San Diego Reader

Chris Hillman: Bass guitar, Guitar (acoustic), Guitar (electric), Mandolin, Vocals

Genre: Acoustic, Bluegrass & Roots, Blues & Soul, Country, Pop, Rock

RIYL: The Desert Rose Band, Poco, Manassas, Little Feat, the Flying Burrito Brothers, the Byrds, Roger McGuinn, Hearts and Flowers, the Eagles, Jack Tempchin, David Bromberg, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

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Synoposis

Influences: Flatt and Scruggs, Johnny Cash, Buck Owens, Chet Atkins, Roy Clark, the Stanley Brothers

Background:

Rock and Roll Hall-of-Famer and former Byrd/Flying Burrito Brother Chris Hillman is best known as the founder of the Desert Rose Band and the folk supergroup Manassas. Having grown up in North County San Diego, one of his earliest local bands, the Scottsville Squirrel Barkers, also included guitarist Ed Douglass, who founded the original Blue Guitar shop on Midway Drive and later operated the Double Eagle guitar shop, through 2007.

After co-founding the Byrds, Hillman cowrote the Top 40 song “So You Want to Be a Rock ‘N’ Roll Star” (1966), as well as arranging and cowriting two songs on the band’s 1968 album Sweetheart of the Rodeo. In 1991, Hillman’s work with the Byrds got him inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

He next cofounded the Flying Burrito Brothers with fellow former Byrd Gram Parsons, before spending time with Stephen Stills in Manassas and releasing a 1976 solo album, Slippin’ Away.

The Desert Rose Band was launched in 1986, releasing several albums and earning two Grammy nominations. Having gone on hiatus around 1993, that band reunited in 2008 and remains extant. Hillman also continues to record with fellow Desert Rose vet Herb Pedersen.

As of 2010, Hillman lives in Santa Barbara. In February 2011, he took part in Point Loma Nazarene University’s annual Writer’s Symposium by the Sea, as a speaker and performer.