20 December 2017

On his first album in 10 years, ex-Byrds man Chris Hillman marries old Byrds classics with new songs built around his love of bluegrass and classic country harmonies. As he tells Country Music, “This album’s like a history of everything I’ve ever done.” If Chris Hillman had “only” been bassist and co-vocalist for The Byrds, he’d be an icon: that’s what got him in the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, after all. But Hillman is, of course, much more than that. The most fervent follower of bluegrass in the legendary 60s group, Hillman was instrumental in turning The Byrds into pioneering country rockers on the album Sweetheart Of The Rodeo. He was largely behind the recruitment of Telecaster wizard Clarence White to The Byrds, and also Gram Parsons. When The Byrds fell to ground, Hillman co-founded The Flying Burrito Brothers with the mercurial Parsons, and went on to star in the Desert Rose Band, who brought sheen to country-pop in the 70s and 80s. Along that road, Hillman has honed his love of trad country, his mastery of mandolin, plus his fine voice and songwriting to the extent that he’s now considered something of an elder-statesman of country traditionalism. Whoulda thunk he once got booed at the Opry? After 10 years without releasing anything at all, Hillman’s now back with the aptly named Bidin’ My Time – a wonderful album that pulls all the strings of his art together. At 72, Hillman’s still sharp as a tack: when Country Music calls him at his California home the day after Glen Campbell’s passing, he’s keen to emphasise: “I’m in good shape, and it’s a beautiful California morning!” But Hillman makes sure he offers genuinely fond memories of Campbell. “I knew him well back in the 60s,” he begins, “he was a phenomenal artist around LA. Man, what a talent. Wichita Lineman is still to me, one of the greatest songs ever written, one of the greatest performances ever from Glen, too. But he had so many. We’re losing all our heroes. That’s the world we’re in now, right?” Thankfully, Hillman is still very much with us, and he’s delighted. “In all honesty, I never thought I’d release another record. And nor did I care!” But his long-time collaborator Herb Pederson (also of the Desert Rose Band) and Byrds fanatic Tom Petty had other ideas. “They got together and kinda said, ‘We’ve got you a record deal, so do you want to make a record?’” Hillman explains. “I said, ‘Well, yeah… but you haven’t heard any of my songs.’ Tom just said, ‘I’ll tell you if I don’t like ‘em. But Chris, I’m honestly not worried about that.’” Petty was right not to fret. Bidin’ My Time mixes some of those Hillman originals – “just layin’ around, really” – with reworked Byrds songs and a shot of covers (the Everly Brothers’ Walk Right Back and Petty’s own Wildflowers) in an enchanting country-fied set. “I’ve had a wonderful time making this,” he says, and why wouldn’t he? Back to bluegrass Hillman’s love of bluegrass and country shines brightly on Bidin’ My Time, even if – as you’d expect from an ex-Byrd and Burrito Brother – it’s refracted by its own “Cosmic American Music” lens. But, at heart, Hillman’s a traditionalist. “Growing up in the 1950s was probably the greatest time in the States,” he remembers. “I lived in a lovely small town, we had a horse, it was idyllic. You couldn’t duplicate that now. I was a third-generation Californian, my great-grandfather came out from Massachusetts in the 1880s by train, wagon and horse. “Why did I fall in love with bluegrass? Well, rock’n’roll went to sleep around 1959! It was all Fabian, Frankie Avalon, and all that. Elvis was in the Army by then. So I, and all my peers in The Byrds, got into folk music. But I was also into bluegrass… definitely the odd man out. There was one or two in my school out of 500 who liked bluegrass. The first man to take me under his wing was my High School custodian, the janitor. He was from Arkansas, and sang at the weekends. He had the first Buck Owens album on Capitol, this would be 1961. It just struck a chord. Just listen to those old Flatt and Scruggs records.” Byrds fans will delight in Bidin’ My Time for a number of reasons. A major one is its Byrds reunion of sorts, with both David Crosby and Roger McGuinn guesting. Hillman says of the new take here of the Pete Seeger-written Byrds classic Bells Of Rhymney: “I just wanted to get Herb Pederson and David Crosby to sing together. “It’s still my favourite song that we ever recorded in The Byrds.” Then, there is also an update on one of The Byrds’ first country songs, Old John Robertson [originally on 1968’s The Notorious Byrd Brothers]. Hillman has updated the song he co-wrote with Roger McGuinn as New Old John Robertson, after discovering more about its subject. The song itself is another insight to Hillman’s childhood. “John Robertson was a silent film director and actor in 1920s Hollywood, and the last movie he ever did was a talking movie in the 30s with Shirley Temple. But I just knew him as this retired man in the small town I grew up in. He’d always stop and talk to you. He was a wonderful looking man – big moustache, a Stetson hat, a beautiful tweed jacket and riding jodhpurs. He would just escort his old wife around town, y’know? When I was six or so, he rode his horse into the Post Office – a wonderful guy, and so kind. You’d always find a dollar on the ground. ‘Excuse me sir, I think you dropped a dollar?’ He knew. He’d dropped it for us kids.” In keeping with its nostalgic theme, Hillman also revisits his beloved Everly Brothers. “Bye Bye Love was the first single I think I ever