John Beland of Flying Burrito Brothers plays Santa Rosa

To say musician John Beland has a long resume would be rather understating the point.

In a career that started when he was 17, Beland, now 72, has worked with Linda Ronstadt, Ricky Nelson, Dolly Parton and many others. His work with the pioneer country rock Flying Burrito Brothers ran from the ’70s to the ’90s.

Since hitting the Los Angeles club scene in the late ’60s, Beland has gone on to work as a songwriter, musician and producer in Nashville, the Austin area in Texas, Australia and Norway. He’s written two books about his experiences, “Best Seat in the House” and “Pass the Guitar and I’ll Tell You a Story.”

And now he has settled in Sebastopol. He’ll perform Sunday at The Lost Church club in downtown Santa Rosa.

“I’m going to do songs I’ve written over the years. I’m going to do my own versions and talk to the audience about the writing and recording process,” Beland said. “There are so many stories behind each song.”

When Beland arrived in Los Angeles from Chicago as a teenager, he was drawn to the legendary rock club the Troubadour, where he performed with Kris Kristofferson and first encountered the Flying Burrito Brothers.

Initially led by Chris Hillman of the Byrds and Gram Parsons, the Flying Burrito Brothers went through many lineup changes over the decades, with Beland involved in several of their efforts.

“I had nothing to do with the formation of the group,” Beland said. “I almost left within a couple weeks, but I stayed almost 20 years. I finally ended up taking control of the group myself. We eventually ended up having hits.”

At one point in the ’80s, the band was a duo featuring Hillman and Gib Guilbeau and they toured the world.

When the Flying Burrito Brothers reunited in the mid-1990s, Beland produced the band’s three critically acclaimed studio albums, “Eye of a Hurricane” (1994), “California Jukebox” (1997) and “Sons of the Golden West” (1999).

Beland is an encyclopedia of pop music history and trivia. For instance, he and Lois Dalton sang the theme song for the ABC hit show “The Brady Bunch.”

Now anticipating his 73rd birthday next month, Beland is going it alone.

“It’s a weird age to be doing solo gigs,” he said. “People have been very kind. When I started out, I was always the youngest guy in the band. We were bulletproof.”

You can reach Staff Writer Dan Taylor at dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5243. On Twitter @danarts.