Country blended with folk rock and Americana.

13 MP3 Songs
COUNTRY: Country Folk, COUNTRY: Americana



Details:
According to my mother (and she would know) I was born on the hottest day of the year 1955 in Southern California. I became consumed with music when my dad first played me a Kingston Trio album at about 9 years old. My folks enjoyed folk music and had a copy of their first album which I listened to over and over and over. From then on I collected each and every album they ever released. And I took up guitar lessons more seriously so that I could learn to play all of their songs.

In 1968 my new guitar teacher, Scott Hillman, gave me two new songs to learn by a singer/songwriter named Gordon Lightfoot â âDid She Mention My Nameâ and âWherefor and Why.â It was like a bolt of lightning for me and my drive, motivation, and aspiration changed overnight â I knew what I wanted to do.

A couple of my oldest and closest friends (and very first bandmates I might add), Skip and J.D. Weiss, talked me into joining them for the summer of 1971 at Camp Thunderbird in Bemidji, Minnesota. That turned out to be one of the best decisions of my life. I spent the next 7 or so summers as a camp counselor taking kids on camping and canoe trips, and entertaining camp with music. I shared my music with camp during all of the summers I attended and to this day people still tell me how much those songs meant to them. Itâs a very rewarding part of my past.

Upon graduating from High School in 1973 I attended the University of Colorado, Boulder, one of the most incredible places Iâve ever had the good fortune to live. But just a mere 30 miles southeast of Boulder I discovered a burgeoning folk music scene happening in Denver at that time and thatâs where I needed to beâ¦writing songs all day and performing them at night at every âopen micâ night I could find.

So, it was âopen micâ nights at the Global Village on Tuesday nights, the Denver Folklore Center on Thursdays and the infamous Oxford Hotel on Sundays. This is where I met my very good friends (to this day) Bill Roser, Scott Bennett, and Rick Stockton (who all play a special part in the recording of my first CD of original music in 2007). We all aspired for the same thingâ¦to play our original songs and have someone â anyone â listen to them. During this time, one of my best friends from my camp counseloring days, Marty Diner, played me a song by an artist I had never heard of called, âCosmic Cowboyâ by Michael Murphey. It was truly an epiphany for me right there! My music changed, I changedâ¦I had seen the light!

For the next two years or so I focused on songwriting and performing and formed a band with a couple of Martyâs buddies, Jim Dickson on bass and Jim âWoodyâ Woodward on lead electric guitar. The band was called, âCold Feet.â But by 1975 I decided to continue my education at the University of Arizona, Tucson majoring in music with a strong emphasis (more like an âobsessionâ really) in computer science. It was a great time to be learning Fortran and Cobol â I was having a ball. The computer industry was about to explode in a couple more years with the introduction of the PC and you could just sense that big things were coming.

When I returned to Southern California for the summer of 1977 I got a job at the Great American Food & Beverage Co. in Westwood. Everyone who worked there was a musician and had to audition to get hired. I met one of my closest friends, Celia Taite (Matthau at the time) there and we formed a vocal trio with Ellen Anderson called âCelia, Ellen & Andy.â I opted to stay in California and focus on the music where we played many clubs in the LA area and opened every Friday night show at Bud Friedmanâs Improv on Melrose. And by December, 1977, we landed on the Dinah Shore Show.

Unfortunately, however, that group broke up shortly after the Dinah appearance and I decided to organize a country-rock band. Along with my friend, Don Beck (former Flying Burrito Brothers member) we formed a 5 piece band and worked many clubs and bars throughout southern California in 1978. We called the band âLive Steam.â Later, Don and I worked as a duo (âByron & Beckâ) and played the ski resorts of Vail and Aspen that winter.

Shortly following my association with Don I had an opportunity to work as a solo act for Far West Services who handled entertainment for numerous steakhouse chains in southern California. I traveled from Woodland Hills to Upland to San Diego to Huntington Beach to Garden Grove to wherever. I was working 5-7 nights per week for several years and I sharpened up my skills in the process. But much more than thatâ¦I met Nancy one night in July, 1980 at the Summerhouse in Woodland Hills and my life changed forever.

1981 was a very important year for me musically because I took a backup band out on the road for the very first time to do 40+ college shows focusing on my original songs and humorous material. It was a ball and the shows were extremely well received everywhereâ¦except Butte, MT (they booked us as a dance band and we really werenât a dance band!).

In 1984 my beautiful and supportive new wife, Nancy, and I decided to give music one real âlast chanceâ and move to Nashville to see if music was to be my future. After a year there (and loving it) I decided I needed to find a more secure career that could support my goal of a comfortable middle class lifestyle someday and so we moved back to Southern California where I went into the commercial real estate business.

For several years I worked in this business and, ultimately, began developing residential real estate properties on my own. And in 1994, after having suffered through the collapse of the Southern California real estate market of the early 1990âs, Nancy and I moved to Boise, Idaho to try development there. That decision changed our lives! We were able to move our family (we had 3 young daughters by that time) out of southern California and closer again to the Rocky Mountains where my heart had always stayed.

While I was in the process of developing a large acreage project with several partners I met in Idaho, I was convinced to come in to the financial services industry at age 39. It was a crazy idea but I still desired a more consistent stream of income since real estate development, although very lucrative at times, was always feast or famine. I have been in the financial planning and advisory business now since 1995 and have found the perfect match for my educational background, my lifestyle goals, and my desire to work with and help people to achieve their goals and dreams. The rewards, both personal and financial, have been so great that I canât ever imagine giving it up. Andâ¦itâs afforded me the opportunity to raise 3 great kids, send them to college, live in a comfortable home, and, this past year, reinvigorate a hidden musical dream from 25+ years ago.

In September, 2006 my old friend Bill Roser called me to suggest getting together and making music at our old friend Rick Stocktonâs recording studio in Paonia, Colorado. That weekend in November proved to be another turning point in my life. What started out as a long weekend to demo a couple of each otherâs songs has since turned into a complete CD recording of my original music dating back as far as 1975 with one song written as recently as February of this year. Now I have the opportunity to fulfill one of my lifelong dreams as well. The CD, entitled, âSomewhere or Nowhere,â is scheduled for release in August, 2007 and a CD Release Party has been planned for September 10, 2007 as well.

Itâs been quite a ride to this point. We learn and grow so much through every stage of our lives. Iâm thrilled to think that music isnât a thing of the past for me and, after all this time, there might be some value in sharing some of that music with others. But in all honesty, I recorded this project for me. Itâs meant renewed friendships, reminiscing about the past, looking to the future andâ¦just making music. I hope you enjoy it!

Andy Byron
July, 2007