Desert Rose Band - Live At The Country Music Hall Of Fame And Museum 10-2-22 Cobalt Blue Vinyl/Limited Edition Vinyl LP

Expected: 3/6/26

* THE DESERT ROSE BAND: CHRIS HILLMAN (THE BYRDS/FLYING BURRITO BROTHERS/MANASSAS), HERB PEDERSEN (THE DILLARDS) , JOHN JORGENSON (ELTON JOHN, BOB DYLAN/BOB SEGER), JAYDEE MANESS (INTERNATIONAL SUBMARINE BAND/GRAM PARSONS/BUCK OWENS), STEVE DUNCAN (FLYING BURRITO BROTHERS) & MARK FAIN (RICKY SKAGGS/TOM PETTY)

Eight years and change had passed since Chris Hillman and his fellow members of the Desert Rose Band had last played together when they decided to reassemble for one final live performance on Oct. 1, 2022 in Nashville.

The occasion was the grand opening of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s latest exhibition, “Western Edge: The Roots and Reverberations of Los Angeles Country- Rock,” a scintillating musical movement that sprouted almost half a century earlier with The Byrds—of which Hillman was a founding member—blossomed through the 1960s and fully flowered in the 1970s and ‘80s.

Having been a critical cog in so many country-rock spokes—also including The Flying Burrito Brothers, Stephen Stills’ Manassas, the Souther-Hillman-Furay Band, McGuinn, Clark & Hillman and several others--Hillman eventually stepped directly into the spotlight fronting the Desert Rose Band in the mid-1980s, spearheading a remarkable critical and commercial success that resulted in nearly a dozen Top 20 country singles in the late-‘80s and early-‘90s.

Now, nearly three decades after the group’s pinnacle of popularity and admiration among musical peers and music critics, DRB was poised to take a valedictory lap in the country music capital.

“It was a wonderful night,” Hillman said a little more than two years later. “It was ever-so- perfect in my recollection.”

For the band’s lead guitarist, John Jorgenson, it was a full weekend of knotted nerves. In addition to shouldering responsibility for charting out arrangements for the first night’s all- star show, he was also tasked during DRB’s two hour-plus set with moving from a variety of electric and acoustic guitars to mandolin and back again, all while contributing harmony vocals to many of their songs as well.

Herb Pedersen said, “I remember the night before [the concert], John looked at me and he said, ‘I don’t think I can do this.’ And I said, ‘You’ve already done it, pal! We just need to walk out there and do the show, and that’s kind of what it came to.” 

In fact, Jorgenson recalled, when show time did finally roll around, “We started off with ‘Ashes of Love,’ and when I counted it off and everybody came in, literally it felt like a jet was lifting off the runway. At that point, I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to be able to do this.”

Pedal steel guitarist Jay Dee Maness, however, experienced it very differently. One of the most celebrated and in-demand steel players of the past half century, Maness recalls the first time they came together to run through songs.

“We got into a rehearsal, and you’re thinking ‘Well, let’s just brush up on these songs we haven’t played together in a while.’ After about half an hour, we all kind of looked around at each other and went, ‘Why are we even here?’

“The music comes so easily,”

Hillman said “Maybe the funniest thing is that right before we went onstage, I turned into this football coach and was saying to the others, ‘OK, you know how to do this! We know how to do this. Let’s just have a good time—there’s no room for any anxiety on any level. Everything flowed so well. It probably didn’t really dawn on me until very late in the set that this would be our last show,”

This incredible evening of songs by the highly important bluegrass and country superstars The Desert Rose Band is now going to be released by Friday Music on first time ever stunning Ruby Red Vinyl. The deluxe 2 Lp set will also be featured in a stellar gatefold cover, featuring photos from the live performance, as well as a extensive essay by Randy Lewis.

Produced by Mick Conley, Joe Reagoso and The Country Music Hall Of Fame And Museum, and Mastered impeccably by Joe Reagoso (The Byrds/McGuinn, Hillman & Stuart) , "Live At The Country Music Hall Of Fame And Museum" is loaded with over two dozen tracks of incredible DRB hits, band favorites and brilliant cover versions of their favorite artists.

The set list spans the group’s full career, from its first single, a reinterpretation of the 1951 Johnnie & Jack country hit “Ashes of Love,” through the barn-burner closer that frequently left audiences fully energized, “The Price I Pay,” a stellar 1990 duet with Emmylou Harris, the singer Hillman had first introduced to Gram Parsons back when.

In between it also revisits “Time Between,” Hillman’s first solo songwriting credit with The Byrds, Dusty Owens’ achingly gorgeous “Once More,” some snappy Buck Owens’ classics —“Hello Trouble,” “Together Again” and “Under Your Spell”—Pedersen’s hard-driving “Our Baby’s Gone,” and a savvy reading of John Hiatt’s “She Don’t Love Nobody.” and the Louvin Brothers’ honky-tonk heartbreaker “I Can’t Keep You in Love With Me.”

The Desert Rose Band's original producer Paul Worley commented “I expected they would be good,”. “But this was -- what? -- 35 years or whatever later? But they were impeccable. I mean, it sounded like the records—it was perfect. I was blown away—it really was a super special night.”

It was a very special night indeed, and you can now relive the magic over again, thanks to this wonderful concert recording experience. The Desert Rose Band "Live At The Country Music Hall Of Fame And Museum, October 2, 2022" an exclusive recording from your friends at Friday Music. Enjoy!

Tracks:

SIDE 1

1. Ashes Of Love
2. Love Reunited
3. One Step Forward
4. He's Back And I'm Blue
5. Time Between
6. Start All Over Again

SIDE 2

1. Summer Wind
2. I Still Believe In You
3. Missing You
4. Once More
5. Our Baby's Gone

LP 2

SIDE 3

1. She Don't Love Noboby
2. In Another Lifetime
3. Story Of Love
4. Hello Trouble
5. It Takes A Believer
6. No One Else

SIDE 4

1. Desert Rose
2. Together Again
3. Under Your Spell
4. Above And Beyond
5. Hard Times
6. Runnin'
7. The Price I Pay