A Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper
Log in
Subscribe

Iowa shows its real self in saving Byron’s

Posted

This is why we live in Iowa despite winters and the legislature: When Byron’s Bar in Pomeroy was put in the wrecking ball bullseye, patriots from across the state rose up and made sure the music would not die.

They pitched in just enough money for Byron Stuart to buy the Community Hall from the city for $100,000, a fair price but certainly no steal. The sale is the subject of an Aug. 5 public hearing called by a 3-2 vote of the city council last week.

It should be a happy ending to what has been a traumatic time. That was the mood Sunday evening for the last show in the 1896 bar, featuring Terry Klein of Austin, Tex. The place was packed as Byron recalled 28 years of hosting minstrels — our own Greg Brown, Todd Snider, Canned Heat, Kinky Friedman and other luminaries too numerous to mention except for Brother Trucker.

“What a long, strange trip it’s been,” Byron said as he teared up.

He’s worked the Pomeroy watering holes the past 43 years: at Paul and Hazel’s, Radar’s, No Name Bar, LeRoy’s, Arnie’s and TJ’s. Byron also did time at Knoke Beer and Supply.

Byron never made money but he made a lot of friends. They would drive from Sioux City, Des Moines, Fort Dodge and Storm Lake. Troubadours would call him for a $500 gig and a night in the Rockwell City motel. The performers were guaranteed pizza and respect, and the fans were never disappointed for the price of admission.

Pomeroy’s downtown block went vacant and dilapidated like so many tiny burgs. The row of buildings attached to Byron’s imperiled the bar. The city told Byron to abate the hazard. He didn’t quite know what to do. He was broke but wanted to keep the bar going.

His merry band of friends stepped in, loosely led by Dave Hearn of Fort Dodge (of the band The Hawks in a former lifetime). Iowa’s greatest musicians, headlined by Brown, staged a boffo benefit concert in Fort Dodge. Donors came out of the woodwork. Attorney and erstwhile guitarist Scott Buchanan of Algona volunteered his counsel.

Problem: Everything in town was either falling down or occupied. Building new appeared beyond fiscal reach and challenged good sense, since Byron is just north of 70. Options were limited, until the city divined grace and recently offered to sell the normally empty Community Hall to Byron.

What a deal: It gives the city working capital to consolidate its enterprises under one roof. It maintains a longtime downtown social gathering spot as a bar and community center — if the fire department wants to host a pancake breakfast, Byron’s will be available. Luncheons and card games, too. Musicians will continue to find an oasis in rural Iowa that draws people to Calhoun County. A building goes on the property tax rolls. The city gets a quit claim deed to Byron’s old bar. It’s a win-win-win all the way around.

What’s more, barmaid Kerstin Lyon assured city officials that she is happy to assume operation of Byron’s should he in an untimely fashion go to meet Jerry Garcia up in the tie-dye sky. That assures the city and the donors of a plan of continuity. Byron said that Mayor Cindy Loots’s name will be known in East Nashville.

Come Monday, the friends of Byron gathered to start packing up years of accumulated bar treasures — a Buddha, pictures of Garcia, posters, stuffed bears and mirror balls, back scratchers and neon signs. Who knows what will become of the bathroom walls and their Rolodex of phone numbers? After that and the public hearing, the wrecking can commence.

The next show is Friday at 8 p.m. featuring Allistaire Greene, at the Community Hall one block due east of the existing Byron’s Bar. Byron has shows booked through the end of the year. He does not know when he might gain permanent possession of the Community Hall, assuming that all goes well. The new site will accommodate the music better. It is slightly larger and wider than the existing bar, and no doubt more solid.

This has been a confusing time for Byron, a gay man who wants to be at home in Pomeroy as the legislature set about gay bashing over the past few sessions. He often wondered if he was wanted. The outpouring of support, even love, in town and across the state emphatically answers his worries. That’s the real Iowa showing itself.

Editor's Notebook, Art Cullen

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here