This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen #119 (August/September 2005).
The full article is in the magazine, available on newsstands, by subscription, and at the Dirty Linen webstore.

Jonathan Byrd

Learning the Rules… and Breaking Them

by Annette C. Eshleman

North Carolina native Jonathan Byrd grew up surrounded by traditional music. The blues, bluegrass, and old country recordings in his father's music collection -- combined with his mother's duties as church pianist -- instilled in him a fierce love for the old songs. "I was exposed to a lot of different kinds of music all at once," Byrd remembers, adding, "My brother was listening to Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, which I also loved. I was seven years old. I didn't care what kind of music it was," he said simply. "It was good, and I liked it."

From that beginning, music became and remained ever-present in Byrd's life. He learned to play rock 'n' roll in high school, concentrating on the music of artists like Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, and the like. When Byrd enlisted in the Navy, he didn't think twice about taking his guitar along, and the instrument accompanied him through three tours of duty in the Mediterranean. "I don't know that I ever thought about not doing it," Byrd recalled. "I play music and it's always been a part of my life. And so of course I was going to take my guitar with me."

This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen #119 (August/September 2005).
The full article is in the magazine, available on newsstands, by subscription, and at the Dirty Linen webstore.

Copyright ©2005 Dirty Linen, Ltd, Baltimore, MD