. . . Edgar* took a dramatic drag and exhale. Pulling at his 14-carat gold cuff-linked sleeves, The Palomino Club’s$ head bartender waited for me to slink away, shamed. We ended up being solid friends once he realized I had an ounce of intelligence and could stick it out at the tawdry venue. I made it through the first few nights despite Mercédès,* the head waitress, a diminutive, very bleached blond Broad with a capital B. She gave me poor stations, I found out later, because I wasn’t a ‘coke whore’ like many of the other waitresses. I never bought from her. With my genomic history, I figured cocaine would push me right over the edge. Ping. But I had so much fun. First, the music. Stars in the making like The Mavericks, Lucinda Williams, Jimmy Lauderdale. Remember Nicolette Larson?^
And stars from the past like Doug Kershaw, Ray Price, Jerry Jeff Walker. It was my introduction to Emmylou Harris, who caused a sensation. She was revered, with people lining up on a Sunday down Lankershim Boulevard, hours and hours before the show. One New Year’s Eve, I waited on Rita Coolidge% and her backup singers, such strong vocalists in their own right. In their bus, back behind the outdoor seating, it was like a loving, spirited women’s group.
Yes, so much fun. I had a blast despite the owner Tommy Thomas’s mood swings and despite returning nightly to a shabby efficiency on Cherokee Avenue behind the Hollywood strip where my crazy musician boyfriend jealously waited, imagining in his paranoid mind I was screwing every customer between tray runs.
*”Names have been changed to protect the innocent” – Jack Webb. Dragnet, 1951. Jack Webb/Michael Meshekoff producers.
$The Palomino Club was a music venue in the North Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles. It opened in 1949 and was the best-known country music club in Los Angeles for decades. Tiny, the ironically named 300+ pound bouncer remembered that during the early years, “I’d come to work here each night knowing I’d be in a fight with some s*** kicker.”
% Coolidge was born in Tennessee, the daughter of a minister and a schoolteacher. She was discovered in L.A. by Delaney & Bonnie. There, she became a backup singer for artists including Leon Russell, Joe Cocker, Dylan, Hendrix, and Clapton. She became known as “The Delta Lady.” (Great moniker!) In 1970, she met Kris Kristofferson (He has the best skin) at LAX when they were both catching the same flight to Tennessee. Instead of continuing to Nashville, Kristofferson got off in Memphis with her. The two married in 1973 but divorced in 1980. (I waited on her in ’82.) Her autobiography, Delta Lady: A Memoir, was published in 2016. (My husband has ‘Kris Kristofferson’ skin. Maybe that’s how I fell in love with him.)
^ Nicolette Larson is best known for her work in the late ‘70s with Neil Young. Larson worked with Emmylou Harris on her 1977 album. In 1984, the Academy of Country Music named her the Best New Female Vocalist. She was only 45 when she died of cerebral edema/liver failure.
