Byron Hill is from Winston-Salem, NC. When he was about 10 years old, his parents bought him his first guitar, a Kay arch top. His father then began teaching him some old Carter Family songs. Byron's parents exposed him to many types of music around the home, from his mother's old scratched 78's of Perry Como, Tex Williams, Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue, to his father's liking for Tennessee Ernie Ford, Roger Miller, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Flatt and Scruggs, and Ray Charles. Later, a neighbor named Paul Huff, gave Byron an introduction to some basic 'Rock and Roll' chords and riffs on the guitar. When Byron was about 16 years old his dad pointed out to him a Kris Kristofferson song ("Sunday Morning Coming Down") on Johnny Cash's The Johnny Cash Show album. Byron recalls....."That's the song that got me interested in songwriting". In college at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC, he began hanging out with other singer/songwriter friends and eventually began to perform some at the ASU student center "coffee house". During his freshman year he became friends with fellow dorm-mate Liston Smith, who introduced Byron to other styles of picking, in particular... the music of Doc Watson. Byron and Liston performed at ASU a few times together. In 1972 Byron teamed up with Gene Wooten and performed bluegrass around the Boone, NC area, including a regular gig at the (then called) Four Seasons Hotel at Beech Mountain (Gene Wooten later became one of Nashville's leading dobro players). Gene introduced Byron to a lot of great players, mainly the Boone locals who played at fire halls, square dances, and local events. By 1971, Byron was already writing songs, but only beginning to learn the craft. "Dad and I seemed to always connect with great songs. I remember in the winter of 1973, I had dropped out of college for a while, and went to work at the Hanes Dye & Finishing Factory, a huge, cavernous post Civil War era textile mill in my hometown. Early one very cold and dark winter morning, Dad was driving me to work. We had the radio on. A new recording by Charlie Rich came on. It was "The Most Beautiful Girl In The World". I think both of us reached for the volume knob at the same time to turn it up. I had never heard such a lush and haunting melody on Country radio. It absolutely gave us both goose-bumps. What a great song! For some reason I've always remembered that moment. Great songs have always effected me that way...I can always remember where I was the first time I heard them." "About 1974, in Winston-Salem, I was in a little trio called Red Cloud, which was me on guitar and vocals, Myra Holder on vocals and percussion instruments, and Bruce Doub on bass. We were locally popular at a couple of clubs (Alicia's Cafe in Greensboro, and The Town lounge in Winston-Salem), and traveled to gigs in Atlantic Beach and Beech Mountain, but we played a lot of obscure and original material, and the money was very limited. Around the same time I was doing the ol' mail-my-songs-to-Nashville thing to almost any publishers who were mentioned in 'Songwriter Magazine'." (Note that this was an earlier 'Songwriter Magazine' published in California by Flip Black, and not the one that is popular now). In 1975, after a positive response from publisher Jonathan Stone of ATV Music, Byron began making regular trips to Nashville. ATV Music at that time was run by Charlie Williams and Jonathan Stone under the guidance of West Coast Country legend Cliffie Stone. It was well-stocked with gems from the catalogs of Bobby Bare's Return Music, and the Richey Brothers' Brougham-Hall Music catalog, and included the songs of Billy Joe Shaver, Bobby Bare, Charlie Williams, Shel Silverstein, Chuck Howard, Sr., Roger Bowling, Larry Butler, Jan Crutchfield, Frank Dycus, Roger Murrah, and many more great songwriters. Jonathan called Byron in 1977 suggesting that he move to Nashville and consider a tape-copy job at ATV Music, if it became available. Other people in Nashville encouraged the move including Dianne Petty (then with ABC Music), David Conrad (then with Pi-Gem Music), Tony Brown (who had been on the road with Elvis and was then hanging around Norbert Putnam's Danor Music), Merlin Littlefield (at ASCAP), and Mae Axton. Byron moved to Nashville in April of 1978. After working at ATV for a couple of weeks for free, he landed the job as a 'tape copy boy', taking the place of Jake Mayer who had finally written his way out of the job with the Charlie Rich single "I Still Believe In Love". It was a great opportunity for Byron to perfect his songwriting. "I wanted to write songs that were commercial but I saw quickly that I didn't really have a total grasp of it. I eventually hooked up with other writers including Roger Bowling (writer of "Lucille", "Blanket On The Ground", and "Coward Of The County"). Roger put a lot of tough love on me and shamed me into writing better songs. All the sudden, the nearly 200 songs I had brought with me to Nashville seemed nearly worthless." Byron says. "The bar was raised for me. The catalog at ATV Nashville was so full of gems I knew that by default I would be 'going to school' on it. While I was the tape copy guy, Jonathan Stone hooked me up with my first professional-level collaborator, Dennis Knutson, a great writer and someone I had lots of fun with. I also remember Billy Joe Shaver bringing his young son into my tape room for me to record his work tapes. It was at the old 45 Music Square West office. My tape copy room was in the front corner office on the ground level. We set up a couple of mics in the room and went straight to 2-track. Billy Joe's son was a great guitarist and was only about 15 years old then, if that. Eddie Shaver went on to form the band Shaver with his dad." Byron's work at ATV evolved into more than he originally bargained for. "Moving up the business ladder at ATV was not as much my choosing as it was something that had to be done for the company at the time. In the summer of 1978, there was a huge shake-up at ATV Nashville. Everyone except me (as the tape copy guy) and the new boss Gerry Teifer (see more about Gerry Teifer at Wikipedia.com), was either fired or they quit. Even some of the writers asked out. It was literally only me, Gerry, and his new administrative assistant Jean Williams. Gerry asked me if I could plug songs, and I said 'sure'! Other famous songwriters like Jerome Kern and George Gershwin had at one time been 'song pluggers' so I quickly dismissed any reservations I had about it and immediately started contacting some of the writers who had great songs in the catalog, asked for lists of their favorites and worked from there forward." Byron's writing deal at ATV was signed in September of 1978 while he continued to plug the ATV catalog. Around the beginning of 1979 we moved into larger offices at 1217 16th Avenue South and built ATV Nashville up from its initial mostly 'acquisition catalog' beginnings. With an office staff of great people....Gerry Teifer, J. Remington Wilde, Jean Williams, myself, and a few others who came and went along the way, we built our writing staff back up, added a small studio on the second floor, and became a major company on Music Row". As further evidence of the importance of the entry-level 'tape copy boy' position, ATV staffer J. Remington Wilde took Byron's place in the tape room and became another student of the great schooling that the tape copy job provided. Lots of changes were pending as Byron describes..."By late 1982 Gerry Teifer had been transferred to New York and I became General Manager of ATV Nashville. Within the next year the company was acquired by Australian financier Robert Holmes A'Court. It was the beginning of the end for ATV Music worldwide as budgets were cut, many offices were closed, and the company was being prepared for an eventual bigger sale. Knowing the fate of ATV, I left the company in 1984. It was the end of a great thing for all of us. I remember when entertainer Michael Jackson eventually purchased the company and how shocked I was to hear that Jackson intended to just box up the catalog and close down all remaining offices, offices which housed a historic catalog and great staffs of people in Los Angeles, New York, Toronto, London, Paris, Rome, and Sydney, many of which I had visited and became friends with. It was one of my first hard-learned lessons in the music business....that nothing lasts forever." While at ATV, the hits started happening for Byron as a writer in 1979 with Joe Sun's "Out Of Your Mind", and in 1981 with Johnny Lee's "Pickin' Up Strangers", with many other cuts and several smaller singles along the way. Byron co-wrote George Strait's first number one "Fool Hearted Memory" in 1982, and many other early cuts including recordings by artists such as Ray Charles, Juice Newton, Conway Twitty, Mel McDaniel, Ricky Skaggs, Margo Smith, and Reba McEntire. Byron also branched into the production side of the business at ATV, landing a deal for Kathy Mattea and co-producing her first Mercury Records LP "Street Talk". Also Byron produced several European artists for ATV. In 1984, after the sale and closing of ATV Music, Byron began four years as an independent songwriter/publisher, writing the Ed Bruce #4 single "Nights", as well as songs recorded by Kenny Rogers, Anne Murray, George Jones, Tom Wopat, and others. In 1988 he sold his publishing company and decided to concentrate only on writing and he signed up for what he describes as "nothing less than boot camp" as a staff writer for Collins Music, an association that yielded Alabama's #1 single "Born Country", the hit "Alright Already" for Larry Stewart, and many other cuts with artists such as Asleep At The Wheel, Barbara Mandrell, and Randy Travis. In 1992, he signed with MCA Music Nashville. At MCA Music, he landed singles by Tracy Byrd ("Lifestyles Of The Not So Rich And Famous"), Neal McCoy ("If I Was A Drinkin' Man"), George Jones ("High-Tech Redneck"), Sammy Kershaw ("Politics, Religion And Her"), River Road ("I Broke It, I'll Fix It") and Gil Grand ("Famous First Words"). In December of 1998 he signed with Starstruck Writers Group in Nashville, which was sold in October of 2000 to Warner Chappell Music. In January of 2003, Byron signed with Almo Irving Music. In October of 2003 Almo Irving was closed and consolidated with Universal Music Publishing Group, where Byron is presently a staff songwriter. Byron's songs have generated more than 544 recordings, earning seventy-one RIAA certified gold and platinum awards, nine ASCAP awards, twenty U.S. and Canadian top-ten chart hits including six number ones. He has new songs on current and upcoming albums by Joe Nichols, Rhonda Vincent, Lantana, Hot Apple Pie, Gord Bamford and others. His work as a producer includes three albums for Gary Allan on Decca Records, an album for Gil Grand on Monument Records, an album for Kathy Mattea on Mercury Records, a long-time producer/co-writer association with singer/songwriter Mike Dekle which includes four albums, and he has produced several other international and independent artists along the way, past and present, including Gord Bamford (Canada), and others. Byron performs as a singer/songwriter in Nashville and around the southeast. Byron's own albums are available online at www.cdbaby.com, and at Byron's website at www.byronhillmusic.com. *For more information on Byron Hill contact Kent Earls at UMPG Nashville.