Brian Byrnes
This interview features North Bay vocalist, guitarist, and photographer Brian Byrnes. The Brian Byrnes Band will perform on Friday, July 12, for a free concert at the Cadillac Hotel in San Francisco.
In addition to being a respected musician, Brian Byrnes is also a noted photographer, and his work graces the cover of a Jimi Hendrix album. Six weeks before Hendrix died in London in September 1970, Brian Byrnes caught his penultimate United States concerts, a couple of free outdoor shows on a hastily erected stage in a livestock pasture below the Haleakala volcano on the Hawaiian island of Maui.
Two color photos he shot that day are on the front and back covers of a new album, “Live in Maui,” released on vinyl and as a boxed set of CDs. Other shots of his are all over the liner notes and the CD booklet and were also used in a feature-length documentary, “Music, Money Madness … Jimi Hendrix in Maui,” released on Blu-ray. Brynes is shown in the film saying seeing Hendrix “was like a gift from God for me.”
