On the weekend of July 11, 2021, I learned that one of my greatest musical heroes, Byron Berline, had passed on.
Here’s an appreciation from my good friend and great fiddler Matt Glaser:
I first heard Byron Berline in 1972. I was 16 years old, and had been playing the fiddle for 3 years. I worked a part-time job at the Katonah Public Library, re-stacking bookshelves, and doing a bit of incompetent gardening.
One day, while slacking off at work, I was leafing through records. Here’s one by The Flying Burrito Brothers. On the back cover there were pictures of the musicians, mostly hippies, but not this one guy -”Byron Berline, Fiddle”—he is pretty clean cut, and smiling like a madman. Hmm….looks interesting. I’ll think I’ll sign it out.
I remember walking the mile or so back home, going upstairs to my room, and putting the record on the turntable. The tune was Dixie Breakdown. And then….. what? The Big Bang? Being born, but for real? My head exploding? I had never heard ANYTHING like that….and I still have not recovered. I can trace the entire trajectory of my life to that moment–the moment where Byron injected his radioactive sound into my brain.
He and his fiddle were from Kansas and Oklahoma, but his sound was stopping people in their tracks all over the place —Darol Anger and Stuart Duncan in California, Mark O’Connor in Washington, me in suburban NY ,and so many others; making us rethink our lives! Whatever that sound is that Byron has, we want it! It’s like a bluegrass It’s a Wonderful Life—-If it wasn’t for Byron, Darol would have opened a health-food store, Stuart would have become a banker, Mark would have become a fitness instructor, and I would have gotten a Masters degree in Religious Studies. Thank you Byron.