O.C. POP MUSIC REVIEW : Ex-Byrd’s Feet on the Ground : Chris Hillman’s Desert Rose Band was too busy with today’s country to be concerned with yesterday’s rock. The often-dazzling band played at the Crazy Horse Steak House.

Ever since the Byrds were elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in October, speculation has been soaring over whether the five original members of the band will set aside their differences long enough to perform together again at the induction ceremony next month.

Monday night at the Crazy Horse Steak House, founding Byrd Chris Hillman took the occasion of an often-dazzling performance by his Desert Rose Band to reveal that the Byrds reunion . . . really doesn’t matter a whole heck of a lot.

Actually, Hillman only mentioned the Byrds in passing and never so much as alluded to the Hall of Fame award. That served as statement in itself of his concern about whether a flight down Memory Lane of ‘60s rock is to be or not to be.

Hillman was much too busy during the 65-minute first set making the musical case for the 5-year-old Desert Rose Band’s election someday to the Country Music Hall of Fame. For anyone who admires the kind of exquisitely intertwining two-, three- and four-part harmonies that helped earn the Byrds its place in the history books, there’s no need to look backward when there exists a modern-day proponent as accomplished as this group.

Come to think of it, the benchmark that is more appropriate to Desert Rose than Hillman’s past work with the Byrds or even the Flying Burrito Brothers would be Emmylou Harris’ Hot Band at its most singeing. Both handle unadulterated bluegrass, uncompromising country and unapologetic country-rock with equal aplomb.

Desert Rose’s set list suggested that if there’s any occasion for digging up the past, you may as well go all the way back to the source of most pop harmonizing: bluegrass standards such as “Once More,” which served as the sextet’s encore number.

With Hillman’s warm, honeyed tenor surrounded above by the higher-pitched, slightly nasal twang of guitarist Herb Pedersen and below by the solid vocal support of multi-instrumentalist John Jorgenson and bassist Bill Bryson, the song’s longing plea for a bygone love came through aurally as well as lyrically.

If the show itself was pretty much Desert Rose business-as-usual, it suggested that the band’s next phase may emphasize even more the second half of its country-rock label. Two new songs introduced were driving rockers; one, “Come a Little Closer,” teeters too close to rock cliche for comfort (“We can have it all tonight”), something this group admirably avoids for the most part. What helps set Desert Rose above the field is the way its songs expose various facets of the struggle to find, recognize and then hold on to something real, be it a love, a family or a faith.

While keeping his focus on his own musical present instead of gazing into rock ‘n’ roll past, Hillman did, however, take note of one bit of recent pop history concerning rock vocalists:

“No lip-syncing here,” he said with a grin. “This is all real singing by a bunch of older guys.”

Earlier, having committed what he felt was a vocal flub in “Time Between,” a number he wrote for the Byrds’ “Younger Than Yesterday” album, Hillman launched into what first sounded as if it would be a warning about illicit recordings: “Is there anyone here tonight taping the show? Any bootleggers?” Then he quickly pleaded: “Can I redo my vocals next week?”

Those touches were characteristic of a show that was pretty much loose in all the right places (off-the-cuff stage banter and minor technical foibles that proved they are, indeed, just human) and tight in all the right places (blazing instrumental passages and vocal purity that often made you wonder).

It also demonstrated the group’s willingness to sacrifice a little perfection in the final product in exchange for the kind of sparks than can only come from real musicians at work. In fact, they seemed to be working overtime, what with the masterful steel guitar work of Jay Dee Maness and the wealth of mandolin, six- and 12-string guitar colors supplied all evening by Jorgenson.

Sure, a Byrds reunion might be fun for a brief, shining moment. But if it doesn’t come off, don’t look for many Desert Rose fans among the mourners.