When you have a chance to experience music in it’s most purest form, when all is quiet and the resonance of the harmonies and the words and a few strings are crystal clear, it can be pure bliss. A lot of music has gotten away from that but thankfully Chris Hillman and Herb Pedersen still believe in those unsoiled sounds and brought them to the sold out Red Dragon Listening Room in Baton Rouge on 11/17/16, where people sat and listened and appreciated. No hustling and bustling and chatting, no major cell phone filming; in fact, the focus was on the stage and not on the gadgets in their hands.
Hillman is a former member of the Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Manassas and the Desert Rose Band – not to mention was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame on it’s first ballot. Pedersen is a sought-after singer-songwriter who has played &/or recorded with, among many others, John Denver, Emmylou Harris, Ringo Starr, Linda Ronstadt, Lyle Lovett, with Hillman in the Desert Rose Band and will be going out with Tom Petty next summer. Both their careers span over fifty years and they have stayed true to their initial calling, which in their cases is bluegrass, folk and Americana.
Having met each other in the early sixties when they were both in bluegrass bands in Los Angeles, their friendship grew as they made their names in the music world, coming together in the mid-eighties to form the successful Desert Rose Band, which had a strong nine year run before disbanding.
So with all that being said, it’s no wonder when they perform together it’s almost perfection, the way their harmonies entangle into one beautiful melody. And with all that history, they have a vast catalog in which to choose from, not to mention a long list of songs they love by other songwriters. As they told me before the show, they often don’t work off a setlist and are known to call audibles during the performances.
They began with two Desert Rose Band compositions, “Story Of Love” and “She Don’t Love Nobody,” a Byrds classic, “Turn! Turn! Turn!” and the Louvin Brothers “If I Could Only Win Your Love,” which became a hit in 1975 for Emmylou Harris. They paid homage to Buck Owens and Dwight Yoakam (“The Streets Of Bakersfield”), Woody Guthrie (“Ranger’s Command”) and the Everly Brothers (“Walk Right Back”), while honoring their wives with “Better Man Than That,” a song Hillman wrote on their Way Out West album, and their families via the Pedersen-penned “Wait A Minute” about always being on the road and leaving them behind for months on end. “The marriage didn’t last,” Pedersen said with a slight smile, “but the song did.”
Hillman, the former shy young mandolin player who found himself invited to join a fledgling young folk band called The Byrds when he was still a teen, shared a few stories. He remembered the late Gram Parsons who went out riding his new motorcycle only to return with a bloody leg, inspiring them to write “Wheels,” appearing on the Flying Burrito Brothers debut album, The Gilded Palace of Sin, in 1969. And he joked with the crowd often: after the song “Have You Seen Her Face,” he said that he’s for years been “waiting for a cosmetic firm to pick that up;” and during “Good Time Charlie’s Got The Blues,” he changed a lyric to fit more appropriately – “You’re not a kid at 72.” Then becoming serious when saying that “I’m Still Alive” is “for anyone who’s had to deal with that mortality slap.”
Playing mandolin expertly on most of the twenty-plus songs, Hillman did pull out the acoustic guitar a few times – “The Bells Of Newport,” “Have You Seen Her Face” and “I’m Still Alive” – while Pedersen played his acoustic throughout and at times taking full lead vocals – “Wait A Minute” and “Close The Door Lightly When You Go.”
Opening the show was a young singer-songwriter named Clay Parker, who had a lovely vocal with soft-spoken songs, among them “Queen City Blues,” “Wren,” “Ms Kettle” and “Diesel.” A mighty bright future is ahead for this Baton Rouge local, who has two albums already under his belt as a solo artist and often sings with Jodi James.
Overall, there was bluegrass, country, folk, gospel, a little rocking and a whole lot of enjoyable Americana songs and melodies. A perfect way to disconnect from the world and just savor what good music sounds like.
