A Show of Their Own : * The Palomino’s Barndance is one of the few places where country musicians can play original material. But the program isn’t drawing crowds.

Paul Marshall has paid his dues, which is what country music has always been about. Country legends such as Merle Haggard, Buck Owens, Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings made it the hard way, after years of playing low-pay beer bars and one-night stands in joints that Haggard used to call the “fightin’ and dancin’ clubs.”

Marshall, 44, of Tujunga, has been singing and playing bass guitar on the country-Western circuit for more than 20 years. He’s played as a sideman for Hank Thompson, Johnny Tillotson and Johnny Rodriguez. He’s been named California Country Music Assn. bass player of the year, and he’s had songs recorded by Juice Newton and Highway 101. His ballad “Learning to Forgive” is on Patty Loveless’ new album, and “C’mon, C’mon” is on the new Boy Howdy album.

On the Barndance show at the Palomino club in North Hollywood, Marshall is playing his own songs with his band, the Marshall Plan. Like most country-Western singer-songwriters, Marshall’s dream is to get a recording contract for himself. He’s seen other L.A. groups play at the Tuesday-night Barndance on their way to getting label deals.

Barndance night at the Palomino, a weekly showcase for local country musicians, is practically the only place in Los Angeles where country musicians can play original material.

“In the local clubs,” says Marshall, who’s played them all, “you pretty much have to stick to tunes off country-Western radio playlists. People don’t want to hear songs they haven’t heard before.”

That’s a real irony, in a genre of pop music in which most performers traditionally write their own material, and original songs are the primary means of getting noticed by record labels and promoters.

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Barn Dance is produced as a nonprofit venture by Ronnie Mack, 39, of Los Angeles, as a place for musicians to present original material and also to perform the traditional country music repertoire that no longer is played in country dance clubs.

“What I’m trying to get across with the Barndance,” says Mack, a gangly, gregarious, 6-foot-5 native of Baltimore, “is that country music is a form of American culture. I’m trying to help maintain the integrity of the music and its roots. That’s not an issue for country radio stations, or the Nashville Establishment, but it is for me.”

Mack, a singer-songwriter-guitarist who describes himself as a “mediocre talent,” has made the presentation and preservation of what he calls “roots” country music in Los Angeles a personal crusade. Since founding Barndance in 1988, he has put considerable energy and money into the show.

There’s no admission charge for Barndance, unlike the other nights at the Palomino, when the door charge ranges from $6 to $10. But even with free admission, Barndance rarely fills the house.

“It’s a shame that country music doesn’t seem to be making it that well in Los Angeles,” says Linda Cauthen, editor of the Los Angeles-based Country Fever, a country music magazine. “We lost our oldest country radio station--KLAC--and some of the country-Western clubs are closing. People don’t realize there always has been a country music scene in L.A.--back through Buck Owens and Merle Haggard, all the way to the movie cowboy days.”

The Palomino was part of the Los Angeles country music scene as far back as 1949, when it opened. Most of the legends in country music played at the Palomino during the 1950s and 1960s, before and after they became stars. But in the late 1980s, the club gradually shifted from country to rock. Now, Barndance is the only country music night at the club.

“What Ronnie Mack does with ‘The Barndance’ is as important a thing as you can do for a music community,” says Rene Engel, host of the eclectic Monday-night country music show “Citybilly” on KPPC 98.3-FM.

“He gives you a chance to see someone before they make it big,” Engel says. “And then they keep showing up on his show. But it’s a real tough row to hoe. There isn’t a lot of local support for the music he puts on.”

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Ronnie Mack introduces another local group, the Plowboys, after Paul Marshall leaves the stage. They kick off with “She’s Gone to Austin,” a driving, up-tempo rocker.

“That’s our Saturday-night Texas fighting song,” says the singer, in jeans, Levi’s jacket, red neckerchief, black cowboy hat and Western boots. “Now we’re gonna do a song about the town of Abilene.”

The song has a powerful, hard-hitting beat, and there’s warm applause when it’s over and Mack takes the microphone to talk up the show.

“Let’s hear it for the Plowboys,” Mack says, after their performance, with his exuberant, upbeat delivery. “That’s the kind of music that shows the ‘Achey-Breakey’ crowd that there’s more to country music than guys with big muscles and the T-shirts.”

Mack is openly derisive of much of the country music played on the radio--with the monster hit “Achey-Breakey Heart” by young hunk Billy Ray Cyrus a particular target of scorn.

“We feature the real roots music here on the Barndance,” Mack says, as he kicks off a song with the Barndance band, “and this music will be around after that stuff has gone.”

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During its tenuous six-year life, Barndance has been featured on a number of FM radio stations. But one, KCSN (88.5) at Cal State Northridge, turned from country to classical, and two others changed their programming.

With minimal advertising and promotion, Barndance has seen the debut of a number of local artists and groups that went on to recording success. Rosie Flores, Chris Gaffney, James Intveld, Lone Justice and Lucinda Williams are all veterans of Barndance. So are Boy Howdy, Highway 101 and Karin Tobin.

In 1993, when country music and country dancing seemed like the new wave in San Fernando Valley clubs, Barndance temporarily pulled up stakes and moved to In Cahoots, a popular country-Western dance club in Glendale.

Mack, and the management of In Cahoots, hoped that the drinking and dancing crowd would warm to the sound of original country music--and the roots of the tunes they listened to on the radio. They didn’t.

“They hated us at In Cahoots,” Mack says, without exaggeration. “They wanted their tush-push, their ‘Achey-Breakey,’ their ‘Boot Scootin’ Boogie,’ their line-dancing songs.

“Before we went over there, I had a theory that if you just expose people to music they can’t hear on mainstream radio, they’ll hear it and say, ‘Wow, that’s really cool.’

“But that turned out to be wrong. People want what they want, and at L.A. country-Western clubs, they want what they hear on the radio.”

The sojourn at In Cahoots, which lasted only a few weeks, was an experience in frustration and hostility for Barndance.

“The dancers didn’t like us because the show wasn’t music off the radio,” Mack says. “It was so bad, even our musicians said, ‘Man, we don’t belong here.’ ”

Finally, Mack threw in the towel when an angry customer jumped on stage and told the band: ‘We don’t want your . . . show. We wanta’ dance. We want stuff we’ve heard before. You’re in the wrong place.”

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Mack took the show back to the Palomino last fall, to a small but loyal audience. The celebration of Barndance’s return to the venerable Palomino, though, was dampened by rumors in January that the club was going to be turned into a billiard parlor.

“There’s no truth to that rumor,” owner Bill Thomas says. “I was considering it, but I’m not going to. The Palomino’s going to stay open.”

The rumored closing brought a show of support from musicians and fans. The show went on Jan. 18, the night after the Northridge earthquake closed most clubs.

It was Barndance’s sixth anniversary.

“We had over 135 people that night,” Mack says. “That’s a pretty good turnout the night after the quake.”

Mack has no illusions about the security of Barndance. It is a marginal night for the Palomino, even with free admission.

“It’s too bad people won’t come out to hear alternative country acts, even for free,” Mack says. “But I don’t feel negative about it. If I die tomorrow, I would die happy. I’ve been putting this show on for six years, and we’re still here.”

WHERE AND WHEN

What: Barndance.

Location: The Palomino club, 6907 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood.

Hours: 8:30 p.m. Tuesdays.

Price: Free admission, no minimum.

Call: (818) 764-4010 for recorded show information.