Chris Hillman, Rosie Flores and Many More Celebrate the Story of Country-Rock

The crowd at the CMA Theater at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum on Friday night skewed toward middle-aged, and I felt the vibe of the 1970s — down-home yet hip, and way into country-rock — the minute I walked in. Just opened at the CMHoF is Western Edge, an exhibit that covers Los Angeles country-rock in the 1960s and ’70s, with the story extending to the post-New Wave days of The Blasters and Dwight Yoakam in the ’80s. At the CMA Theater, a group of storied musicians made connections between Nashville and Hollywood, telling one part of the story the exhibit lays out. The show, nearly three hours with intermission, made a case for country-rock as a hybrid of folk, country and pop influences.

The house band was superb, with drummer Steve Duncan and bassist Mark Fain playing alongside guitarist and mandolin player John Jorgenson and steel guitarist JayDee Maness. Appropriately enough for a genre that includes a slew of bluegrass musicians who went over to rock, the show began with a tribute to pioneering bluegrass band The Kentucky Colonels. This was performed by siblings Sara Watkins and Sean Watkins, who play with Americana band Nickel Creek and on their own as Watkins Family Hour. They joined Jorgenson to play a version of The Kentucky Colonels’ 1963 tune “If You’re Ever Gonna Love Me.” 

Master of ceremonies Randy Lewis, who wrote about music for the Los Angeles Times for four decades, offered up his insights throughout the evening. Meanwhile, the music also told the story. Country-rock got more like rock in the mid-’60s. You could hear the transition when Rodney Dillard, of the legendary bluegrass band The Dillards — he was onstage with the California-born bluegrass giant Herb Pedersen — sang folk singer Eric Andersen’s “Close the Door Lightly When You Go” as a folk-rock number, with drums and British Invasion-style guitar. 

The son of one of the founding members of The Byrds — arguably the most important California country-rock group — Kai Clark sang in tribute to the late Gene Clark, who wrote many of The Byrds’ hits and went on to a long solo career. Next up were members of another group of legendary country-rockers, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. With harmonica player Jimmie Fadden (who is also the band’s longtime drummer) joining guitarist Jeff Hanna and multi-instrumentalist John McEuen, they played Jerry Jeff Walker’s “Mr. Bojangles,” a song they turned into a hit in 1971. 

If the show had a star, it was Chris Hillman. The Los Angeles native made his bones in the California bluegrass scene as a member of The Scottsville Squirrel Barkers and The Hillmen, and he switched from mandolin to bass in The Byrds. His bass playing in The Byrds is both futuristic and grounded in the basics, and he would have a major place in music history for that alone. Hillman has had a long, fruitful career as leader of The Desert Rose Band and an essential associate of Gram Parsons. Hillman and Parsons are the dominant voices on The Flying Burrito Brothers’ landmark 1969 album The Gilded Palace of Sin.

Hillman sang the Gilded Palace song “Sin City” and one of the songs he wrote for The Byrds, “Time Between.” Following him was Buffalo Springfield and Poco founder Richie Furay, whose songs sounded as much like power pop as they did like country. As the night came to a close, there was more pop, with the Watkinses singing Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s “Teach Your Children.” New Wave country-rocker Rosie Flores essayed the Eagles’ “Already Gone,” while Vince Gill and Memphis-born singer Wendy Moten nailed J.D. Souther’s “Faithless Love.” 

The show only scratched the surface of the music covered in the exhibit — it could have gone for another 10 hours. In particular, Jorgenson played a lot of fine guitar, and the performances came across as living music, even given the time between now and then.