"I thought I was listening to a young Doc Watson."
- Jay Moulon, Southeast Performer Magazine

Jonathan's career started with a contest. In the year 2000, Byrd took grand prize in the North Carolina Songwriter's Coop Song contest in his hometown of Carrboro, NC. Inspired, he began to tour and recorded his first CD, Wildflowers. With spare production, these lyrical tales of love and death made a surprising impact. Folk legend Tom Paxton discovered Byrd's music online: "What a treat to hear someone so deeply rooted in tradition, yet growing in his own beautiful way." Touring musicians like Jack Lawrence and Larry Keel began to cover his songs.

Wildflowers
Eli's Cotton Gin
Velma
Lady's Fancy
Sandy Mush
Golden Glow of Autumn
Tinytown
Ashe County Fair
Bean an Fhir Rua/Backstep Cindy
The Sparrow
Mama
Molly Dear
Big Hoedown
The Cider Song
Her Eyes Were Green
Robena

with Guitar, Bass, Banjo, Dobro, Fiddle and Mandolin

Eli’s Cotton Gin
by Jonathan Byrd

California farm town- the end of the day
You can smell the feed lot ten miles away
If I had a dollar for every head out there
I’d be in Pebble Beach, smokin’ herb like a millionaire

Smoke from a tractor, dust from the ground
For nigh on two weeks, it’ll still be around
‘Cause outside Fresno, it’s flat all day
And if it was clear as a bell, you couldn’t see nothin’ anyway

Ch: From Gilroy to Sequoia, there’s enough work to be done
to keep a fella like me busy ‘til kingdom come
And if you stood on the back of my combine, you’d still never see the end
Of the San Joaquin and Eli’s cotton gin

People everywhere, I can understand
‘Cause you’re hard-workin’ folks, I’m a hard-workin’ man
With our lives and with our hands
We feed the land to feed the land
We feed the land to feed the land

Ch2: From Gilroy to Sequoia, there’s enough work to be done
to keep a fella like me busy ‘til kingdom come
And if you stood on the back of my paycheck, you’d still never see the end
Of the San Joaquin and Eli’s cotton gin