.

The 24-year-old from Great Neck, who stands 6-foot-4 before adding boots and a tall Western hat, has been line dancing at its weekly “Country Night” for almost three years.

Amid the stomping, clapping and singing along to tunes like Kenny Chesney’s “American Kids,” Huber said he’s found community, a social outlet and a whole new level of confidence — aided by the cowboy look.

“Here, I’m a whole different person and I honestly think this is where I’m the most me,” he said.

Looking around at his country-loving companions, a mix of women and men, from 20-somethings to seniors, couples and single dancers, he said, “It’s fun to see something like this exploding up here,” he said.

While country culture might seem an unlikely fit on suburban Long Island, the genre has moved increasingly into the mainstream in recent years. Line-dancing nights are held almost every night of the week from Patchogue to Rockville Centre, and Jones Beach’s summer concert slate was filled with country acts like Chris Stapleton, Riley Green, Tim McGraw, Zach Top and Jason Aldean.

Like the discos of decades past, country bars and dance nights have also become social hubs where Long Islanders meet friends, dance and trade in their daytime personas for something with a bit more swagger.

“For so many people now, [line dancing] is their gym,” said DJ Neil Wrangler at Nutty’s, who started out at Matty T’s Road House in Deer Park, which operated from 1972 to 2012. “It’s their dating pool. Kids really took it to the next level recently with Instagram and TikTok. But it’s welcoming for everybody.”

The West Babylon record shop Looney Tunes, where “country’s always been a strong genre for us,” according to owner Karl Groeger, had an in-store appearance by country pop star Stella Lefty in August and an increase in sales of Dolly Parton albums after the country superstar’s recent death. 

Earlier this month, the inaugural Port Jeff Country Music Festival featured two live bands and line dancing lessons, and it attracted roughly 19,000 people, according to organizer Jena Turner.

Two commercial country radio stations compete for Long Islanders’ attention: “My Country 96.1,” broadcasting since 2011, and “103.1 The Wolf,” which flipped from classic rock to country in 2024.

“We thought we’d have to turn people into country fans when we signed on, but they were ready for it, they wanted it,” said Phathead, program director and morning show host on 96.1. “I also fell in love with it.”

An unlikely place for country

Not everyone understands the appeal. Some people mocked the trend in online forums, with one person on a Long Island Reddit thread stating, “People on Long Island love to cosplay as Southerners.” Another wrote, “If LI kids hung out with Southern kids, they would cry just getting their boots dirty.”

Norm Prusslin, lecturer at Stony Brook University’s Honors College and Scholars Program, who teaches a course on the history of contemporary music, sees several reasons for the region’s embrace of the genre.

“People might say, ‘Why Long Island?’ You wouldn’t think of it offhand that it’s like a hub of country music,” Prusslin said. “But I think of the layout here, demographics and suburban nature of the island … which leads to people having barbecues, going to the beach, leisure activities … country music is more of a relaxing kind of music, storytelling-focused and emotional.”

He also noted the region’s large blue-collar base and country’s overall rise in popularity over rock on modern mainstream charts. In August, country songs took the top five spots on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time ever.

“As a genre, it’s always been around and part of the American pulse for a long time,” Prusslin said. “There’s no age discrimination with this music. It’s fun to dance to and gets people away from iPhones and out there.”

The country look and feel

Ellen McGarvey, 69, has owned Go West!, a Western boot and apparel store in Bohemia since 1997. She said her average customer age has dropped about 20 years in that time.

Now, she sees families coming in for concert outfits and an uptick in Western-themed weddings, reunions and parties. She even had a kid come in for a pair of boots ahead of his first day of middle school.

“For people who like this look, it’s like a kid going into a candy store,” McGarvey said with a laugh. “But country music has crossed over a lot. Everybody’s listening to it.”

Go West! also supplies clothing for local line dancers and the many patrons of Daisy’s Nashville Lounge in Patchogue.

The live music venue and bar on Main Street is designed to evoke the feel of a Tennessee honky-tonk, with a neon sign, a weathered wood ceiling, rustic brick and framed photos of icons like Patsy Cline and Willie Nelson, a mural featuring Johnny Cash and a saddle for photo ops.

The owners, Tim McCarthy and Brian Adams, began developing the idea around 2017 amid trips to “Music City.” 

“Nashville was really blowing up at the time,” Adams said. “We’re not wagon wheels here. Nashville is rock and roll and sexy and country. You can go to “country night” at another bar somewhere, but you come here and you’re in Nashville.”

Since it opened in 2020, artists like Jackson Dean have performed there, and they’ve opened a second location, in Miller Place.

“When we’re in Nashville now, people are like, ‘We know you! You’re from Daisy’s!’ ” McCarthy said.

After the live bands, DJ Joel Carter spun country-style electronic dance music for the bar crowd, blending old songs like “Take Me Home, Country Roads” with electronic beats and loops.

Carter, of Centereach, said of the country crowd: “People love country and getting dressed up. Whether you’re in a backward Yankees hat or flannel shirt or cowboy boots or Nike Uptowns, we’re going to have a good time.”

Learning the steps

Over at Dublin Deck’s weekly Country Night, SouthBound, the region’s prominent country cover band since 1987, took the stage for a dozen or so line dancers as the crowded summer season wound down.

Dancers at the Patchogue bar and grill — many in hats, overalls, boots, jeans or Daisy Dukes — knew anywhere from 50 to 600 different choreographed dances by heart, each tied to a specific songs.

Tracy Boucher, 59, a real estate agent from Blue Point, recalled seeing people line dance here and being perplexed as to how they knew all those steps.

A longtime country music fan, she took local lessons and has been coming ever since.

“Dancing makes people happy, and I think we’ve lost that,” she said. “Women like to dance. When we were younger, we had discos and places to meet people. Young people are starting to embrace this because they want socialization and this is a great place for that.”

Margaret Sanchez, 26, originally from the Bronx and now living in Central Islip, said she burns “at least 700 calories every time I’m here,” according to her fitness tracker.

She got involved two years ago.

“I used to not like [country] but I lived in New Hampshire for a bit and had to fit in somehow, coming from the city,” she said. “I thought, ‘This isn’t that bad. They’re singing about drinking beer. I can get behind that.’ ”

Back at The Nutty Irishman, more New York City-raised people said they’ve come to love the country culture life.

RJ Ayroso, 27, of Queens, and Alexis Zappasodi, 28, of Selden, met when they started country line dancing at Nutty’s earlier this year and have been dating ever since.

Neither is a big fan of country music, but they both love the dancing. Ayroso grew up doing Filipino ballroom line dancing at family parties while Zappasodi has been performing competitive dance from tap to hip-hop her whole life. They’re both members of the line- and swing-dance team, the East Coast Crew, formed at Nutty’s.

“It’s a lot of fun and a nice shared hobby we get to do together,” said Ayroso.

Betty Ney, of Holtsville, who grew up in the Bronx, said she started line dancing 12 years ago because she needed an outlet after separating from her husband. She said she now has 68 pairs of boots and a back shoulder tattoo of cowboy boots surrounded by music notes.

“Oh, my God, I love it and the community here,” she said.