The Laurel Canyon Ramblers have risen to prominence among tradition-rooted bluegrass ensembles through their expert command of instruments and fluid vocal blends. Banjo, guitar, and dobro specialist Herb Pederson directs the ensemble, which collectively draws on more than a century of experience in the genre.
Formed when Pederson reentered the bluegrass scene in 1994, the group takes its name from a Los Angeles thoroughfare that intersects Hollywood Boulevard. Born in 1944 in Berkeley, California, as the son of a police officer, Pederson substituted for an ailing Earl Scruggs during the mid-1960s and succeeded Doug Dillard in the Dillards in 1968. After departing the Dillards in 1971, he issued three solo recordings, helped establish Country Gazette, and contributed to sessions by Linda Ronstadt, John Denver, Jerry Garcia, David Grisman, and Diana Ross. Pederson has also partnered with Chris Hillman of the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers on six albums by the California country-rock outfit Desert Rose and on the 1996 duo tribute Bakersfield Bound, which honors early-1960s Buck Owens-style country. In addition, he composed bluegrass standards such as “Old Train” and “Wait a Minute” while supplying music for the soundtracks of Smokey & the Bandit, City Slickers, Maverick, The Fire Down Below, The A Team, The Rockford Files, and The Dukes of Hazzard.
The remaining Laurel Canyon Ramblers possess comparably distinguished credentials. Mandolinist and vocalist Kenny Blackwell, trained by the late Jethro Burns, performed with Richard Greene’s The Grass Is Greener. Guitarist and singer Richard Reed, formerly of Byron Berline’s Fiddle Band and Sundance, appears on recordings by Earl Scruggs and Tony Trischka as well as those made with his brothers Dennis, Terry, and Ronnie. Fiddler Gabe Witcher maintains a longstanding role in the family ensemble the Witcher Brothers. Bill Bryson, named the Academy of Country Music’s Bass Player of the Year in 1990, belonged to Desert Rose, Country Gazette, and the Bluegrass Cardinals, toured with Dan Fogelberg and the Doug Dillard Band, and supplied several songs for the Bluegrass Cardinals, among them “Riding on the L & N” and “Girl at the Crossroads,” later recorded by Larry Sparks and Jerry Garcia. The Ramblers reassembled in 1998 to release Back on the Street Again.
