The Rockin'est Heart in the Whole High Desert
by John Huff
Harriet Allen is the heart of Pappy and Harriet's Pioneertown Palace
"Potatoes, Harriet! I say at least six cases, Russets"
"Yeah," Harriet answers, "sounds good to me, Honey."
Harriet Allen's General Manager, Suzy, is quick-firing details for the week ahead while Harriet is touching up her make up before her first round of vocals. 
It's 9PM Saturday night at Pappy and Harriet's Pioneertown Palace. I would expect Harriet to be seeking calm in these moments before facing the packed house. No way. The woman is getting her week's briefing on everything from 600 pounds of potatoes to what time she appears on the Dishin' With Maurice show on Palm Springs radio next Tuesday.
"Oh, yeah," Suzy adds, "don't forget those two big birthday parties on Tuesday night."
Harriet is ready to meet the crowd. The band kicks in, an infectious blend of country and rock n' roll. We hear Harriet's vocal begin-- but where is she? Then we see her, way in back, working through the crowd with the cordless mike, for spot serenades at patrons' tables on her way up to the stage. The voice is clear as crystal, rising over the instrumentals to embrace the room. What hits you is the heart she puts into a song. She rollicks with the good-time fun numbers or she aches with the blues. Harriet can be the world-wise chanteuse or the growling tigress, whatever the music calls for and once she possesses a lyric, she takes ownership.
I, who cannot carry a note in a wheelbarrow and have been convicted of karaoke misdemeanor, find myself tapping to the beat. It's irresistible. The whole place is in the groove. Waitresses don't just walk across the floor, they sway and dance. It reminds me of those old 1930s cartoons where everything, dogs, cats, tables, chairs, buildings get to bumping and jumping with the musical beat.
If you have resisted tapping your foot or slapping your knee to tempo, I challenge you to try the Palace. If you fight the beat too hard you could tear a tendon or cramp yourself real bad. So be forewarned. Come here nursing a depression-- you're in for a mandatory attitude adjustment.
Harriet is the heart of the Palace, not only on stage but off.
Kristina Quigley, a member of Harriet's musical family, says, "I love this place, its warmth and, yes, its spirituality. There aren't many real genuine places like this anywhere," says the serious young singer with a take-no-prisoners beauty. I sense she has a gimlet eye for bull that's way beyond her years and am impressed with her dead-on sincerity. "My grandmother has made it this way," she explains, "that's why people come and come back again."
Cindy, one of the bartenders, locomotes over with a tray of tall ones. A lesser soul might worry about tilting the contents on top of somebody's head. Not Cindy. It might as well be a tray of nitro. It has its own gyro-control, no matter how much she undulates: "You can be yourself here," she shouts above the melody, "it's the rockin'est heart in the whole high desert!" She sashays on her way.
Al, a Pioneertown perennial, watches her go.
"I like the women," he smiles, "and the beer and the
music, of course."
After her first round of songs, Harriet retreats to the back office
for a breather.
How does she choose what to sing? "I never know," she smiles.
What does she feel in her music? "Peace. My favorite artists are Dottie West, Patsy Cline, Janis Joplin and Lacey J. Dalton. Lacey and her band gave the first concert we had in the sound stage (on Mane Street). The first number they sang, the dust fell down from the rafters and covered those 500 folks in the audience. I felt like it was the past coming down and falling on us."
What's her theory of entertainment? "You never get old," she declares, "as long as you have a place like the Palace. Up here you don't know about time-- you stop caring. I'm part of a community that's like a family and I have a sense for this business like it's my baby."
Then there's her platinum baby. Awhile back the rock band Cracker got in touch with Harriet about recording an album in Pioneertown. "They liked our residential-recording-site concept," she says. "Here they could sleep and eat and record at their leisure. They didn't have to fight traffic or watch the clock. Sometimes we made dinner at 3AM. There was no schedule other than the spiritual schedule of music and creative flow. It was all very professional but still funky. I loved my performance on that album. I still had my apron on. It felt so like it belonged, so right, everything we hoped and dreamed for."
Kerosine Hat on the Virgin Records label, went gold then platinum. This year the band is hoping to return to do more work.
"The area is a source," says Jackson Haring, manager of Cracker with Bill Graham Management. "We're not the only musicians who have found it a conducive creative setting. As for Harriet, I don't know anyone anymore gracious. They went to extreme lengths to see we had everything we needed. Part of that hospitality led some of us to buy property up in Burns Canyon."
Early this year, Harriet was named Morongo Basin Seroptimist Woman of Distinction. Her support and encouragement to other artists, her exemplary hospitality and her creation of a truly unique artistic environment were cited. Pioneertown locals and regulars of the Palace summed it up more simply: heart.
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Not just another pretty face, Harriet's culinary creations are known and savored internationally.
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Bring your appetite, Abi and Judy will bring you the food.
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Harriet sings from her heart to the hearts of others.
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Once she possesses a lyric, Harriet takes ownership, whether rock, blues or country.
Acknowledgements to:
Ernie Kester, Jackson Haring of Bill Graham Management, Diamond Braverman, Andreas Kossak,
Hi-Desert Magazine and Hi-Desert Publications.
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