The last time that I played music with Jonathan Byrd, he was on his journey through his musical self exploration trek by way of a study of folk music roots. He had shared stories of his pitching a tent in an Ireland farm field, sleeping by day while lasting out the night playing in the village pubs with average, everyday people that lived and breathed the stuff that is human music. I'm sure that there was a good bit of the finest beer in that mix too... at least, there would have been if it had been me. By that time, I, too was on my own path, but my study was not so serious, nor was it in that style... I believe that I was kicking around with the Shakedowns, a 60's style mod rock band here in the Richmond area. Needless to say, I had no understanding of his style of play, and he told me so while I played along with some of his traditional style stuff. He had no reservations about asking me, "What are you doing?" in regards to my bass lines. "This doesn't go with what you are playing?" I replied. "Anyone playing this style of music would have no idea what you are doing..." I have a thick skin, so I took his words to heart, and understood that I was not complete as a musician, at least, not the musician that I wanted to be.

Fast forward now about 10 years. Jon now has produced 7 or 8 cd's and is nationally recognized by a lot of well respected musicians. I, for one, have a deep appreciation for his professional approach to the craft of music, as well as song. His ability to tell a meaningful story with guitar in hand, and make a living at it is every bit as important to the structure of our country as any politician, surgeon, soldier or computer programmer (thats me.) It gives the "tribe" of America the ability to connect with the deep, inner thoughts, concepts and experiences of another individual, which were inspired by other individuals and their experiences. It is, itself, a level of communication that is just missing in so much of our "commercial" music these days.

This is why, after re-connecting with Jon on Facebook, that when I heard that he was passing through Richmond this weekend, it was imperative to me to put him up for the night, feed him, catch up with my long lost friend, and, of course, set up a gig that included him, me, and the other musicians that I play with regularly. Vandriver front Will Jones, mandolin player Mark Gormus and I sat in with Jon as he set up shop, preparing to work for the night.

Our format was to set up acoustic only, and mix the set with Vandriver and Jonathan Byrd music, each and the other filling in musically where appropriate. when I set this up, I had a vision in my mind of how things would go. I would be lying if I said that was not a little nervous about the potential for disaster regarding this show. but always, there was a sense of excitement about the opportunity that put any fear that I had to rest, replacing it with such confidence and anticipation that I had arrived at the moment of the show without ever having played a single note of Jonathan's tunes. To be sure, I do not think that I have ever been involved with anything when I had such a vision in my mind as to how the outcome of it would be where it was so spot on.

By the end of it all, I am left feeling as though my cup is full. The remarks of 10 years ago were replaced with elation about the rhythm and methods that I employed to his music. There was redemption for me this weekend. I made it a point to let him know that he should contact me when ever he is in the area and is he ever wanted a session bassist for any recordings... He seemed to take that offer in positive stride. To me, this is bliss.