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Friday August 8th, 2001
Billy Byrd passes away at 81; Gibson Byrdland collaborator, namesake
Billy Byrd, whose lead guitar work was a defining element in most of Ernest Tubb's 1950s hit recordings, died yesterday of natural causes at age 81. He had been in poor health after suffering a stroke in February.
A Nashville native, Mr. Byrd was adept at playing simple, highly commercial, melodic country leads but he was also renowned for his jazzy flights of virtuosity. He emulated the jazz sounds of players such as Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt, and he tutored Nashville session greats including Hank Garland and Harold Bradley.
''Without him coming along and showing us that jazz stuff, we never would have been able to do what we did,'' said Bradley, who considered Byrd his best friend. ''When I was 14, Billy was dating a girl down the street from me, and he'd come over with two guitars and show me jazz licks.
''At one time he was the best pop jazz player in town, and he had a great influence on me and Hank (Garland) and a lot of people, both as a friend and as a guitar player.''
Mr. Byrd played with Nashville pop bands as a teen-ager and later with Western swing and country acts. By 1949, he was making regular Opry appearances with Little Jimmy Dickens and George Morgan and began working on Nashville recording sessions. Country Hall of Famer Tubb hired him as a member of his Texas Troubadours backing band in mid-1949. Byrd also drove Tubb's bus during his first tenure with the Troubadours.
''Billy came from a pop and jazz background, and there were some people who were leery of the notion that he could play country with Tubb,'' said Ronnie Pugh, Tubb's biographer. ''But ... he did it and did it well. The 10 years Billy was in the band, he did practically all of the instrumental breaks.''
Tubb often introduced Mr. Byrd's solos in concert and on record by saying, ''Aw, Billy Byrd now'' or ''Take it away, Billy Byrd.'' Mr. Byrd became a celebrated instrumentalist. He and Hank Garland worked together to design the semi-hollow-body
Gibson Byrdland electric guitar first introduced in 1955. Gibson's Custom Art and Historic division currently manufactures both the Byrdland and Byrdland Florentine.
Mr. Byrd left Tubb's band in 1959, rejoining twice in the 1960s and 1970s. He also recorded three solo albums. When not on the road and not playing in Nashville clubs, he could often be found driving cabs.
Surviving family members include his wife, Glenna C. Byrd, four daughters, eight grandchildren and a great-grandchild.
The Byrdland is one of the most distinctive acoustic-electric guitars in Gibson history featuring the same hand-carved spruce top and solid maple rims and back as the elegant L-5. The Byrdland's overall depth of 2 1/4-in is thinner than the more traditional 3 3/8" of the L-5. In addition, its famous short scale neck (only 23 1/2") facilitates intricate single-note patterns and allows guitarists to employ unusual stretched chord voicings. For this reason, the Byrdland has been a favorite of master players as different as country-picker Roy Clark, hard rocker Ted Nugent and free jazz innovator James "Blood" Ulmer.
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