Jonathan Byrd, Greg Klyma & Anthony DaCosta September 11, 2009

Jonathan Byrd, Greg Klyma & Anthony DaCosta
Friday, September 11.
Doors 7:30pm, Concert 8:00pm.
Suggested donation $15 at the door, $12 with reservation at least 24 hours in advance to notlobreservations @ comcast.net

" Jonathan Byrd doesn’t sing songs; he sings truth."
~ performingsongwriter.com

"Jonathan's delightful, substantive songs are rich with imagery and textures of influences from Appalachian, country, early American balladry, modern atmospheric Mideastern, urban and old timey folk music. A stalwart of modern folk music, Jonathan is constantly evolving in new musical directions and each incarnation has proven to be masterful. Like a gourmet chef, Jonathan does not create the same dish twice, so we're not sure what he will bring to the table tonight. But if music were a meal, Jonathan would prepare us a banquet. Catch this Kerrville New Folk winner as often as you can; you'll never get 'full', your appetite will only grow."
~Uncle Calvin's Coffeehouse, Dallas, TX

Folk legend Tom Paxton discovered Jonathan Byrd's music and sent him a quick email, saying, "What a treat to hear someone so deeply rooted in tradition, yet growing in his own beautiful way." He had just released "Wildflowers," in late 2001, simple tales of love and death that seemed to be a hundred years old or more. In 2003 Byrd released his second album, "The Waitress" and won the prestigious New Folk competition in Kerrville, TX. That year, he set CD sales records at the festival.

For his third album, Jonathan approached his friends, the critically acclaimed world-music duo known as Dromedary, often featured on National Public Radio's All Things Considered. "The Sea and The Sky" is the result, a vast, poetic suite of music that weds world sounds to deeply rooted folk balladry.

A native of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Jonathan grew up singing in the Southern Baptist church, where his father preached and his mother played piano. After four years in the Navy, he returned to Chapel Hill to play in rock bands in that legendary underground music scene. A friend of Jonathan's invited him to an old-time fiddle festival in the mountains of southwest Virginia, where his writing began to change. Assimilating the sounds of southern traditional music, Byrd wrote new songs in an ancient style.

One of those first songs was "Velma," a murder ballad based on the true story of Velma Barfield, the last woman to be executed in North Carolina (in 1984) and the murderer of Jonathan's own grandfather. This was the track that prompted Tom Paxton to respond so eloquently to Byrd's music.

As Jonathan grows into a contemporary artist of increasing influence, his traditional roots are always evident in his simple, poetic storytelling and classic flatpick guitar style. But, as quoted in a recent interview for Dirty Linen magazine, Jonathan says, "Everything I do is a departure from what I've done." "The Sea and the Sky" is certainly evidence of that. Keep an ear out for an upcoming electric album, sure to take us further out on a limb without forgetting our roots.

"I thought I was listening to a young Doc Watson."
~ Jay Moulon, Southeast Performer Magazine

Greg Klyma is a Buffalo-born troubadour who has been living on the road performing music full-time since August 1998. Traveling from the Rust Belt to FEMA villages with guitar and mandolin in hand, capturing the stories of the people he's met and seen for over a decade, Greg has honed his songwriting and storytelling while developing a show that lands somewhere between the worlds of Steve Earle and Steve Martin - it's literate, witty, visual, sometimes comical and forever building on tradition while seeking its own voice.
In August 2008, Greg released his 5th independent solo album, Rust Belt Vagabond, featuring the song "Two Degrees in Buffalo." Later in 2009, he'll follow up with the release of KLYMALIVE in Buffalo.

Anthony da Costa IS not afraid of nothing.

A public statement, a self-realization, an album title, a cool chance to use a double negative…or all of the above.

Not sure. But one thing is certain:
Anthony's new record is anything but careful.

In 2007, at 16, he became the youngest winner ever at the Falcon Ridge and Kerrville Folk Festivals. In 2008, at 17, he released two, critically- acclaimed albums. He also played prestigious folk festivals, including the Philadelphia Folk Festival and Tonder Festival in Denmark, and opened for music icons, like Loretta Lynn and Dan Bern.

Now, in 2009, at 18, and before heading off to Columbia University this fall, he's released a new record, "Not Afraid of Nothing." But, in this album, his 8th, Anthony ventures into new musical territory. While one foot's in folk, the other foot's loose and wandering into various genres, influenced by the work of Elliott Smith, Ryan Adams and some other, less-obvious artists, like The Smiths and Jay-Z.

"I needed to get to someplace else with this record — someplace with a little groove."
"Not Afraid of Nothing" is a homegrown record, recorded mostly on a Macbook Pro with an MBox in living rooms and basements throughout Anthony's hometown of Pleasantville, NY. As for the songs, they document his last year in high school — a year of clarity and confusion, love and loneliness, change and nostalgia and, ultimately, renewal.

"This album is definitely the most of ME that I've put out there, but I hope it can be about all of US in a way. If it's not, than I'm not doing my job."