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Byron has been a fixture on the local music scene for as long as this musician can remember. He is an eccentric, a painter, a poet and an individual. He is usually on his way to one gig or another with paintings and/or drawings, sometimes poetry and always a rant about local government. He is always ready and willing to explain to you about his artwork that he's dragged along with him, however, that does not mean that you'll be understanding Byron anytime soon. Now thinking about it, I don't think eccentric is a strong enough word. A man who seems to be obsessed with paint, pyramids, Captain Beefheart, cigarettes and B movies. Byron is an individual. In a world where homogenization has become the rule and the landscapes of culture are wiped from our minds like a CIA cover-up, Byron Wilkes stands like a defiant mountain. To the local artists, musicians and writers of the Shoals area he stands as a statue, our one beacon of self reliance and freedom. He is all of Kris Kristoffersons best lyrics rolled up into one artist. He has designed flyers, posters and album covers for countless local bands and the reason for this is that he is our superhero. No one, but God, could ever have created the likes of Byron Wilkes. His home from the outside looks to be a typical small town southern house in your typical small town southern neighborhood. Just driving by one would never fathom that inside stomped the wondermental Byron. As you walk in through a door in the carport, you find yourself in a living room like area, described by a friend as "Byron's lair'. There sits a throne-like chair that is always reserved for Byron, and a couch, a couple other seats, and a TV. The rest of the room is nothing but stacks and mounds of paintings, movies and toys. There is even a guitar that a friend asked him to encapsulate in the paint from his paint brush and most often a Captain Beefheart record blasting from a back room. Cody Gaisser describes Byron's lair as a "time warp". You stop in for a moment to say hello at one in the afternoon then walk out and not only is it dark but the night is well tucked in around you. The reason for the concert mentioned in the first paragraph is because a few months ago Byron had his second bypass surgery and coming to his aid were musicians and writers from the some what famous to the rarely seen hermit. This concert had two goals, to help raise money for Byron's mounting medical bills and to show him that we in this area do love and care for our real life superhero. The preparation for this show made me realize that the life and influence of Byron needed to be documented. So I ventured to his lair and drilled him about his life, his art and Captain Beefheart. Byron's rambling about the Easter Bunnybefore I finally
interupt him...
Previously
from Red:
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Some
time ago, we received a CD sent
by a guy called Eric 'Redmouth' Gebhardt from Florence, Alabama. 'Blues
$1.49' turned out to be one of the best CD's we'd heard all year (read
our 
February 10, 2007 at the Old Town Tavern in downtown
Sheffield Alabama was a very special night. It was the gathering
of many local artists, songwriters and bands. Performing were Jason
Isbell of the Drive
By Truckers, local hippy rock legends The
Fiddleworms, Max Russell's punk/blues
extravaganza Soul
Preacher, the first appearance of yours truely's Red
Mouth Band, and Cody Gaisser and his Longships.
In this town musicians rarely get to see other bands cause everyone's
playing different venues on same nights. So what brought all of
these acts together at the same venue and on the same night? One
man, one legend, one superhero... one Byron Wilkes. 
My first memories of Byron come from some twelve
years ago or more. I would usually find him at a coffee shop in
downtown Florence that was, at the time, the mecca for everyone from
the slightly odd to the completely lost and mad of the Shoals area. He
would be drawing and ranting about the city council meeting that week.
He also use to have a store that sold all kinds of vintage and used odds
and ends from posters of Farrah Fawcett to comics and toys to used records
and cd's. This is where I got my first Iggy Pop album,'The Idiot',
and the Damned's 'The Light at the End of the Tunnel'. However,
this just isn't the right place for a store like that and now he does
most of his selling and bartering on e-bay and pawning off pieces of
himself to the entire world.
I don't know. Well, I have actually been thinking about this and this
one does kinda go back to my childhood, when that fucking Santana record,
umm, i forget which one it is. I think it's just Santana. I don't think
I currently own a copy of it. Its got the head on it, I know you know
what i'm talking about, if you've ever seen the vinyl copy of it you
know what i'm talking about. It's like a lion's head, but when you look
in close its got all this other stuff going on. My cousin Jody, I was
the youngest of all my cousins, and that's another reason I'm freakish
cause I was the last one born on both sides of the family as far
as grandchildren, everybody was older than me...(rambling, phone rings,
rambling)... That Santana, my cousin Jody had a copy of that record and
she was like a teenager and that was in, what, 1970. It was a relatively
new record and I was about 9. I saw that album cover, that damn
album cover, and I haven't thought about that in years but I flashed
on that back about 6 or 8 months ago, because a lot of childhood shit
has been kinda washing through because, well, I've been living in the
valley of vicadin. Things get all muddled there, but yea that cover it
had a real strange effect on me, of course it wasn't much longer after
that that I discovered 
Ummm,
well, the first local artist I think I ever actually did artwork for
was... I can't even remember everyone in the band but J.J. Barlett was
in the band and he's the one that asked me to do it and they played a
show over here at the North Alabama Fairground back in 19... well it
was the same night Frank Zappa hosted Saturday Night Live...in 1979.
I remember that because I was over there and I didnt' hang around alot
because that was before I got a hold of a VCR. I did a backdrop sign
on a piece of plywood for them wich was basically just the name of their
band which was Sleepy
Hollow. So that was the first thing I think I ever did for
anybody... (more rambling, we saw friend Tim Clarkson in the
back yard and tried to get him to come tell stories about Byron but he
had to eat dinner... more rambling... he gripes about commercials for
a good 10 minutes)... well, I didn't do anything for several
years after that until Paterson Hood used one of my
old... well I did a painting called 'Memories of Snakehandlers' the original
painting hangs in his house now but I originally gave him a copy of this
print version of it I'd done. He put it on one of his early solo releases
long out of print. I don't think I had any other artwork that I can think
of up until... I'm probably leaving somebody out. Up until prior to
'Southern Rock Opera' (Drive-by-Truckers) being released and Paterson
came over again and asked me to do the Wallace illustration and he also
wanted me to do the holy trinity of Wallace, Van Zandt and Bear Bryant
for the album. For like the last year
and a half maybe two years I've produced more than a dozen flyers. Cody
Gaisser's been talking to me about doing his album cover, and Howlin'
Chris too. I'm probably leaving somebody out and it's probably a blaring
obvious omission.