A longtime staple of the bluegrass scene, singer and multi-instrumentalist
Herb Pedersen was born April 27, 1944, in Berkeley, CA. The child of a policeman, he was introduced to country music at numerous Bay Area folk festivals, finding kindred spirits in fellow aspiring musicians like
Jerry Garcia (who went on to form
the Grateful Dead) and
David Nelson (later of
the New Riders of the Purple Sage). In his mid-teens,
Pedersen formed his first bluegrass band, the Pine Valley Boys.
In 1961,
Pedersen began working in Nashville, performing on Carl Tipton's Bluegrass TV Show. After a 1963 stint with
David Grisman's Smokey Grass Boys, he joined the veteran bluegrass performers Vern and Ray as a singer and five-string banjo player. His work with the duo brought him to the attention of
Earl Scruggs, who in 1967 tapped
Pedersen to fill in for him during his recovery from a hip operation. A year later, he replaced
Doug Dillard in
the Dillards for 1968's
Wheatstraw Suite and 1970's
Copperfields.
After leaving
the Dillards,
Pedersen remained in Los Angeles, where he became a highly regarded session player, working with the likes of
Gram Parsons,
Emmylou Harris,
Linda Ronstadt,
Kris Kristofferson, and
John Prine. After spending the first half of the decade in the studio, in 1975
Pedersen joined
Jackson Browne's tour, and the following year released his first solo LP, Southwest. After 1976's Sandman, he joined
John Denver's band from 1977 to 1980 and continued his extensive session and production work well into the next decade before cutting a third solo effort,
Lonesome Feeling, in 1984. He also ventured into scoring television programs, composing the music for series including The Rockford Files, Kojak, The Dukes of Hazzard, and The A-Team.
Throughout the years,
Pedersen had occasionally reunited with his old friend
Chris Hillman, who had made his mark as a member of
the Byrds and
the Flying Burrito Brothers. In 1986, the two musicians again joined forces to form
the Desert Rose Band, a highly successful country-rock act which scored a series of major hits. After the group disbanded in 1993, a year later
Pedersen founded the bluegrass outfit
the Laurel Canyon Ramblers, which released the LP
Rambler's Blues in 1995. The group's second effort,
Blue Rambler 2, followed in 1996, as did
Bakersfield Bound, another reunion between
Pederson and
Hillman. ~ Jason Ankeny