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And your Byrd can sing – Byrds icon Chris Hillman to perform in Baton Rouge

It would make perfect sense to call Chris Hillman an everyman except for one irrefutable fact: This guy packs an expansive, head shaking range of talents like a gunslinger carries a six-shooter—strong and silent, and yet, you can’t help but notice it is there. The So-Cal musician mastered bluegrass mandolin by age 15, wowing the veterans of the San Diego folk scene, and five years later, he shot to international stardom as the mop-topped bassist and a vocalist for the Byrds, America’s harmony-rich, folk-rock response to the British Invasion.

Top Ten hits, world tours and massive hippie festivals ensued throughout the 1960s and ’70s as Hillman helped lay the foundations for country rock. Along the way, he collaborated with the likes of David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Parsons, The Eagles, The Rolling Stones and other music legends.

But through it all, Hillman’s ordinariness and naturally shy disposition made him the perfect collaborator and sideman among a constellation of much larger and more explosive personalities.

“We’d be out at a club with the Beatles, and Lennon and Ringo would be cutting up, and I’d just be the quiet guy at the table, taking it all in,” Hillman says, though his easy demeanor paid dividends after a night of partying in Swinging London. “Paul [McCartney] would give me rides back to the hotel from the clubs.”

Though perhaps known most for veering The Byrds into a country direction with 1968’s Sweetheart of the Rodeo record before co-founding The Flying Burrito Brothers, Hillman’s earlier calling card with the band was “So You Want to Be a Rock and Roll Star,” the snarky hit he and bandleader Roger McGuinn wrote together.

With lyrics that predicted the current state of phony fame-seekers and a grungy riff that presaged REM’s college radio template, this flash-forward rocker is one of the highlight’s of the band’s mid-’60s output, and it remains in Hillman’s set list 40 years later.

“As if we were wise men in our early 20s, right?” Hillman says of the song. “It was fun, and definitely satirical—never to be taken seriously though of course. Still, it is a really cookin’ track.”

One more anecdote about the song shows the care and deliberate nature of The Byrds at a time when so many of their competitor’s hits were dashed off quickly in the studio.

“Roger [McGuinn] was such a gadget guy, he always had the latest things, and Phillips made the first cassettes back then, and he was given one of the early cassette recorders,” Hillman recalls. “So we took it with us when we toured England, and Roger would record the concerts, so those are actual fans screaming for the Byrds that you hear edited onto ‘So You Want to be a Rock and Roll Star.’”

Hillman says his peak live performance with The Byrds was at the legendary Monterrey Pop Festival in 1967, playing to a sea of thousands on a bill that included Jimi Hendrix, The Who and Otis Redding.

“It was the best festival ever,” Hillman says. “There were so many people there, but the thing is they were sitting down and listening. You really can’t duplicate the feeling and the impact of people listening to you while you play. It validates what you’re doing and makes it fun.”

Hillman’s days of massive festival appearances with the likes of The Byrds, Manassas or his 1980s country hit-makers The Desert Rose Band may be behind him, but he says he would never trade theaters for stadiums at this point in his career.

“I love the intimacy of [a theater],” he says. “I play better when I can hear better.”

Joining Hillman on tour is longtime collaborator Herb Pederson, a guitarist he has been friends with since before his days in the Byrds.

“We do anticipate each others moves at this point,” Hillman says of his longtime collaborator.
With such a rich legacy of music created with a half-dozen of the last century’s more memorable acts, Hillman’s set list rotates between some 60 songs, ranging from bluegrass and country to traditional folk and 1960s rock.

“And I’ll throw in some audibles, too,” he says.

Chris Hillman and Herb Pederson perform live in Baton Rouge at Manship Theatre on Aug. 8. Visit manshiptheatre.org for tickets. chrishillman.com

Chris’ picks:
225 asked Hillman to tell us what he listens to when he wants to relax. Here’s what he said:

“As a kid, country music from the 1950s really hit a nerve with me. I loved the three-part harmonies and soulful singing. So if I’m relaxing, I want to hear some of that. My top five would be Hank Williams, Kitty Wells, Webb Pierce, Porter Wagoner, and, at the very top: The Louvin Brothers. If I’m going to listen to modern country, I don’t go for most of it. It’s all glam and glitter now, but I do like The Civil Wars.”