The Byrne Diaspora

Donald and Donny

I visited Pittsboro this past weekend. Dad had just gotten four CDs in the mail, recordings of his old bluegrass shows with Sweetwater Reunion in central Pennsylvania. We listened to them while we ate the giant meal Donny had cooked for us - warm brown tortillas, lettuce, tomatoes, beans, cheese, fejoida-soaked tofu, and a whole bowl of cilantro (which I love and Dad hates)!

So I thought it's be nice to post a couple songs from father and son. You can listen to Dad's 1963 recording of "San Francisco Bay Blues" here, which is one of his favorites and mine. As for the second generation, you can listen to Shamgod's "Radio Collar" here, written by Donny and sung by Mary. Some days the triumphant refrain repeats itself in my head: I'm taking off my radio collar today!

Music and dance

Mark and Mary visited this weekend, and while they were here, Mark dropped off a CD of amazing photos he'd taken during the production of Rounds. I was so happy, and they are so beautiful, they're an artwork of their own - what was all music and dance, caught in still images! You can see his photos, plus a couple extra, here.

Valentine's Day

"When we had done everything we could for her, and nothing seemed to work any more and a sense of futility set in, it began to dawn on me that the only thing left to do was the most important thing I could ever have done all our life together: to be present for her and with her. Not to change or cure her, but to let her be, and let myself and our children be, with her. After all our years of marriage and being a family, I began to realize that this is all love ever needed or needs: being present for one another."

-Eulogy for Mary Anne Byrne, composed by Donald E. Byrne Jr.

I'm a soldier for your safe passage.  -Rounds