Desert Rose Band’s Audience Is at the End of a Long Road

Like a hardy band of musical desperadoes, worn and haggard from too many miles of one-nighters, the Desert Rose Band pulls into the Southland and home this weekend for a much-needed dose of R&R--plus; an appearance Monday at the Crazy Horse in Santa Ana.

Forget the air-conditioned bus and the overnight motor lodges. Traveling across the vast length and breath of America, 700 or 800 miles at a stretch, is a wearying grind--one that may be appreciated properly only by touring musicians and long-distance truckers.

“It’s tough, all right,” said Herb Pedersen, the band’s singer-banjoist-acoustic guitarist. Reached recently during a tour stop in Taos, N.M., he was not exactly ecstatic about the next day’s long haul to Tulare, in Central California.

“But we feel it’s the best way to reach our audiences. A lot of the places we play are not exactly major airline stops. So it’s worth it. And it’s not as though we’re doing it on horseback.”

Perhaps not, but the colorful careers of the individual members of the Desert Rose Band have undoubtedly taken them on just about every form of travel short of horseback. Veterans of the business, they also seem to have touched all bases in country music and quite a few in most other aspects of pop.

Consider some of their backgrounds: Leader Chris Hillman was in on the virtual creation of country-rock while he was a member of the Byrds; stints with the Flying Burrito Brothers and the reorganized Byrds followed.

Pedersen was one of the best known, country-styled L.A. studio musicians of the ‘60s and ‘70s; his credits include sessions with Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, James Taylor, Jackson Browne and a long list of others.

Desert Rose guitarist John Jorgenson (a veteran Orange County musician), bassist Bill Bryson, steel guitarist Jay Dee Maness and drummer Steve Duncan have worked with everyone from Benny Goodman and Ricky Nelson to Buck Owens and Rod Stewart.

“We actually got together in an almost casual sort of way,” Pedersen recalled. “It started around 1984, when I got a call from Dan Fogelberg to do a bluegrass album: ‘High Country Snow.’ Chris and I flew back to Nashville to work on it. After it was completed, Dan wanted to put together a little acoustic quartet to go out and open for him. And that’s how Chris and I and John and Bill first got together.

“It worked so well acoustically that we decided to plug in and see what would happen if we did the same tunes electrically. That worked pretty well, too, so we added Jay Dee on steel and Steve Duncan on drums.”

“Pretty well” is an understatement: The band’s first album charted four singles (“Ashes of Love,” “One Step Forward,” “Love Reunited” and “He’s Back and I’m Blue”). This year, the group was nominated for three Country Music Assn. awards, and a second album, “Running,” has kept up the pace of their initial outing.

It hasn’t all been grits and gravy, however. There’s a long-standing tradition of country music problems between Nashville and California.

“It’s still pretty much of a political game,” Pedersen said. “I think our CMA nominations this year happened because of the fact that we went back to Nashville and participated in a lot of TV and press things. And also because we recorded some of our tracks there, and just kind of said, ‘Hey, we don’t think we’re any better than you, but we definitely don’t think we’re any worse.’

“Nashville kind of sits back and waits. They want to see what you’re going to do on your first couple of singles. They want to see if your going to take your country music seriously. If you’re not and you’re just kind of riding the bandwagon, they’re not going to give you any time at all. Well, I think they know now that we take our country music very seriously.”

As a veteran of California-style country, Pedersen sees real differences with the Nashville brand. And he likes what he sees here.

“The way I look at it,” he explained, “they’re two different ports of call. And I think the Bakersfield sound and that whole thing that took place back in the ‘60s with Buck Owens was a big part of what moved country music forward.

“Because of Owens, I think there’s a healthy rawness to what California country is, as opposed to the smooth style of Nashville. If you think back and listen to Jim Reeves, who was the epitome of that smooth Nashville sound, you can hear a real contrast with Buck, who had a lot of basic rock and R&B; in his stuff, but who was definitely country. And, I think, good country.”

It doesn’t take much listening to the Desert Rose Band to realize that, with its virtuous musicianship, pointed social commentary and classic traditionalism, it is clearly a California country group to be reckoned with. Pedersen puts it more directly: “I like to see us as a combination of Buck Owens, Bill Monroe, Chuck Berry and Flatt & Scruggs.”

At the moment, the Desert Rose future looks definitely, well, rosy. “I’d like to see us going on for a long while,” Pedersen said. “And it may happen. We’re finally getting to the point where people come up and see us as a group, rather than saying, ‘Oh, I remember you when you were in Emmylou’s band,’ or, ‘I remember you when you were with the Byrds.’ ”

Crusty veteran that he is, however, Pedersen has been around too long to take anything for granted. “Hey, look at it this way,” he went on. “I’m enjoying what I’m doing today. Tomorrow? Well, tomorrow’s a crap shoot.”

The Desert Rose Band plays Monday at 7 and 10 p.m. at the Crazy Horse Steak House, 1580 Brookhollow Drive, Santa Ana. Tickets: $25. Information: (714) 549-1512.