Jonathan Byrd (born 1970 in Fayetteville, North Carolina) is an American singer-songwriter based in Carrboro, North Carolina. He is best known for his narrative tales of love, life, and death in America. In 2003, he was among the winners of the New Folk competition at the Kerrville Folk Festival. He set a record for CD sales at the festival that year, making more sales than the main stage acts. His song, "The Ballad of Larry" has been listed a "Top Rated Song" by Americana-UK. He primarily performs solo and accompanies himself in a variety of traditional acoustic guitar styles. His recordings have featured a variety of instrumental ensembles and typically include one or more instrumental tracks that feature Byrd's skillful flatpicking technique. Occasionally he also appears with the Athens, Georgia based world music duo, Dromedary.

Jonathan Byrd teamed up with Chris Kokesh after meeting her at the Americana Song Academy and the duo released a self-titled album under the name The Barn Birds in 2013.^[1]

In 2014, Byrd released You Can't Outrun The Radio, a collection of songs inspired by an impromptu song circle in 2009 at the Green Room in Montreal.^[2]

• Eshleman, Annette C., "Linen Lites: Jonathan Byrd – Learning the Rules ... and Breaking Them", Dirty Linen, 119, August–September 2005, p. 12–13
• Watroba, Matt, "Jonathan Byrd & Dromedary: forces of nature", Sing Out!, 48:3, Fall 2004, p. 20–23 (link requires subscription to highbeam.com)
• Wood, Arthur, "Born into the Whisper" (Jonathan Byrd bio), FolkWax (link requires free subscription)
• Grant, Rick, "Catchy Songs with True Grit", EU Jacksonville, March 2008