NuDisc

If ever there was a year for me to catch up on my rock musician biography reading, 2020 was it. And yet… I didn’t get to near as many bio books as I thought I might. I did happen to read CHRIS HILLMAN’s Time Between, though, and it was a worthwhile read at that.

Chris, you may or may not know, was a founding member and bass player for The Byrds (who shouldn’t need any introduction on this website). He left that seminal rock band to form another important group, the one that coined and embodied the concept of “cosmic American music,” The Flying Burrito Brothers (with the legendary Gram Parsons). After that Hillman moved on to numerous other groups, of both rock and country persuasions (his Desert Rose Band was super popular on the country charts in the ’80s). Time Between – named after one of his more popular Byrds songs – actually tells more of the time during. As you would likely hope, there is a good amount of Byrds and Burritos history here, with some light shed on some of those bands’ more lurid or difficult times (such as why David Crosby left The Byrds or his mercurial partner Parsons in the Burritos). Those with inquiring minds may want to go elsewhere to find the down ’n’ dirty details that Hillman leaves out; this Byrd doesn’t fly that way. Chris’s writing style is pretty plain (as befits a quiet bass player) so the excitement, for me, was in the anecdotes themselves – of which there are plenty, even for a relatively short biography. Another good thing: Hillman spends plenty of time on the obvious high points of his career, and the right amount of time on his youth, early groups, and the rest of his career post-Burritos. For these reasons, Time Between is a fun read but probably best suited for the Byrds or Bros. fan in your life. – Marsh Gooch

3/5 (BMG Books, 2020)