Customer Reviews

The Law and the Lonesome

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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An album that rewards close attention. Let the epic yet understated soundscape wash over you whilst you discover the twists and turns lurking within the lyrics.
JB has produced another one to cherish - I unreservedly recommend all of his albums.

The first thing that attracted me to this CD was Michelle Strottner's lovely landscape photography with the crow sitting on the post. Byrd uses the imagery in "May the River Run Dry," "Black crow lighting on your old, crooked tree." The inner sleeve photography also mirrors the song "Coyote." The title track has Byrd's lovely vocals with a lonely wail, "You took the wrong way home." "Clean" sadly sings about the ravages of addiction. "When you leave me, could you leave me just the way that I found you, in your green dress, the color of the summer all around you," Jonathan sings on the pretty breakup track "Prairie Girl." Jonathan & his acoustic guitar break your heart on the bittersweet "Soldier's Lullaby." Other tracks like the ballad "Diana Jones" and the set closer "Galveston" are also strong. This is a stark set filled with a lonesome howl of things being lost even as they are held. Enjoy!

Jonathan Byrd is a renegade. He's a skinny southern boy who looks like he probably carries a switchblade knife and knows how to use it. He's a charmer with an accent that fills the air with the smell of magnolias in the moonlight. He's a musician who enters the venue in a three piece suit and a straw hat.

He's a hell of a storyteller. And his songs are almost all story telling songs. I bought this CD after seeing him live, locally. There is really no way to describe his voice, I'd say he's a singer songwriter in the vein of Hank Williams - the REAL Hank Williams, Hank Senior.

The song Clean begins "There's a jackknife out on Highway 10, it's the biggest thing I've ever seen
I'm late to meet the candy man and it's been a long time since I've been clean."
No mistaking those words, or the absolute ache of need in his voice.

Prairie Girl is a lovesong written for a woman who is leaving. He asks her if she could leave him "just the way I found you, in your green dress the color of the sun all around you." Who could leave, after pretty words like that?

But the one I bought the CD for was new, the night I heard him perform it. Coyote is a spare song, no extra words, no extra notes. 'you'll find a trace,a barbed-wire scar across his face. Fading like a midnight mile, I saw Coyote.'

The best song on this amazing CD. Maybe closer to country than folk, depending on your leanings, but Jonathan Byrd SHOULD be famous. I'm kinda glad he isn't, because I get to introduce people to his music.

Byrd's "The Law and the Lonesome" demands repeated listening, preferably in a darkened room. For that reason it will probably never be a chart topper . . . but it should. Beautifully crafted lyrics performed with an honest, 2nd generation outlaw's conviction. If you don't think Byrd can write an perform a great lyrical, song, go to YouTube and see the video of his "Ballad of Larry."
There's not a weak track on this CD. It's become one of my all-time favs.