So yesterday was Folk Monday but it was also computer does not want to work night moving so slowly that I finally ran out of night and didn’t get a post done! I did listen to two albums by folks I’ve never heard before the first was Songs from the Stoop by The Brothers Comatose and yes the name could not be resisted! and the second was Rob Lutes and his new albumTruth & Fiction. Both were good The Brothers Comatose was the favorite on the first listen and was very twangy so it was listened to again today! I will comment on both at a later date!
The main album that I listened to today was Chris Hillman and Herb Pedersen’s new album At Edwards Barn and while I really like both artist I couldn’t pass up the title. Chris Hillman and Herb Pedersen appear in my library in many places. For Hillman it’s The Byrds, Stephen Stills Manassas, Souther, Hillman and Furay, as well as a guest on many albums including one of my favorites Dan Fogelberg’s High Country Snows. For Herb Pedersen it’s Laurel Canyon Ramblers and a few albums with Chris Hillman including Out of the Woodwork with Hillman, Pedersen, and Larry and Tony Rice and Hillman and Pedersen’s other album Way Out West and like Hillman a guest on many, many albums! You’ll notice that I didn’t include The Desert Rose Band formed in 1985 most of their albums were made in those years when Raffi and Sharon.Lois and Bram were the most listened to albums!
At Edwards Barnis a really fine album covering a lot of Hillman and Pedersen forty-six years (that’s right 46 years!) of working together and the harmonies are so tight on this album that it often seems like one voice! There’s a couple tracks from Hillman’s time with The Byrds nice covers of “Turn, Turn, Turn” and “Eight Miles High”, a few songs from The Desert Rose Band and “Wheels” a signature song of The Flying Burrito Brothers that Hillman co-wrote with Gram Parsons. Like I said throughout the album the vocals are good Hillmans’ vocals are particularly strong and like all their work the picking is extraordinary! The next to the last song is “Wait a Minute” a Herb Pedersen song that became a signature tune for The Seldom Scene and was recently covered by Eric Brace and Peter Cooper on their new album The Master Sessions(which was alos listened to today and well be reviewed shortly)
So sit back pull up a rocking chair and enjoy some great music from two of the best songwriters and musicians Hillman and Pedersen!!