Ozarks music-maker

Mick Byrd finds joy in writing songs

By R.D. HohenfeIdt

Mick Byrd easily recalls the first song he wrote. "The first thing I ever wrote was a rock 'n' roll barre chord classic called 'No More Baby' when I was 13," he says. "And no, I'm not going to play that for you," he adds laughing, "although I still remember it. It wasn't very good, but I liked it. it’s a joyful experience to write a song. It's a neat thing. It's fulfilling."

 Byrd, whose day job is teaching and coaching at the high school in Vienna, has found songwriting fulfilling enough to fill six CD recordings over the past 11 years. He also discovered he likes performing and averages about a gig a week during the year.

 On May 26, Byrd performed at the Lyric Live Theater in Newburg to officially release that sixth CD, titled "Outer Road." In a pre-show interview with The Ozarks Chronicle, Byrd talked about his musical influences, the process of writing, audiences, teaching and the music business.

 Byrd's first three projects, "No Frills," "Live At the Focal Point" and "'The Barber" were solo albums. The last three, "Stolen Kisses," "A Few Good Tunes" and the new one are billed as Mick Byrd and Bonus Track." The single singer-songwriter thing is often a hard sell," Byrd says, so he added a band.

 The recordings feature several musicians, but the traveling version of Bonus Track is primarily Mark Rice and Kristan Hassler.  Rice plays acoustic guitar, electric guitar, banjo, mandolin and echo harp. Hassler is a vocalist. "They are both very talented and wonderful friends," Byrd says, adding that all the musicians on his CDs are friends. "All the folks from my recording are friends, people I've met in music circles."

 Although he's mainly a lyricist and singer, Byrd speaks proudly of the musicianship on his recordings and in his performances. "When we're playing out, like in Kansas City and St. Louis, we draw a good number of guitar players," Byrd says. "I don't play normal chords at all, but Mark is a really good guitar player and he chooses complementary chords and structures. Guitar players like that, and you can always tell a guitar player; he'll be watching your hands. So, I think that shows we have something to say musically as well as lyrically, and that's important.'"

 Byrd has performed in 14 states and one foreign country, Ireland, where he performed solo last summer. "We do a lot of shows on the Ozark winery circuit," Byrd says. "The winery folks are good to us. It's a relaxed atmosphere, a good listening environment. People in that environment like thoughtful music. That doesn't mean it can't be fun, but you can perform songs that you couldn't perform in your typical bar."

 Byrd also performs at fairs, festivals, and colleges, as well as coffee houses and the occasional bar gig. "We are on the Missouri Arts Council roster of touring performers," he says. "We also belong to the Mid-America Arts Alliance, which his exactly the same thing for states bordering Missouri."

 Does Byrd find that audiences appreciate his talent the farther from home he gets? "I think you want a truthful answer to that,"' he says. "And the answer is probably yes."Continuing, he says, "We have a core group of local supporters in this local area that we appreciate a lot, and a lot of those relationships are personal. Folks support you because they're your friends."

That's why it's good for an artist to get away from the home audience sometimes. "You probably get a truer take on your work from folks who don't know you," he says. "When you branch out and get away from home, people will judge you more on the worth of your work."

 For Byrd and his fellow performers, turning audience newbies into friends is important. "We pride ourselves on the relationships we build with our audience at various venues," he says. Byrd says there's an art to balancing his songwriter side and his performer side. "Anything you do is for an audience, so you have to determine who your audience is on a given night," he says.

"You've got to give them songs they'll respond to." That means a singer-songwriter who has a Iot of songs with serious messages must also include some songs with not-so-serious messages.

 He notes that he and his wife, Debbie, have a friend who writes songs filled with childhood angst. "And that's all she writes. She'll never be able to buy the groceries as long as that's all she performs," he says. "Some of my songs are just for fun. There's a message; it's just not overly profound," Byrd says. "A real heartfelt ballad is good with a group of five or six fun songs. A group of five or six heartfelt ballads is difficult and will wear an audience out." 

 Byrd describes his music as Americana Roots music.  "The new CD has some crossover country, some blatantly obnoxious country songs just for fun really tasteful blues cuts, folk-rock cuts and a thing or two even kind of like bluegrass," he says. "Without being overly preachy, I try not to be overly judgmental. If it's good, it's good."

 Asked about his musical preferences, Byrd says, "I listen to a lot of AC/DC," and then repeats, "I listen to a LOT of AC/DC."  Byrd's wife and musical business partner, Debbie, adds, "Back in Black gets played a lot," referring to a top-selling album by the hard-rock group.

 "I play a lot of rock 'n' roll chord structures in a nonrock 'n' roll format. So what you hear us do is refreshing, I think," he says.  Byrd says he listens also to Michael Hedges, Neil Young and some contemporary artists "if the song is melodic."

 "A question I get from a lot from news people is 'why do you write?’ Byrd says. "The answer is: I have to."  That compulsion to write isn't something that happens every day, he explains.  "I write very sporadically. I'll get on a roll and just write like a little beaver," he says. "And then life stuff will get in the way and I won't write a thing."

 For Byrd, writing doesn't start with a lyric line. No, he does he not carry a notebook and write down thoughts that translate into songs. "No. That would be far too organized," he says. "I always, invariably, start with music. I don't see a happening or hear something and say 'That would make a wonderful song.' I sit and play around with chords, and that music will bring up an emotion. A mood causes you to recall an incident, a fantasy or factual occurrence or a relationship or whatever, and that ends up being a song." In the process of playing around with the chords, invoking a mood, recalling an event or feeling and putting words to it, Byrd puts a piece of himself into the music.

"The investment," he says. "One of the neatest things I've heard songwriters talk about is the investment. It's not just time and effort. It's you in the song."

 Byrd's songs are often slice-of-life short stories. "A lot of the songs I tend to write are visual, little snippets of life," he says. "A songwriter and novelist have the same job; it's just that I do it in three minutes. My work is intensely personal, so if you don't like my work, you probably won't like me."

 Byrd notes that he is a song writer, but not much of a rewriter. "I'm not a tinkerer. I tend to write in impulsive flashes, hopefully in creativity, and when I'm done, I'm done,"  he says. "I don't tinker with keys or timing. It is what it is. A song exists in a moment and you to recapture that moment."

 Byrd, whose dad was a St. Louis jazz pianist, played in a rock band in high school and then in a moderately successful regional rock band, Jade, in college. "After college we all went our separate ways, and I didn't play anymore until I had a very serious knee injury in 1995 and was laid up for awhile," he says. "That was an effective end to any athletic pastimes for me, so I picked up the guitar."

 Actually, he had never entirely laid down his guitar.

 " I played cover tunes and would write a song every six months or so and play it for Debbie," he says.

However, he picked up his guitar and began seriously to craft songs, working with the now-defunct Missouri Society of Songwriters and Musicians, which met in Rolla once a month at the now-defunct Coffee Grind. "People from all over Missouri interested in music and songwriting came to the meetings, and they were very helpful, I'm still in contact with some of them," Byrd says.

 His first gig after his knee surgery was in the Vienna high school gymnasium. "My first real performance was with the band teacher, his wife and their son for some kind of fund raiser, and I really enjoyed myself. It was neat," he says. They played cover tunes rather than originals, but it sparked a desire in Byrd to keep performing.

 "I really started the music thing with the idea of songwriting rather than performing, but the performing thing evolved. It was wonderfully enjoyable. I knew I would enjoy the songwriting; I didn't know I would enjoy the performing as much," he says.

Mick and Debbie Byrd operate Time Out Records and Mick Byrd Publishing. They have two children. Daughter Ellie, 23, teaches in preschool at Vienna, and is her dad's assistant softball and basketball coach. "That is really neat," he says. "I wouldn't have missed that for the world." Son Curt, 19, just finished his freshman year at Westminster in Fulton where he is a left-handed pitcher on baseball team. "He's a good player and a good guy," Byrd says.

Byrd says he wonders if he'll enjoy the music as much after he retires from teaching in a few years. "The day job has been very good to me I've got personal relationships I'll treasure for a lifetime, and it's give me a lot of songwriting ideas. Everybody has a story. Sometimes those stories are very surprising," he says. "But music is a release now. I've got a whole other life, coaching and teaching. It's a really structured thing. Then I get to put that in the closet and go to St. Louis and play some tunes," he says. "I kind wonder if it will be as fun when music will not be my release, but will be what I do."

For information about the schedule and recordings of Mick Byrd or Mick Byrd and Bonus Track, log on to www.MickByrd.com