The ballad of Byron's: Solid foundations besides brick
A fundraising concert in Fort Dodge was a showcase for the humanitarian culture of a benevolent rural Deadhead and his beloved Pomeroy bar.
On its surface, the concert was a five-hour folk-music fundraiser prompted by crumbling foundations.
“Iowa Roots for Byron’s” on March 3 in Fort Dodge played out as a heartfelt hippie rally for Byron Stuart, owner of his namesake music venue in the western Iowa town of Pomeroy, population 500. Byron’s in its 28 years has come to represent a rural oasis of peace, love, and understanding—built around a serious appreciation for the songwriting craft and the spellbinding atmosphere of a live performance.
The bearded and bespectacled Stuart, 71—perpetually clad in a tie-dye T-shirt, overalls, and a big smile—always reminds patrons: Live music happens only once, and you have to be there. His Sunday night shows have become a hallowed ritual for the roots-rock faithful in his corner of rural Iowa. He has built a strong reputation through word of mouth: Mostly he fields requests from musicians and simply fills his calendar rather than chasing acts to play his barroom.
But now Byron’s is under threat of the wrecking ball. The bar is the lone remaining business in a row of dilapidated 1890s brick. Pomeroy City Council—no doubt spooked by last year’s collapse of an apartment building in Davenport—has mandated rehabilitation or relocation in the name of public safety.
Byron’s friends have rallied to raise money to help him establish a new venue in Pomeroy. The GoFundMe so far has collected more than $30,000 on the way to a $100,000 goal.
In 2015 on the front page of the Sunday Des Moines Register, I proclaimed Byron’s to be the “Deadhead capital of Iowa,” a nod to Stuart’s love for the Grateful Dead and how his bar has enshrined Haight-Ashbury flair among the cornfields. The benefit concert in Fort Dodge definitely carried a Deadhead vibe, albeit with only one Dead cover in the setlist (1980s radio hit “Touch of Grey”). Boomer and Xer faithful sipped Busch Light and shuffled outside for the occasional smoke break.
The benefit’s Fort Dodge venue was beyond sturdy: The Phillips Auditorium is a grand 1,200-seat theater in a century-old schoolhouse recently converted to upscale apartments. The Fort Dodge Fine Arts Association runs the theater.
Five giant tie-dye tapestries from Pomeroy formed a colorful backdrop on stage for artists who have been Byron’s regulars—including headliner Greg Brown, coaxed out of retirement. Musician, painter, and poet Chad Elliott rallied fellow troubadours who have worked the 99-county circuit (and beyond) more than any politician. Elliott also served as emcee.
The soundtrack was dominated by acoustic folk—not a single drum or percussionist. The overall effect was a mesmerizing, meandering map of Iowa’s counterculture soul.
Jordan Messerole from Des Moines opened the show and said his tune “Henrietta, Queen of the Highway” had been inspired by the first female serial killer.
Todd Partridge (also a fellow board member of the Western Iowa Journalism Foundation) sang “Broken Town” as his lament for the fading rural landscape, with “tweakers’ houses falling down” among the blight.
Husband-and-wife duo Joe and Vicki Price clearly had fun, making each other smile in the middle of songs while Joe’s signature slide reverberated throughout the theater.
Jason Walsmith of the Nadas (one of the newest members of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative with his own Substack newsletter) played “Camper Van,” inspired by one of his epic road trips from Iowa to Seattle and back.
Singer-pianist David Zollo from Iowa City captivated with “Parnell” and other songs. The benefit concert reminded me of Trailer Records showcases Zollo used to organize with these artists for his record label.
Zollo also shared the memory of how Stuart gave him and his wife a stuffed Jerry Garcia doll 21 years ago as a gift for their newborn son.
Elliott and violinist Kathryn Severing Fox, as Weary Ramblers, performed a song written in the Ozarks and another, “Bible Belt Saturday Night,” inspired by Elliott’s small-town Iowa childhood.
David Huckfelt—whose school principal in Spencer, Iowa, happened to be Elliott’s mother—and Jeremy Ylvisaker performed the “Touch of Grey” cover with its apt refrain, “We will get by, we will survive.”
Dave Moore sang a song about Spillville, pulled out his accordion to cover Jose Alfredo Jiminez’s “El Rey,” and reminisced about the days when the Iowa Arts Council deployed him and other artists throughout small towns to help mentor and encourage young artists in schools.
He also wryly observed that only two topics remain for all Iowans to agree on: the greatness of Byron’s and the greatness of Caitlin Clark.
Brown contributed a brief five-song set, including a tune he had written in honor of the town centennial in Early.
If we could establish about 100 locations of Byron’s nationwide, Brown said, maybe modern society would stand a chance.
Alas, a culture like Byron’s is organic, not the result of strategic planning. The bar is a classic story of a native son coaxed back to his hometown: Stuart, a 1971 graduate of the local high school, boomeranged back after college to help tend the family farm after his father suffered a heart attack. Agriculture wasn’t his calling. Stuart began tending bar in 1980 in the building he eventually purchased and converted into a live-music landmark.
Around age 50 he became more comfortable to live openly as a gay man in his hometown. Stuart’s partner, Roger Feldhans, spent most of the concert snapping dozens of photos to chronicle the occasion.
Between performances, Stuart took the microphone to raffle off a quirky batch of prizes, from free concert admission and drinks at his bar to household items like toilet plungers and 5-gallon buckets. Although his mantra remains peace and love, Stuart had choice words for our current governor, saying he wasn’t going to go back into the closet for her or anybody.
This week I phoned Stuart at Byron’s for his overall impression of the event—relishing that I could dial a land line and hear the business owner answer within a few rings.
He summed it up with “pure joy.”
“The crowd was super attentive, and that’s what a Byron’s show is,” he said.
Stuart wielded a small sign Sunday with big black letters: “STFU” on one side and “PLZ” on the other. Yes, he really is serious about nurturing an environment where listening is the priority, rather than idle chatter while the musicians pour out their hearts on stage.
“I consider Byron’s a different entity than me,” Stuart said. “I’m just so proud of my boy.”
In the words of Partridge from the stage in Fort Dodge, supporting a culture like Byron’s “takes more than money—it takes love.” But money remains necessary, so more fundraisers are on the way.
A concert March 31 (Easter Sunday) at Lefty’s Live Music in Des Moines will feature Ducharme-Jones Band, Brother Trucker, and other acts. (There’s also live music that night at Byron’s, so Stuart won’t be able to attend.) Two more shows are in the works for April 12 and 13 in Fort Dodge at the Laramar Ballroom.
Meanwhile, the Friends of Byron have organized an online merch store and auction.
The brick-and-mortar foundation of Byron’s at 112 Main St. in Pomeroy may be shaky, but not its ethos of peace and love, where everybody’s sincere beliefs are respected and a hug from Stuart awaits if you need a little moral support. By contrast, the majestic building at 1007 E. Grand Ave. in downtown Des Moines may impress with its gleaming gold dome, but the majority party lawmakers’ partisan culture-war agenda obsessed with gender identity, book bans, and other distractions betrays a lack of basic practicality, let alone humanitarianism.
Through sheer gumption and goodwill, Stuart has managed to make one of Iowa’s smallest map dots a magnet for talent from all corners. By contrast, much of the activity at the Iowa Capitol seems hellbent on repelling talent and tarnishing generations of rational cultural foundations established by leaders of both political parties.
As the Byron’s brick crumbles, the soul of the place remains rock solid.
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Wonderful article Kyle!