Boardwalk goes for the country fan

Back in 2004,

Keith Urban

, though he had had a country music hit or two, was still mostly playing live as an opening act for the likes of Brooks & Dunn and Kenny Chesney.

That fall, the Trump casinos' entertainment chief, Steve Gietka, booked Urban as the headliner at the Trump Taj Mahal's Mark Etess Arena. It was the beginning, as the saying goes, of a beautiful friendship.

"Country artists are amazingly loyal to people who help them on the way up," said Gietka. "Keith and I had a history, so now that he is so big, when we had a chance to co-sponsor his show, he was really happy for us to do so."

In two weeks, Urban, the rambunctious Australian country star, and Carrie Underwood, she of "American Idol" fame, will play before 13,000 fans at Boardwalk Hall, something that would have been unheard-of in the early Atlantic City casino days. Country music was hardly in vogue during the casinos' first decades.

"Back in 1984, when the Trump Plaza opened, the first act was Eddy Arnold," said Michael Pollock, who runs the Spectrum Gaming Group, a Linwood-based casino industry advisory business. "People were really skeptical. Eddy Arnold? What's that? It was widely viewed as a faux pas."

No longer. Country music is a larger part of the Atlantic City casino entertainment scene than ever. Tomorrow night, honky-tonker Trace Adkins will be at the Trump Taj Mahal, where more mainstream country singer-songwriter Phil Vassar will perform March 28 and 29. Tanya Tucker will be at the Tropicana that same March weekend. Earlier, on March 1, Trisha Yearwood will be at the Atlantic City Hilton and Martina McBride will be at Caesars Atlantic City.

"The nature of the gaming industry and its customer base is changing, and that is reflected in and driven by its entertainment offerings," said Pollock. "It's not just Shecky Greene anymore. It is a reflection of the fact that destination resorts are becoming more a part of the mainstream entertainment industry, and entertainment is an effective way to target your demographics and position your property in the marketplace . . . "

Though Trump Entertainment has more country music than other casino-hotels, Gietka said that is just happenstance. However, it's also, in part, a reflection of the current economics of the entertainment climate.

"There is just more entertainment of every sort here this winter," said Gietka. "It is a case of everyone - artists, managers, and people like me on the buying end - wanting to get deals done.

"Entertainers are realizing more and more that they aren't making money on recordings, but playing before live audiences," he said. "From a buyer-operator position in town, we have to be very competitive to keep our market share. With gaming in Philadelphia now, it has put pressure on Atlantic City to step up the game.

"Some of those customers will be big country music fans, so it is good for us to seek out that market, too," he said. "And when you can brand yourself with an act that can fill Boardwalk Hall with more than 10,000 potential customers, like Keith Urban and Carrie Underwood, that can only be good over the long run." *

Trace Adkins, Trump Taj Mahal, Boardwalk and Virginia Avenue, 9 p.m. tomorrow, $40-$200, 609-449-1000, trumptaj.com.