Chris Hillman, Herb Pedersen and John McEuen - three California-bred musicians with strong Colorado connections - go way, way back. Hillman first met Pedersen in 1962, and he has known John McEuen for 35 years.

In the intervening decades, their various bands, including the Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Desert Rose Band and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, changed the way country music was perceived and by whom it was appreciated, much to the consternation of Nashville traditionalists.

But somehow, said Hillman, calling from his home in Ventura, Calif., they've never actually played a concert together until tonight in Denver.

"We've sat in with each other at festivals and been on the same records," he said, noting that he and Byrds alum Roger McGuinn charted a country hit with You Ain't Goin' Nowhere from the Dirt Band's Will the Circle Be Unbroken II.

We asked Hillman a few questions about his music and the role Colorado played in it:

You were a Coloradan for a number of years in the early 1970s. What do you actually remember from that time?

On a musical level, there were a lot of nice places to play like the Good Earth. I was living up Coal Creek Canyon at 5,800 feet. I had a snowplow on my truck and a view of the Continental Divide. But I was a California boy, so I sold that house to Dan Fogelberg and moved back. . . . I was writing songs for the Souther-Hillman-Furay band - that was an idea that never quite worked out, although I'm still friends with J.D. (Souther) and Richie (Furay)."

You've said that Boulder played an indirect part in sparking your musical life.

My older sister went to CU in the early 1950s, and she was a bit of a pre-beatnik bohemian. She brought home this wonderful music to me - the Kingston Trio, Leadbelly and other folk musicians.

In your duo shows with Herb Pedersen you mainly play the mandolin. With the Byrds you were famous for the rumbling bass lead to Eight Miles High.

I loved the sound of the mandolin after I heard Mike Seeger playing it on a New Lost City Ramblers record my mom bought me. My mandolin idols were Bill Monroe, of course, and Ira Louvin. . . . When the Byrds came along I put the mandolin down and didn't pick it up again for five years, when we did Sweetheart of the Rodeo.

After that, you also played the mandolin with Gram Parsons and the Flying Burrito Brothers and also sang with Stephen Stills in the band Manassas.

I was playing with the Burritos at Tulagi's (in Boulder) and in comes Stephen. He said: "I hate that mandolin you're playing." He brought me a great mandolin that I still have. I don't take it on tour because it's too valuable. Stephen said he owed me one because I got Buffalo Springfield their first gig, which I did.

What sort of set will you play in Denver?

There will be some surprises because we haven't planned anything (a week before the show). I asked Herb the other day if he was planning on doing any dual banjo stuff with John, and he said he hadn't talked to him yet. Neither have I. I really like Mr. Bojangles, so maybe . . .

lehndorffj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5103

Chris Hillman, Herb Pedersen and John McEuen

* When and where: 8 p.m. today, Colfax Events Center, 1477 Columbine St.

* Cost: $32

* Information: ticketmaster.com