Herb Pederson

Pederson is a gifted singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who's enjoyed a long career in the music business. He started out playing Bluegrass in the San Francisco Bay Area in the early '60s as part of a loose-knit scene that involved Jerry Garcia, David Grisman and David Nelson. Pederson's talents on the five-string banjo led him to a stint in the very popular California Bluegrass group Vern & Ray, led by mandolinist Vern Williams. He went on to a stint in the Earl Scruggs revue, work with the Dillards, and heaps of session and sideman work brought on by the burgeoning country-inflected California sound. Sessions for Jackson Brown and John Denver put him on the A-list. Pederson's biggest success was with the Desert Rose Band, the country band he put together with former Byrd Chris Hillman. The group charted numerous times in the mid- and late-1980s before Nashville started pushing the country stud "hat acts" that dominated the '90s. Pederson remains active in the country and Bluegrass worlds.