Desert Rose Band Reunion Satisfies Nashville Fans

The Desert Rose Band returned to Nashville for the first time in 20 years last night (Aug. 9), arriving to a full Belcourt Theatre -- and eager fans like Emmylou Harris and Brad Paisley at their side. Lead singer Chris Hillman told the crowd that the band decided to reunite for the music's sake, with no intentions of making another record, so there was no new, unfamiliar material to politely sit through. Instead, the dynamic band capably and cheerfully rolled through their country hits from the late 1980s, like the fully-charged "Ashes of Love" (with Paisley taking a verse), "Love Reunited," "One Step Forward," "He's Back and I'm Blue," "Summer Wind" and "I Still Believe in You." As soon as they kicked off the first song, "She Don't Love Nobody," I just couldn't quit smiling. They've still got that cool California vibe, yet with an obvious affinity for traditional country music.

Even though my seats didn't allow me to see steel guitarist Jay Dee Maness, his stylish playing wove throughout all the songs. But I was just a few feet away from Herb Pedersen, whose high harmony is still an essential component of their easygoing sound. It's incredibly refreshing to hear a country band that relies so much on the musicianship, rather than just building themselves around a promising lead singer.

Harris told the crowd that Hillman discovered her performing in a singles bar in 1971 and brought her to Gram Parsons' attention when Parsons was looking for a female harmony singer. Without that chance encounter, she noted that she might have never had a career in music. Indeed, a lot of gratitude was spread across the evening, with all the band members praising each other's talent and glowing whenever somebody served up a tasty lick. With John Jorgenson on guitar, there were plenty of those. When Paisley is stepping back and admiring your dexterity, you know you're on the right track.

I can't really pick a highlight from the night, but as I write this, I'm listening to their Greatest Hits album and still grinning from ear to ear. They're playing the Grand Ole Opry tonight (Aug. 10), and here's hoping it doesn't take two decades for them to get back to Nashville next time.

- Craig Shelburne - 

Desert Rose Band Reunites on a Star-Filled Nashville Night

Gary Allan, Brad Paisley and wife Kimberly Williams-Paisley, bluegrass greats Larry Stephenson and Roland White, Emmylou Harris, steel guitar great Lloyd Green and songwriters Odie Blackman and Gary Nicholson were just a few of the celebrities who found their way to Nashville's Belcourt Theatre Monday night to see the final night of the Desert Rose Band's mini-concert tour of 2010.

The band, comprised of Chris Hillman, John Jorgenson, Herb Pedersen, Jay Dee Maness, Bill Bryson and Steve Duncan, has not been 'officially' together since 1994, but in recent years have done a few dates-on-demand, as requests have come in for the supergroup of musicians, songwriters and singers to perform.

"About two years ago we discussed it and we said why not?" Chris tells The Boot. "We had a couple offers and everyone wanted to do it. It's not a career move, it's just for fun. So we did that two years ago and had a great time. This year we had some more things come along, so we played three or four shows in California in May, and then the Birchmere (in Alexandria, Va.) wanted us for two nights, so we said 'OK, we'll do another run in August, and there you have it. We have a couple more shows in September in Copper Mountain, Colorado, and Bozeman, Montana."

"It really is a labor of love," Chris continues. "We have a great time, we get along with each other, and we play better now than we did in our heyday. We are not under all that pressure to have a record on the charts. We all have our own projects -- John has his 'Gypsy Jazz' and Herb and I have a new live album on Rounder in September. Everyone keeps busy, so after September we'll see if we want to do it again, maybe in the next couple years."

An original member of country-rock legends the Byrds and the Flying Burritos Brothers, Chris adds, "I couldn't really say I could do it with any other band, because with the Desert Rose Band, when John left, Jay Dee left, there was no animosity that some bands go through when they dissolve. The other great part about it, and no disrespect to anybody, but we don't have to get back together out of desperation. So it's just a lot of fun, with no pressure, and we enjoy each other's company."

That fact was apparent as the band took to the stage at the Belcourt after a short set by songwriter Pam Rose, who was introduced as "the first rose of the evening." Chris and his fellow travelers hit it hard, introducing their set with their hits 'She Don't Love Nobody' and 'Love Reunited.'

Chris introduced the tune that became their first No. 1 record, 'She's Back and I'm Blue,' penned by Michael Woody. Later in the evening they did a second song by the tunesmith, 'It Takes a Believer.'

All the hits were there, including 'Leave this Town,' 'Summer Wind' and 'Start All Over Again.' John proved that his expertise on multiple instruments has not diminished, as he went from guitar to mandolin and back to guitar throughout the evening. Chris played both acoustic guitar and mandolin, while Jay Dee found some great sounds in his steel guitar.

The band was very much at home on a Nashville stage, with each member recognizing various friends and peers in the audience from time to time as they played. "This song goes out to my buddy Larry Stephenson," Herb said before they played 'Once More.' John sent out 'Start All Over Again' to producer Paul Worley, plus dedicated several songs to his wife, who was celebrating her birthday. He sang 'I Still Believe in You Now' for Connie, to whom he's been married for 31 years.

The band members have known each other a long time. Herb and Chris met when Herb was 18. John says he and Chris met at a NAMM show in 1975 and the singer helped start his career. Chris and Emmylou also have a long history, dating back to her early performances in Washington, D.C.

"If it weren't for Chris walking into that singles bar and hearing me and telling Gram [Parsons] about me, I'm not sure what would have happened," Emmylou said, adding that Herb's harmonies on her first album were a major part of its sound. She joined the band to sing 'Sin City,' written by Chris and Gram and performed originally by the Flying Burrito Brothers. Chris later said that she had left a recording session for her next album to join them for the evening.

After a burning guitar solo by John during the band's performance of 'In Another Lifetime,' Brad joined them on 'Hello Trouble.' Following that performance, Brad dropped to his knees to bow to John as a premier guitar player. "I could do that but I just don't want to," Chris commented on Brad and John's performances. "We first met Brad at one of Buck Owens' birthday parties, back when Buck was still roaring. He was a great mentor to so many of us."

Brad stayed to perform on Buck's classic 'Together Again,' as well as on 'Ashes of Love,' where he not only played but sang. Later, John invited him back up to play six-stringed bass on the Desert Rose hit 'One Step Forward.'

Although the band played for nearly two hours, it seemed as if the evening had just begun when Chris said their good-byes. "Thank you so much for coming to see us," he said. "We're just here to have a great time and it's all about the music. Now these guys [Brad and John] are gonna battle it out!"

The band broke into 'Price I Pay,' while the two guitarists unleashed their best licks to entertain the crowd. "Thank you for coming to see the Desert Rose Band," Chris said again before they left the stage. The room full of fans and peers would not let them go easily, rising to their feet and continuing to applaud, urging the band to return to the stage. They encored with 'Will This be the Day' and 'Why Can't I Keep You in Love with Me," dedicating the latter to Charlie Louvin, who is battling stage two pancreatic cancer.

The night wasn't over, as Chris, John, Herb and the rest of the band came out to greet fans, friends and peers after the final notes had been played. They stay over in Nashville to perform on the Grand Ole Opry tonight (Tuesday, August 10).

- Vernell Hackett -

Desert Rose Band reunion an in-the-moment celebration

Reunion shows are so often about familiarity and remembrance. Fans pony up big money to watch dinosaur rock bands replicate decades-old doings.

But Monday night at the Belcourt Theatre, the Desert Rose Band’s reunion concert was much more about renewal than replication. Enlivened by guest visits from Emmylou Harris and Brad Paisley, the Desert Rose Band’s original lineup presented a reunion show that existed fully in the moment, bolstered, not shackled, by memory.

The clumsy moments may have been the dearest. Harris and bandleader Chris Hillman fumbled the opening of “Sin City,” a song Hillman wrote with Harris’ mentor, the late Gram Parsons. But the awkward start gave way to a harmonious, waltz-time wonder as the band got in sync.

Later, Hillman was so enamored of guitarist John Jorgenson’s warp-speed solo on “The Price I Pay” that he forgot to reenter for the final chorus. He returned to the microphone with an astonished look on his face, as if he’d been jerked from the audience onto the stage.

Then again, some of the night’s finer moments were far from clumsy. Paisley, a child of 14 when the Desert Rose Band first hit the charts in 1987 with “Ashes of Love,” played the searing “Hello Trouble” solo with Jorgenson, in harmony. Steel player Jay Dee Maness delivered a lovely, perfectly executed solo on “Together Again,” a song originally recorded by Buck Owens in a version that featured a legendary solo from another ex-Desert Rose Band member, Tom Brumley.

Herb Pedersen offered a most enjoyable vocal clinic all night, and an encore romp through “Will This Be the Day” offered chiming guitars and a pounding rhythm section that channeled one of Hillman’s other notable former bands, the Byrds.

The whole thing played out in front of an audience packed with heavies. Steel guitar pros Al Perkins, Lloyd Green (who shared significant steel parts with Maness on the Byrds’ Sweetheart of the Rodeo album), Pete Finney and Hank DeVito cheered a rare Nashville appearance from Maness. Bluegrassers Roland White and Larry Stephenson, young guitar wizard J.D. Simo, country artist Gary Allan, songwriters John D. Loudermilk, Mary Ann Kennedy, Alan Rhody and Trent Summar and clothier-to-the-stars Manuel also joined the sold-out crowd.

Paisley credits the band with changing his life as a teenager, and he isn’t alone. Though the Desert Rose Band notched a respectable-but-not-legendary eight Top 10 country singles in its three years and three months of hit making, the band was far more inspirational than profitable. Its sound was, and is, an update of the fiery west coast country tradition exemplified by Buck Owens and updated by the Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers and others.

Hillman was a member of the latter two groups, and he’s quick to remind that the Byrds and the Burritos were inventive in the studio but often shambolic on stage. The Desert Rose Band, though, was a professional endeavor in intent and in delivery.

Monday, Hillman, Jorgenson, Pedersen, Maness, bass man Bill Bryson and drummer Steve Duncan offered up a show filled with instrumental flights, splendid harmonies and songs that contained deep realism (“my father died a broken man by his own hand”), language (“Do I have to make love from the punishments and promises you hand to me?”) and emotion (on “Summer Wind,” a divorced father exclaims, “Can’t you see what I’ve been through?” to a daughter who can’t possibly understand).

Monday’s gathering could have been a gripe-fest or a snob-fest, with musicians and audience members of a certain age complaining about what the music has become. Instead, it was a celebration, with a Country Music Hall of Famer (Harris) and one of contemporary country’s biggest stars (Paisley) aiding in an evening of spontaneity and applause. All were in the moment, and the moment was good.

- Peter Cooper -