The other night, Thursday to be exact, we went to see Chris Hillman and Herb Pedersen. It was a nice contrast to the heaviness of last week's jury duty. Ick.Of course, Hillman was in two of my favorite bands, The Byrds (above) and The Flying Burrito Brothers. Pedersen has played with about everybody who ever did the country-rock thing — I'm a big fan of the records he did with The Dillards (Copperfields and Wheatstraw Suite).
Thinking about Hillman, I realized what a huge influence he's had on my appreciation of Country Music — adding to the Johnny Cash fandom I inherited from my Dad. The Byrds' and Burritos' covers lead me to the Louvin Brothers, Buck Owens, Hank Snow and on and on. And for all that, in addition to masterpieces like The Notorious Byrd Brothers and Sweetheart Of The Rodeo, I can't thank them enough. And I'm sure there's plenty of other alt-country fans out there who were educated the same way.
Lately, I've been all over those Sundazed mono mixes of the first four Byrds LPs. When it comes to mid-60s rock, people, mono's where it's at.
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