Palomino Club (North Hollywood)

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This article is about a music venue in California. For the Las Vegas strip club, see Palomino Club (Las Vegas).

The Palomino Club was a music venue in North Hollywood, called "Country Music's most important West Coast club" by the Los Angeles Times. It featured such performers as Buck Owens, Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Linda Ronstadt, Hoyt Axton, and Willie Nelson, and was also a popular hangout for other country entertainers such as Merle Haggard and Jerry Lee Lewis. Lewis played there at least once a year from 1957 to 1987.

In the late 1980s and 1990s, the Palomino began to feature more rock acts, such as John Cale and many of the artists associated with SST Records.

[edit] History

Originally a "rather tough beer bar", the Palomino was leased in 1952 by Bill and Tom Thomas of Indiana, who later bought the club, located at 6907 Lankershim Boulevard. It became popular in 1959 when the major country music showcase Riverside Rancho in the Silver Lake neighborhood shut down, leaving the various performers it had hosted available for the Palomino. In the early 1970s, the club could seat 400 attendees. [1] The Palomino Club was notable because in addition to being the San Fernando Valley’s premiere night club, it was a neighborhood working class bar (opening at 6am with a happy hour from 8am to 10am!) The Palomino Club bar stayed open during afternoon sound checks so regular customers and the artists’ fans could see the bands preparing and rehearsing the evening’s show for free. Often the artists’ showed appreciation for the fans by performing impromptu mini-concerts to standing ovations. The Palomino’s dressing rooms and backstage areas were generally open to the public. Fans could ask if the artists were receiving visitors and most artists welcomed them, gladly signing autographs, etc. During the ‘50s and ‘60s, almost every notable country and western artist played there, but in the early ‘70s, The Palomino started letting the longhaired rock ‘n’ rollers on stage. In the ’80s, The Palomino Club was home to the “Cow Punk” variety of country rock, breaking in acts like Rosie Flores, Lone Justice and The Long Riders. Many famous artists like The Flying Burrito Brothers and Dwight Yoakum played early dates there as warm-up acts. Emmylou Harris and her Hot Band regularly sold out the house. Special event concerts by musical giants like Elvis Costello and Neil Young created sensational disturbances in the neighborhood with huge crowds outside and resulting media attention. Special unannounced guests routinely joined artists onstage for duets or jam sessions. One amazing night George Harrison, John Fogerty and Bob Dylan joined Jesse Ed Davis and Taj Mahal onstage for an improvised mini-set of some of their hits. After the death of both original owners, Billy and Tommy Thomas, the club struggled, but could not maintain the earlier momentum as it became economically difficult to attract the high caliber acts in such a small venue. The Palomino Club was an amazingly unique venue the likes of which will never be seen again.

The club closed in 1995.