When Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were working their way up the food chain in the late Seventies, astute listeners couldn’t help but notice that certain songs, including...
When Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were working their way up the food chain in the late Seventies, astute listeners couldn’t help but notice that certain songs, including “American Girl” and “Listen to Her Heart,” sounded a bit like high-energy homages to the Byrds.
Sure enough, Petty & Co. were infusing the earlier band’s “jangly” electric folk-rock sound with a hefty dose of New Wave attitude.
So it’s fitting that 40 years later, Petty has produced what can best be described as Byrds co-founder Chris Hillman’s comeback album, Bidin’ My Time. Hillman, who also founded or co-founded the Flying Burrito Brothers (with Gram Parsons)[1], Manassas (with Stephen Stills) and the Desert Rose Band (with Herb Pedersen), hasn’t released a studio album since 2005’s The Other Side or a live album since 2010’s At Edwards Barn (with Pedersen).
So why the sudden shot in the arm?
It started when Pedersen, Hillman’s longtime friend, was singing backup for Petty’s other band, Mudcrutch[2], last year.
“Somewhere on the road, Tom and Herb conjured the idea of producing a record for me,” Hillman says. “Herb got the deal with Rounder Records[3] with the agreement that Tom and Herb would co-produce [Editor's note: Petty is credited as producer and Pedersen as executive producer]. Last year I didn’t have plans to ever record again, but things just fall your way when you least expect them.”
Bidin’ My Time features guest appearances by fellow ex-Byrds Roger McGuinn and David Crosby[4], Desert Rose Band alumni (banjoist/guitarist/vocalist Pedersen, guitarist John Jorgenson and pedal steeler JayDee Maness, who also played on the Byrds’ Sweetheart of the Rodeo in 1968), plus Petty and a horde of Heartbreakers, including guitarist