ENTERTAINMENT NEWS : Back in the Saddle : Singer Freddy Fender will make a return appearance at the Palomino, where country music once again reigns supreme.

For more than 30 years, the Palomino Club in North Hollywood was the center of the Los Angeles country-western music scene. Started in 1952 by brothers Tommy and Billy Thomas, the venue was not only a showcase for country music acts, it was also a hangout for local and touring artists and record-company people.

Following the deaths of the Thomas brothers, the club changed into a rock venue in the early ‘90s and only since Sherry Thomas, Tommy’s widow, took control in May has the club returned to the style of music that was its tradition.

Adhering to that new policy, Tex-Mex singer Freddy Fender will appear at the Palomino on Dec. 23 and 24. National country acts like Fender used to be a staple at the Palomino in the 1960s and ‘70s, along with local upcoming artists. Fender first played the Palomino in 1975, the year he started scoring hits with such tunes as “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” and “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights.”

“Before the Universal Amphitheatre, major acts came here to play,” Thomas says. She acknowledges that it’s more difficult today to schedule national acts, but “you can come in here seven nights a week and hear good quality, live music. Dwight Yoakam came back. Freddy Fender is coming back.”

Born Baldemar Huerta in Texas in 1937, Fender began his musical career in 1956, took a three-year detour to prison in 1960 for a marijuana arrest and finally achieved stardom in 1975. During the 1980s, he battled money and substance-abuse problems, and lost his record deal.

More recently, Fender has come back into the musical spotlight as a member of the Texas Tornados, along with Doug Sahm, Flaco Jimenez and Augie Meyers. The Tornados won a Grammy in 1990 for best Mexican-American performance.

Fender fondly remembers the better times at the Palomino.

“Now that Sherry has taken over,” Fender said by telephone from Texas, “I wanted to be part of the Palomino’s coming back. Once you play at the Palomino, you want to play there again.”

Freddy Fender will perform at 9 p.m. Dec. 23 and 24 at the Palomino, 6907 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. Tickets are $15 Dec. 23 and $10 Dec. 24. Call (818) 764-4018.

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ON THE RADIO: Funk / blues performer Johnny (Guitar) Watson’s concert Saturday night at B. B. King’s Blues Club on Universal CityWalk will be the first installment of a new radio concert series that will be broadcast to more than 70 stations nationwide.

The “B. B. King Blues Hour,” which will originate each month from the Universal City club, will be broadcast over the ABC Radio Network. Glenn Cosby, ABC Radio Network program director in Dallas, says the initial program featuring Watson will be taped for broadcast in early January, but subsequent shows will be broadcast live.

“This will be a forum for real artists,” Cosby says, “people who can perform without recording wizardry.” Cosby says several artists have already expressed interest in performing on the new program, including Al Jarreau, Chante Moore, Howard Hewitt (formerly of Shalimar) and Johnny Gill.

The radio show does not yet have a Los Angeles radio outlet.

Watson, 59, had a string of funk hits in the mid-1970s, including “Superhuman Lover” and “A Real Mother for Ya.” But it was as a blues guitarist that he originally made his mark in the music business in the early 1950s. His song, “Gangster of Love,” was covered by Steve Miller in 1968.

“Bow Wow,” his first album in more than 12 years, was recently released. Watson’s music has been exposed to a new generation of listeners because it has been electronically sampled by such rap artists as Snoop Doggy Dog, Dr. Dre and Ice Cube.

“It’s exciting to be back in the mainstream,” Watson says. “Fortunately, a lot of rappers and young people are sampling my catalogue. I’ve always had a fan base, but now I’m getting a lot of new people. It’s really wonderful.”

Johnny (Guitar) Watson will perform at 9:30 p.m. Saturday at the B. B. King Blues Club, Universal CityWalk. Sold out. Call (818) 622-5464.

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MOVIN’ ON: The adopted motto of American Renegade Theatre, festooned on a banner outside the space at 11306 Magnolia Blvd. in North Hollywood, is “Come and Enjoy the Magic of Live Theater.”

But a better one might be: “If You Can’t Get It Fixed, Get Out.” After suffering some of the worst damage of any San Fernando Valley theater from the January earthquake (which forced the closure of the larger of its two theater spaces), and after being unable to gain government funding to pay for an estimated $100,000 in repairs, Artistic Director David Cox and his staff was informed in October by landlord Nicholas Papanicolaou that the building complex American Renegade occupies would be demolished.

Cox, as a founder of the Valley Theatre League and a key promoter of the NoHo Arts District, wanted to remain in the neighborhood and already knew what viable properties were available. On the same day that Papanicolaou told him the news, Cox and administrative assistant Dawn Mari found a vacant former musicians rehearsal space at 11136 Magnolia Blvd. that both believed could be converted into a theater. Quickly closing the deal, American Renegade agreed to assume the mortgage with no money down and $21,000 in escrow costs.

“We’re totally gutting the building,” says Cox, who found Simi Valley-based architect Dudley Wynkoop to build the new theater to the company’s specifications. Plans include a “London Soho-style facade and marquee,” cafe and foyer, a 99-seat theater featuring a 34-seat balcony in a space with a 23-foot ceiling, backstage green room and an upstairs rehearsal-workshop space convertible to a second theater.

Although fund-raising for the move is paramount, Mari says, “there’s some key funding we’re waiting on right now that will affect what we do.”

Further funding may be provided by the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency, which is involved with housing and building renewal in the arts district.

Robert Koehler contributed to this column.