Pushing old-time bluegrass into new territory
While famed Bluegrass godfather Bill Monroe proposed an almost cult-like, puritan insularity for the music’s practitioners, banjo-guitar maestro Herb Pedersen has memorably rambled through just about every conceivable musical genre.
From country rock to pop to composing for film and television and recording with everyone from Neil Young to Johnny Rivers, Bette Midler and Merle Haggard, Pedersen is internationally recognized as one of bluegrass-and-beyond’s most accomplished proponents.
With current incarnation Loafers’ Glory, a superb old-timey string quartet that appears for the next two Mondays at Burbank’s Viva Cantina, Pedersen, with longtime cohort bassist Bill Bryson and the dazzling pere et fils team Tom and Patrick Sauber, Pedersen continues to explore and expand upon Monroe’s high lonesome bluegrass, the style which, after he discovered the recordings of legendary bluegrass stars Flatt and Scruggs, led him to a career in music
“My mom played a little guitar when she was in high school but that was about it,” the 71-year-old, Berkeley-born Pedersen said. “She was from Mexico — her cousin Antonio Bribiesca was a flamenco guitarist who recorded for Columbia; he was quite a performer and artiste. I took some lessons in grammar school, learned some chords, and later I branched with my pal Butch Waller doing Everly Brothers tunes. It was a lot of fun, but my real introduction to playing music professionally was with Vern & Ray, a bluegrass duo who been around a long time, that was where I got my street cred.”
“So I joined them and in 1964 we moved to Nashville, just to see if we could crack the bluegrass atom there but it didn’t happen,” he said. “One afternoon, I get a call from Earl Scruggs. Well, I thought it was some friend of mine from out here playing a joke on me. But it really was him, he had seen me playing on a local Saturday afternoon TV show and got my number from the musicians union. He invited me to come out to his house and he said, ‘Don’t forget your banjer!’”
“So I went out there and he had almost all of those original Thomas B. Allen oil paintings that were used for the Flatt & Scruggs album covers framed and hanging on the walls. I couldn’t believe I was there, I mean this was the Holy Grail!” Pedersen said. “We played some songs and he asked how I had gotten into bluegrass out in California. Then he said, ‘Well, I kind of got you out here under false pretenses,’ and he explained ‘You remember that car wreck I had in ’55? Well, there’s still some loose bone fragments in my hip and I need to clear that up, so, would you like to go out and play with Lester while I’m in the hospital?’”
“I asked him, ‘Do you think I could?’ and he said, ‘Well, you just did!’ So the next Saturday, he took me down to the Opry and I met Lester and the guys and the next thing I was getting on the bus and away we went. But I was 22 — you think you’re bullet proof. And you play fearlessly.”
Pedersen has done just that ever since, first during a stint with the influential California-based bluegrass Dillards, going on to contributing to soundtracks for “Kojak,” “Rockford Files,” “The A-Team,” “The Simpsons” and dozens more, along with innumerable studio session dates and later, collaborating with longtime friend and original member of the Byrds, Chris Hillman, in their very successful mid-’80s country rock group Desert Rose Band, which also featured Bryson, another (of many) Dillards alums.
Bryson had wanted to meet Pedersen ever since first hearing the Seldom Scene perform Herb’s original composition “Wait a Minute,” a song about the emotional toll life as a traveling musician exerts on a relationship.
The number is a characteristic example of Pedersen’s approach, tender, relaxed, melancholy, perfectly ordered in its expressive depth and flawless structure. Once the pair became acquainted, an unshakable alliance was formed
“I met Bill Bryson at the Burbank airport, we were both flying out to play on a Dillards Family reunion in the Ozarks, must’ve been in the late ’70s or early ’80s,” Pedersen said. “I had always loved his playing and singing — he has a great head for tunes that no one else will do and he was a natural for Desert Rose Band. We’ve worked together ever since.”
“We pretty much always have fun. Loafers’ Glory are going to record another album in a few weeks for Arhoolie/Smithsonian Folkways. I love playing music, things are always happening,” Pedersen said. “I just got back from two weeks in New York, Chris Hillman and I have a duo. Rodney Dillard just called. He’s doing a new record in Nashville, so I’ll be heading down there soon, which will be fun, because I’ll get to play banjo.”
“I play guitar in Loafers’ Glory, Patrick Sauber plays the banjo for us. It’s funny, because there are actually four banjo players in the band, we all play banjo and we always threaten to play four banjos at the same time. We’re not trying to scare the audience, but one of these days we are going figure out a way to do that. So, watch out!”
Who: Loafers’ Glory
Where: Viva Cantina, 900 W. Riverside Dr., Burbank
When: Monday, Sept. 7 and 14, 7:30 p.m.
Cost: Free
More info: (818) 845-2425, vivacantina.com
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JONNY WHITESIDE is a veteran music journalist based in Burbank and author of “Ramblin’ Rose: the Life & Career of Rose Maddox” and “Cry: the Johnnie Ray Story.”