Last night I attended a super fabulous performance in sleepy, coastal Carpenteria, which is about halfway between Ventura and Santa Barbara. Performing were the super awesome Chris Hillman of the Byrds, and Herb Pedersen of the Dillards. I had seen them together with their band, the Desert Rose Band, a couple years ago in Thousand Oaks. Last night made my list of top ten musical performances. It was just Herb on acoustic guitar and Chris on mandolin and acoustic 6 and 12 string guitars. They did super versions of Byrds hits such as Mr. Tamborine Man, Turn Turn Turn, 8 Miles High, fabulous Chris Hillman songs such as Wheels and It Doesn’t Matter, Dillards tunes, and songs from the extensive Desert Rose Band catalog. They did Buck Owen’s Together Again. They did the Louvin Brother’s If I Could Only Win Your Love, made famous by Emmy Lou Harris. Fun fact: it was Herb Pedersen singing harmony on Emmy Lou’s version back in the 70s when he played guitar in her band, in Linda Ronstadt’s band, and was in John Denver’s band. So there’s that.
Plus they got to meet me after the show. 😉