Wildflowers is the 2001 debut album by Jonathan Byrd. The songs are mostly original songs with a few traditional tunes. Here he mixes contemporary singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

 storytelling with Appalachian folk roots

Appalachian music

Appalachian music is the traditional music of the region of Appalachia in the Eastern United States. It is derived from various European and African influences, including English ballads, Irish and Scottish traditional music , religious hymns, and African-American blues...

. There is even a murder ballad

Murder ballad

Murder ballads are a sub-genre of the traditional ballad form, the lyrics of which form a narrative describing the events of a murder, often including the lead-up and/or aftermath...

; "Velma" is a song about serial killer Velma Barfield

Velma Barfield

Margie Velma Barfield was a serial killer, convicted of six murders. She was the first woman in the United States to be executed after the 1976 resumption of capital punishment and the first since 1962...

 whose victims included Byrd's own grandfather. Sing Out!

Sing Out!

Sing Out! is a quarterly journal of folk music and folk songs that has been published since May 1950.-Background:Sing Out! is the primary publication of the tax exempt, not-for-profit, educational corporation of the same name...

says, "[Jonathan Byrd's] songwriting melds the lyricism of Celtic music

Celtic music

Celtic music is a term utilised by artists, record companies, music stores and music magazines to describe a broad grouping of musical genres that evolved out of the folk musical traditions of the Celtic people of Western Europe...

 with the stark storytelling of the finest traditional ballad

Ballad

A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...

eers."

Arthur Wood of Folkwax says that Byrd's "Ashe County Fair" is certain, in time, to become a "folk

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

 classic." Byrd explained to Wood: "When I started writing it, I didn't know the girl was going to die."

Byrd says that he learned to play in the alternate guitar tuning DADGAD

DADGAD

DADGAD, D modal tuning or Celtic tuning is an alternative guitar tuning most associated with Celtic music, though it has also found use in rock and other genres. Instead of the standard EADGBE tuning, the six guitar strings are tuned, from low to high, DADGAD...

 during two visits to Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

: "For a personal challenge, I wrote and recorded my entire first album [this album] in that tuning, bringing it into the Old-Time

Old-time music

Old-time music is a genre of North American folk music, with roots in the folk music of many countries, including England, Scotland, Ireland and countries in Africa. It developed along with various North American folk dances, such as square dance, buck dance, and clogging. The genre also...

, Bluegrass

Bluegrass music

Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...

, and Country

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 idioms." The album includes a couple of instrumentals that allow Byrd to show off his flatpicking

Flatpicking

Flatpicking is a technique for playing a guitar using a guitar pick held between two or three fingers to strike the strings...

 skills. Sing Out! described the sound of the album as, "a wonderfully spare collection, allowing the warm expressive vocals of Jonathan and his strong guitar to carry most of the weight of the arrangements." Byrd plays a number of vintage Martin Guitars on the album including a 1936 Martin D-28, a 1937 sunburst D-18, and a 1934 D-18.

Track listing

All songs by Jonathan Byrd except where noted

1. "Wildflowers" - 3:29
2. "Eli's Cotton Gin" - 3:14
3. "Velma" - 3:34
4. "Lady's Fancy" (traditional) - 2:13
5. "Sandy Mush" - 4:03
6. "The Golden Glow of Autumn" - 2:48
7. "Tinytown" - 5:30
8. "Ashe County Fair" - 5:27
9. "Bean an Fhir Rua, Backstep Cindy" (traditional) - 3:27
10. "The Sparrow" - 3:01
11. "Mama" - 2:26
12. "Molly Dear" (traditional) - 3:26
13. "Big Hoedown" (traditional) - 1:57
14. "The Cider Song" - 3:51
15. "Her Eyes Were Green" - 4:16
16. "Robena" - 2:48

Musicians

• Jonathan Byrd - vocals, guitar
  Guitar
  The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
  
  
• Tim Stambaugh - tenor vocals
• John Boulding - Dobro
  Dobro
  Dobro is a registered trademark, now owned by Gibson Guitar Corporation and used for a particular design of resonator guitar.The name has a long and involved history, interwoven with that of the resonator guitar...
  
  , banjo
  Banjo
  In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
  
  
• Russell Johnson - chop mandolin
  Mandolin
  A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
  
  
• Charles Petee - lead mandolin
• Rex McGee - fiddle
  Fiddle
  The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
  
   (tracks 6 & 7)
• Bill Hicks - fiddle (track 15)
• Robbie Link - bass
  Bass (instrument)
  Bass describes musical instruments that produce tones in the low-pitched range. They belong to different families of instruments and can cover a wide range of musical roles...
  
  

Production

• Jerry Brown - co-producer, recording engineer, mastering
  • Recorded at the Rubber Room in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
    Chapel Hill, North Carolina
    Chapel Hill is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, United States and the home of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UNC Health Care...
    
    
  • Mastered at The Chop Shop in Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Artwork

• Hale Dixon Design
  • John Dixon - Graphic art
  • Melissanne Hale Dixon - Photography

External links

• Jonathan Byrd - Wildflowers page at Waterbug Records
  Waterbug Records
  Waterbug Records is a small independent record label based in Glen Ellyn, Illinois specializing in singer-songwriters and traditional folk musicians who do original research. The label was founded as an artist cooperative label in 1992 by singer-songwriter Andrew Calhoun. Calhoun described the...
  
  (sound samples etc.)