Fostering a Flair for Country : Talent contest winner Katie Trickett returns to The Palomino as the headline act Saturday, performing classics and original material.

Country music wasn’t always the supremely popular sound it is today, little darlin’. Even Katie Trickett knows this, though she was already listening to the stuff on her Walkman back at junior high in Maryland. Dolly Parton had her ear then.

“But I wouldn’t tell anybody,” Trickett, 22, says now. “I’d say I was listening to Quiet Riot or something.”

That ruse didn’t last, but she never abandoned the sounds of Parton and Patsy Cline and the Judds. Recently she’s embarked on her own singing career, and in August won the first night of the revived talent contest at The Palomino with a rendition of Hank Williams’ “Your Cheatin’ Heart.” On Saturday she’ll return there to perform as the headlining act.

This new career continues a family tradition for Trickett, whose father, Ed Trickett, works as a Maryland psychologist but is also a veteran folk singer with eight solo albums on the Folk Legacy label. (“He’s chosen to do music as a hobby so he can do it the way he wants it,” she says.) As a child, young Katie often joined her father on stage to sing, though she ultimately developed her own tastes in music.

“I never liked folk music that much when I was little,” admits Trickett, who sang all through high school. (She graduated in 1992.) She now studies recording and songwriting at USC. “I was a little bit too rambunctious. I was into rock. Country attracted me because it was more exciting--with electric guitar--and the lyrics were just as beautiful.”

Trickett has been in Los Angeles for five years, since moving with her mother from Kensington, Md., after her parents divorced. Right now Trickett is sitting in blue jeans in the Marina Del Rey living room of her manager, Judy Kirk. Behind her is the karaoke machine she used to create the early demo tapes that first attracted the attention of singer-songwriter Chad Watson, who produced Trickett’s independently released debut album, “The Next Time.”

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“This girl’s voice was so honest and as clear as a bell,” says Watson, who has worked as bassist for such acts as Janis Ian, Charlie Rich, Ronnie Milsap and the Flying Burrito Brothers. “The goal was to keep the music as simple and honest as her voice is to me. She has star quality. It’s interesting that she’s so young, and so flexible in the studio. I decided to put her voice up front, the star of the recording.”

The process of that recording was often grueling for the singer, keeping her in the studio until 3 a.m., leaving little time to recuperate in time for her 8 a.m. class.

“That was awful,” she says. “It doesn’t give you a whole lot of time for much else. But it’s definitely worth it.”

While much of the material on the album--released by Lawson Records (and available by calling 310-276-5913)--was written by Watson and others, the title track is Trickett’s. And she hopes to write more of her own material. “Songwriting is something I’ve just started doing in the last couple of years,” she says. “Lyrics are very important to me. It’s difficult. Some songs come in 20 minutes. Some come in six months. If it was easy, then every song would be a great one. There’s a lot to it.”

The Palomino show will be her opportunity to try out some of that original material, as well as work by other contemporary songwriters, along with the usual dose of country classics. Trickett’s manager is renting a couple of searchlights to scan the night sky. And the singer will be joined on stage by Watson, former-Byrds guitarist John York (who also sings backup on the album), and fiddler Byron Berline.

As for her father’s view of her sudden singing career, she laughs. “He still likes folk music better,” Trickett says. “But he’s happy if I’m happy.”

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WHERE AND WHEN:

Who: Katie Trickett, with Chad Watson and John York.

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

Hours: 9 p.m. Saturday.

Price: $6.

Call: (818) 764-4018.