"When I leave, I'll leave like a season
Like a slow, sweet change in the breeze
Time never needed a reason
To turn a few degrees..."
Jonathan Byrd's music speaks volumes, quietly, on The Sea and Sky, an ambitious concept CD. "The Sea and the Sky" is a suite of music describing a journey from the old world to the new. "The old world was not really different from today's world," Jonathan says. "Discovering the language and stories of that older world has shown me the essence of the human experience." The title track gently overwhelms, revealing the fateful union of mythic and personal experience. The Sea and Sky is both a recording and a beautiful 32 page book, with original art by Jan Burger. Conceived, written, and produced by Byrd, it features the world-fusion sounds of Dromedary, two former world history & music teachers from Atlanta. Andrew Reissiger & Rob McMaken draw on the musics of Portugal and Spain, the Andes, British Isles, Appalachia, Eastern Europe, and North Africa, performing on mandolin, flamenco and steel string guitars, the charango (the Andes), the cümbüs (Turkey), and the Appalachian dulcimer.Also appearing are fiddlers Jason Cade and Rex McGee, bassist Robbie Link, and accordionist Chris Frank.
Tracks: True Companion
The Young Slaver
I've Been Stolen
Gold Coast
I'm So Lost
Verdigris
Verdigris
Little Bird
The New World
The River Girl
The Sea and the Sky
For You
Born in Fayetteville, NC, Byrd got his musical start singing in a Baptist church. After learning piano and classical flute, he convinced his father to buy him a cheap electric guitar. Byrd started breaking the rewind button on cassette players, learning Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix licks. Heading from high school into the Navy, he carried a guitar behind his bunk for three tours in the Mediterranean. Back home, Byrd connected with a vibrant folk scene and fell in love with traditional music. His writing took a hairpin turn, as he flat picked fiddle tunes and began writing new ballads.
The Young Slaver
by Jonathan Byrd
Oh my dear, you prepare, are you going anywhere
Oh my dear, back from town, are you to a vessel bound
Off to war on an angry sea?
Fairest one, I love you, this is something I must do
Fairest one, if I stay, then your honor Id betray
So I seek lesser company
Oh my dear, please dont leave, there are tears upon my sleeve
Oh my dear, if you go, down the archipelago
You will never return to me
Fairest one, let me go, for you know I love you so
Fairest one, Ill return and your marriage I will earn
With promotion and bravery
Oh my dear, you are gone, I will mourn you ere the dawn
All the young and the brave are the first to find their grave
In Her Majestys company
Fairest one, never knew, what Im really set to do
Fairest one, I never told, trading slaves for rum and gold
To win her from her family
Oh my dear, I have dreams, in the night I hear the screams
Oh my dear, in those lands, you have blood upon your hands
And your soul is in jeopardy
Fairest one of my land, I do not deserve your hand
Fairest one, like a fool, I have been the devils tool
And my soul is in jeopardy
Oh my dear, I have learned, all the ships of war returned
Oh my dear, as you know, they did not return with you
So I made you a grave by the sea
Fairest one, I have sins rum or gold could never cleanse
Fairest one, in the deep, I will lay my self to sleep
And make me a grave of the sea
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