Byron Fogo

Byron Fogo is a retired mechanical engineer living in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. He began playing guitar over 60 years ago in rock and roll cover bands. He was first attracted to the guitar by the music of Elvis, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, John Lee Hooker, and Jimmy Reed. Later, an appearance of Luiz Bonfá on TV and the recordings of Andres Segovia and Julian Bream, as well as those of Kenny Burrell, Johnny Smith, and Jim Hall, opened new areas for him to explore. Since the ‘90s, Byron has worked as a music transcriber, typesetter, and arranger for several guitar specialty magazines, including Just Jazz Guitar and Fingerstyle Guitar and many other publishers in the US, Brazil, Japan, and the UK. His work has involved the diverse music of such notables as Sérgio Assad, Chet Atkins, Manuel Barrueco, William Lovelady, Joe Robinson, Martin Taylor, and many others. Byron has been the president of the Nashville Guitar Society since the early 80s and, during that time, has presented many of the world’s finest guitarists in concert. He is currently writing a book on the life and works of Luiz Bonfá, one of Brazil’s neglected guitar heroes.