Profile

Cowboy boots and chaps aren’t required, but they might as well be. From the country music kitsch, to the horse trailer bar and peanut shell-covered floors, Rodeo Bar is the giddy-up, honky-tonk destination where the Northeast meets the Southwest. But floor-to-ceiling roadhouse décor aside, the nightly live music makes dodging the flying peanut shells at this Murray Hill outpost worthwhile. The lineup combines touring and local country/rock roots acts like New York natives The Moonlighters and The Flying Neutrinos. The eclectic gumbo includes everything from Hawaiian steel guitar swing and contemporary Cajun music, to Michigan hillbilly howlin’ and Mexican-cowboy bluegrass. Shows are free in the Rodeo Bar’s back room, where country music fans crowd around the intimate, dimly lit stage for an evening of down-home fun. And after working up a healthy southern appetite with all these toe-tappin’ tunes, a slab of BBQ ribs or 24 oz. Rodeo steak with a prickly pear cactus margarita make for a mighty fine night. — Chris Fichera

Sun.-Tue., 9 p.m.; Wed.-Thu., 10 p.m.; Fri.-Sat., 11 p.m.