What are the best few Jerry Byrd CDs to buy?

[David Mason]

I know that's impossibly loaded, in so many ways, BUT: I've had the experience & expense, pre-internet, of acquiring a whole pyramid of Indian music CDs just to get to the capstone. And even the hardest of hardcore Byrdites admit that there just may have been a few fluctuations, shall we say, in material. So, just throw up a few titles I can latch onto, hopefully all-instrumental, hopefully the ones that leave one in a daze, looking at the clock & wondering how you could listen to three songs for two hours.

[Jerome Hawkes]

"By Request" is his best imo, you can get that on iTunes - its impossible to find on CD (though Scotty may have some?)
just about everything else you can find for free in various spots if you hunt.
on vinyl, i always liked "Satin Strings of Steel" - definitely never to be reissued I'm sure.
I liked it when Byrd moved away from the standard hawaiian/country genres to show what the steel could do.

[James Hartman]

I really don't know how much of his recorded output is available in CD form. I have a bunch of older recordings on LP.

One CD release I have is titled "By Request", from the mid '90s on a label called Mountain Apple. All instrumental except one song. A fair mix of repertoire, nicely done.

Edit: Jerome beat me to it. Didn't realize it had gone out of print.

[Doug Beaumier]

I'd recommend Jerry's 1950s and early 60s albums... "Hi-Fi Guitar" Decca DL-8643 or "Steel Guitar Favorites", both recorded in the late 1950s. If you're looking for classic, vintage JB playing his Rick bakelite with lots of energy, this is the stuff you want to check out.
I don't care much for his later albums, 1980s and 90s, It's very nice playing but the tone is not like the earlier stuff and the energy isn't the same IMO.

[Ray Montee (RIP)]

If you'd care to drop in to the JERRY BYRD fan club site, you can listen to a ton of Jerry's fine performances. I'm sure you'd enjoy the visit.

jerrybyrd-fanclub.com

[David Mason]

Yes, it's a fine thing you do there, and there's YouTube Byrd, iTunes Byrd, but my absorption process is sort of primitive and still no where near-wholly computer centered. I need carByrd & bedByrd and pop in CD of repeat'n runByrd. And I swear, beside the sometimes chalky sound of low-info Mp3's , I swear some of the web practitioners almost intentionally “low-fi” you to... add romance? Mystery? Something... listening to the pops and hisses of a re-mastered 20-bit CD is an odd experience. And Poor Paco gets through the weekend, anyway. I'll be there...

(“Byrd of Paradise”, “Polynesian Suite” and “Jerry Byrd – Master of the Steel Guitar Vol. 1” seem to be the easy ones out there. If it's really a suite, I'm in – I think working in longer forms is a really, really good sign of actual thought processes.)

[Jim Mckay]

I would love a CD of "By Request". Seems ashame that there reproduction copies available of Jerry's albums

[b0b]

My favorite is the Japanese album "Steel Guitar Romantic World", but I don't think it's ever been released on CD.

[Andy Volk]

I'd echo Doug's comment almost word-for-word.

For my personal taste, By Request and Steel Guitar Romantic World are NOT among JB's best. The former was recorded when he was past his prime and his tone is nothing like his early recordings. The latter has Byrd's near-superhuman diatonic tuning playing overdubbed over 60s Japanese pop music. With all due respect to b0b, ick.

I would add Nani Hawai (reissued as On the Shores of Waikiki., Byrd's first Hawaiian collection. Unfortunately, Byrd's best commercial solo work is not currently available on CD withe exception of a limited Japanese reissue of Nani Hawaii/Shores of Waikiki: http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=UICY-93138 Note that there are audio samples.

http://www.steelguitarshopper.com/produ ... uitar.html

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Jerry-Byrd-Nani ... 2336ad6797

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid= ... &_from=R40

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Jerry-Byrd-Stee ... 2ecf11793e

[Jerome Hawkes]

i don't really rank any of his work personally, i like Rays post in the other "why JB" thread (under steel players) going on that you take an artists cumulated output over his lifetime to see his evolution and brilliance. i'm not really listening for which LP had the best tone or most energy or best tune selection - i'm in there with what he is trying to convey to me as a listener, much deeper than all that. all art on a high level seems to follow that theme.
many artists die off fast, either through an early death or bad career choices, or management, whatever. Jerry always seemed to play from the heart. I don't hear him playing down to the cheap seats & tourists to sell records like many did or had to do. I haven't heard all of his recordings, so i'm just basing this on the work i've heard. yes, there is some of his stuff i can't listen to - but its not because of his playing. i've many times tried transcribing some of his tunes i didn't care for (hated actually) as a listener, but when you get in there to his playing, its a wonderful education by a master and i come away with an entirely different view of the song.

i see "By Request" as the summation of his incredible journey with the steel - a man whose life was devoted to it. its much more (to me) than the actual sounds coming through the speakers.

[Rick Aiello]

"Admirable Byrd" & "Master of Touch and Tone" for instrumentals ...

"Hula in Falsetto" by Bill Lincoln ... For a serious lesson by JB in backing a vocalist ...

[Jean-Sebastien Gauthier]

Hi-Fi Guitar

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/yapshxm9x4wzn54/GPdpUPw7ni

[Ron Whitfield]

he was past his prime and his tone is nothing like his early recordings

He too preferred the Ric tone over his console but wanted the advantage of his console.
But past his prime when he did By Request? Not from the seats I had watching him during those and later days.

[Andy Volk]

Ron, that's what's great about art. We can differ in our perceptions and neither of us is wrong. There's no doubt Jerry had tremendous soul and retained his amazing technique through even the final notes he played. That said, I stand by my recommendations to those unfamiliar with his work that his finest commercial recordings were recorded in the 1950s & 60s.

[Ron Whitfield]

I stand by my recommendations to those unfamiliar with his work that his finest commercial recordings were recorded in the 1950s & 60s.

That I can certainly agree with, but I do love By Request as good listening with fine steel. It was a recording he had no plans to even do at that stage of his life.

[Tom Snook]

I can't believe nobody suggested "Steel Guitar Hawaiian Style"!
When I lived in Waikiki,there wasn't an elevator in the city that didn't play practically every song on that album.Just close your eyes and imagine!

[Doug Beaumier]

...past his prime when he did By Request?

Jerry was 76 years old when he recorded "By Request". I would call that "past prime". He plays beautifully on that record, but he sounds very different from his earlier records. The fire, the energy, and the gritty bakelite tone of the 1950s recordings is not there. His later sound is more mellow, a more modern tone from his Sho-Bud. Like I said, very nice playing, but I prefer his earlier sound.

[b0b]

I can't believe nobody suggested "Steel Guitar Hawaiian Style"!
When I lived in Waikiki,there wasn't an elevator in the city that didn't play practically every song on that album.Just close your eyes and imagine!

I wore out two copies of that LP!

[Ron Whitfield]

Jerry was 76 years old when he recorded "By Request". I would call that "past prime". He plays beautifully on that record, but he sounds very different from his earlier records. The fire, the energy, and the gritty bakelite tone of the 1950s recordings is not there. His later sound is more mellow, a more modern tone from his Sho-Bud.

Sure, but he was a rather different person too and had nothing to prove, nor kids to put thru college, just deciding to have one last go at making beautiful music. Again, seeing him play during his sunset years said loudly that there was no diminution of his abilities, at least as far as his bar hand was concerned. He knew when it came and he told me that during his last visit to Japan is when he noticed slight inabilities and that the end was near.

[Andy Volk]

This discussion reminds me of another record that came out in the late 80s or early 90s that's seldom talked about (probably as I think it was released only on cassette) titled Islands Call. It featured Byrd, Alan Akaka and Barney Isaacs playing as a steel guitar trio with a rhythm section. In theory, this would be hell but as arranged by Byrd, it was really very good - not the glory days of his earlier work but pretty darn good.

For those that haven't heard it, here's Sweet Corn from Hi-Fi Guitar. Even digitized, compressed, and coming out of tiny computer speakers I think you can hear the fabulous touch, energy, and the often-cited "growl" of the Rickenbacher Bakelite tone that was present in his early work.

https://soundcloud.com/aev/sweet-corn

Steel Guitar Favorites: http://jukebox.au.nu/retro_grooves/hawa ... favorites/

[b0b]

Is "Sweet Corn" double-tracked? I swear I hear two steel guitars in the first verse and in the bridge.

Also, how in the world is that harmonic intro even possible?

[Ray Montee (RIP)]

I can't find it at the moment but I think you're on to something. I seem to recall hearing the same thing but have never examined it other than to just listen to it now and then.

I will check further.

[Andy Volk]

You may be hearing Hank Garland on electric guitar selectively doubling Jerry's lines, Bob. As for the harmonic, I'm guessing it's simply played 12 frets above the 5th or 7th fret but I'm way too lazy to check the note's pitch on a tuner. PS Nice snag on the Nani Hawaaii 45s.

[Tim Whitlock]

You may well already have some if you have any Hank Williams. Jerry was featured on many of the early recordings, including Lovesick Blues, I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry, My Buckets Got a Hole in It, Mansion on the Hill, I Just Don't Like this Kind of Livin', A House Without Love, There'll Be No Teardrops Tonight, Honky Tonkin' and My Sweet Love Ain't Around to name a few.

[Ray Montee (RIP)]

The Jerry Byrd Juke Box page on the JBFC offers far more selections than a mere handful of recordings with but a single artist.

It's a wealth of learning possibilities for you. Artists like Neil Burris, Sonny James, Country All Stars, Ken Marvin, etc., etc.

You might benefit from giving it a listen.
jerrybyrd-fanclub.com/