“Wait a Minute” was written by Herb Pedersen, the California-based banjoist and songwriter whose other credits include “Old Train” and a long catalogue of pieces picked up by acoustic and bluegrass acts since the 1970s. Pedersen wrote the song during his Dillards period in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and it crossed cleanly into the bluegrass repertoire from there.
A notable recording is the Seldom Scene’s 1974 Rebel album Old Train, the same album that introduced Pedersen’s title song to a wider bluegrass audience. The Seldom Scene’s working lineup at the time — John Duffey on mandolin, Mike Auldridge on dobro, John Starling on guitar and lead vocal, Ben Eldridge on banjo, Tom Gray on bass — was producing what would become one of the most consequential progressive-bluegrass catalogues of the 1970s.
The lyric is an asking-her-to-stop-leaving piece: the narrator pleading for one more conversation, one more chance, one minute before the relationship’s collapse becomes final. John Starling’s lead vocal carries the lyric’s quiet pleading, and the band’s signature progressive-bluegrass arrangement gives the recording its characteristic open feel.
