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A Musical Life: Byron J. Love

Courtesy photo

Byron J. Love performs under that name as a solo artist. He is a past member of Boys Beware, My Why, and Rex Bennet Fight Scene. Although he continues to gig in the Wichita area, his current focus is in the visual realm, focusing on video and motion graphics as well as ICT Channel 13.

I am Byron J. Love. I am sort of a singer-songwriter type person. It’s hard for me to call myself a musician because I can do it but I know real musicians and those guys are amazing. I have the ability to play music and write songs, so I do it, but I’m not a touring musician.

I mainly do shows for fun. Booking is really weird for me because I would almost rather show up at a place and just play guitar than to actually have to deal with booking a gig. I would rather just appear in Old Town. I will do that, just randomly go and post up at a place and play guitar and say, ‘Oh yeah! Thanks for walking by!’ It’s just fun interacting with the crowd.

Growing up, I can’t think of anything ever that my folks were listening to. My mom was always listening to whatever was on the radio and—we were heavily involved in the church, so there was a lot of gospel. Like Shirley Caesar. I don’t care who you are, man, Shirley Caesar is dope. The way that a woman can light a room with her voice is ridiculous.

That’s mainly what my mom listened to. My dad was into Hank Williams Jr. Not Senior so much. Which was weird. I was, like, ‘That’s the one everybody likes, right?’ And this is the ‘Everybody’s for some football one that I think sells me beef jerky. No, wait that’s Macho Man Randy Savage. Whatever.

Jedd Beaudoin is host/producer of the nationally syndicated program Strange Currency. He has also served as an arts reporter, a producer of A Musical Life and a founding member of the KMUW Movie Club. As a music journalist, his work has appeared in Pop Matters, Vox, No Depression and Keyboard Magazine.