TIME FLIES FOR A BYRD

Chris Hillman, a founding member of both The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers, as well as his subsequent solo albums and subsequent involvement of such projects such as Stephen Stills’ Manassas, Mc-Guinn, Clark and Hillman (later Mc-Guinn-Hillman), the would-be, could-be supergroup The Souther-Hillman-Furay Band with John David Souther and Richie Furay, and ultimately the super-successful country crossover group The Desert Rose Band, can be credited, as much as anyone, with originating the genre now known as Americana, way before the term was even coined. His list of accomplishments — as a multifaceted musician, singer, songwriter and bandleader — are inestimable, and his contribution to the popular music canon over the course of the past 55 years are beyond reproach.

Now, nearing age 76, Hillman has added another credit to his remarkable resume: author. His new book, , shares his life story, beginning with his idyllic California upbringing through the tragedy that beset him as a teenager when his father died by suicide, and later, to his search for direction and the lure of music, beginning with his early bluegrass bands the Scottsville Squirrel Barkers and the Golden State Boys (later known as the Hillmen), and eventually the groups that gave him his eternal claim to fame. It’s a remarkably revealing treatise, one in which Hillman candidly discusses his triumphs, failures, shortfalls, and the friends and colleagues he encountered along the way, several of whom