Live & Kickin’

An illuminated marquee outside the Simi Valley club Mixers advertises “Winslow Playing Tonight.”

Music from the country band’s first set, on this Saturday night, reaches the parking lot as a pair of twentysomething cowboys unload from a pickup truck and stride purposefully to the unassuming storefront entrance. Their IDs checked and cover charge paid, the two pause inside to survey a sea of cowboy hats while their eyes adjust to the bar room’s dim lighting.

Clusters of patrons chat amicably at the bar and around the two pool tables near the door while others, seated on high stools at tables along the wall, converse over the music. A dozen more couples gracefully execute the fluid moves of a Cowboy Cha-Cha.

It’s a typical country nightclub scene, except for one glaring, blaring difference. The music enveloping the room is live, not the recorded stuff of CDs and tapes.

It’s a scene that is becoming more and more difficult to find in much of the Valley and Ventura County, largely due to the economic constraints of hiring live bands, particularly during normally slow weeknights.

The trend toward replacing live bands with deejay music in most country dance venues over the last couple of years has forced some folks to travel farther for a glimpse of pedal steel. But the new club Mixers--a gentrified cowboy fern-bar--and the Canyon Club in Agoura Hills--a sort of “theme-eating” country Sizzler--have arrived on the local country scene, offering the real deal: live country bands.

“More clubs use deejay music because it is cheaper and some people prefer dancing to popular songs the way they sound on the radio,” said Sam Rafeh, owner of Mixers. “But in the last four months it seems when you tell somebody we have a deejay, it turns them off. They always want a band. Regardless of how good the band might be, almost every time you tell people there’s a band, they are more willing to come out and give it a try.”

Mixers, located in a strip mall at the corner of Cochran Avenue and Tapo Street, technically is a recycled club rather than new one. After Rafeh bought the former Golden Spur in October, he added rock and hip-hop to the musical format. But Saturday nights remain a country stronghold, featuring free country dance lessons by Pam Donovan at 7 p.m., followed by a country band at 8:30.

Beginning May 7, Rafeh plans to offer Wednesday dance lessons at 7 p.m. followed by deejay music or, on occasion, a live band.

First-time patrons Jan Giannunzio and Bob Teague came from the Hollywood Hills and West Los Angeles, respectively, on this particular Winslow Saturday night to try out Mixers at a friend’s invitation. They liked what they saw.

“It’s a very friendly, very welcoming atmosphere,” Giannunzio said. “We’d been told the dance floor was very small. But we’re delighted to see it’s just been expanded--and it’s fine for the size of the club,” added Teague. “We don’t do a lot of two-step so I like the mix of line and couples dances the band is playing,” Giannunzio added.

Newbury Park resident Lana Eriksson and Ed Meyer of Simi Valley were decked out in dark hats, boots and coordinated outfits for the evening. “I like the live bands. What I like about [the owner] is he listens to the customers. And he’s bringing in the bands we like,” Eriksson said.

So far that includes bands that are also favorites in the regular band rotation at the Cowboy Palace Saloon in Chatsworth--including Mr. Dyer’s Daughters, Larry Dean and the Shooters, Coolwater Country and New Frontier.

“It’s a nice atmosphere and it’s got a lot of promise,” said Meyer.

Even before Mixers became Mixers, live country music was getting a boost locally from Vance and Pat Moran.

Last August, the Morans put country-western music on the menu of their 16,000-square-foot “Canyon Club Buffet,” a remodeled building in the Whizin’s shopping center near Kanan Road and the 101 Freeway in Agoura Hills.

Initially the couple used a one-man-band, deejay music or live bands on various nights to seek customer feedback. Encouraged by the favorable responses to live music, the couple recently upgraded the club to facilitate the musicians and the dancers.

The club, which reopened last week as the Canyon Club, has a larger dance floor and stage and new sound and light systems. The club also will now provide sit-down dinner service instead of a buffet.

“We’ll have live bands on Friday, Saturday and Sunday,” said Vance Moran, who has scheduled the five-piece band Coolwater Country for this Saturday evening and again on May 3. “If you’re gonna listen to deejay music, you might as well go home and put on a record or listen to a jukebox.”

The Morans will toss in a little big band music and other non-country genres on these live-band nights. But Moran said live country music will have a prominent place on his yet-to-be-finalized schedule.

And that’s not surprising, given Moran’s history. The club owner has kept an eye on the local country entertainment scene for nearly 40 years. In the late 1950s he converted Ventura’s landmark Ban-Dar from rock ‘n’ roll to a country-western night club before selling it about five years later.

But Moran’s new place is a far cry from his old Ban-Dar. Once inside Moran’s family-friendly, smoke-free Canyon Club digs, one gets the sensation of being at a country-western wedding reception where guests, bathed in diffused pink light, have lingered after the bride’s and groom’s departure.

On one recent Saturday night about 300 people of all ages occupied booths or tables or milled around the buffet area while, from the raised stage in the center of the hall, Don McGinnis & His Country Boys played for a largely over-40 crowd of dancers.

The line dancers, in various forms of cowboy attire, gyrated to the Tush Push while the uninitiated marveled at their agility and made comments between spoonfuls of dessert. Others dropped in for a meal and were oblivious to the country antics.

The Canyon Club will offer country dance lessons and deejay music from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays.

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Two-Steppin’

Live Country Music and dancing can be found at these clubs and events in and around the Valley:

Cowboy Palace Saloon

(21635 Devonshire St., Chatsworth, [818] 341-0166). Under various names, this honky tonk has been a fixture on the Valley country music scene for well over 20 years. The club offers live country music seven nights a week. Additionally, the club sponsors free dance lessons seven nights a week, complimentary barbecue on Sundays and other nights, and a weekly Wednesday talent show. Never a cover charge.

Crest Country

(6101 Reseda Blvd., Reseda, [818] 342-1563) offers live country music Friday and Saturday nights. The Crest has been a regular Valley watering hole for at least 30 years. A few years back, the club remodeled, expanded and went country, at least most of the time. It now has what is probably the Valley’s biggest dance floor. On non-country Tuesdays, Sonny Watson’s West Coast Swing Dance class charges a $6 cover, but on other nights, admission is free. Free country dance lessons Wednesdays through Saturdays.

Crazy Jack’s

(4311 W. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank, [818] 845-1121). Formerly the Cinnamon Cinder, this club offers live country music Friday and Saturday nights. Also, there are free country dance lessons Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 7-9 p.m. No cover charge.

The Hideaway

(12122 Kagel Canyon Road, San Fernando, [818] 890-1225) has live country music Friday and Saturday evenings and also at the weekly Sunday afternoon barbecue. Sunday cover varies depending on what’s cooking.

Canyon Club

(28912 Roadside Drive, Agoura Hills, [818] 879-5016). Coolwater Country, appearing Saturday at 7 p.m., won the 1996 California Country Music Assn. regional awards for best band of the year; member Lynn Rutherford was named best female vocalist and best female entertainer. The group will perform Top 40 and traditional country music. Cover varies. (Also May 3).

Mixers

(2381 Tapo St., Simi Valley. Ages 21 and over; $6; [805] 520-7787.) Fandago, members of former Cactus County, will debut this new band at 8:30 p.m.

Conejo Valley Days Carnival

(Janss Road and the Moorpark Freeway, Thousand Oaks, 371-8730). Juice Newton will perform her hits tonight at 8:30 on the main stage. On Sunday, Sweet County brings its pedal-steel sound to the Family Stage at 7:30 p.m.