I was born and raised in Seattle, in 1950, and lived there until 1972. My family lived in Madison Park, which was two blocks from Lake Washington. I grew up riding my bike, playing tennis, swimming and skiing and finding things in the alley. I graduated from the University of Washington with a Business degree, with dual majors in marketing and statistics.

It was during my college career when I began really getting into music, and if you picture the excitement of the late 60's and early '70's, you'll know it was a wild time indeed. I became the "ultimate" record buyer, shopping in the University District every day after class for used records @ $1.60 each, and a fast growing collection was my reward.

After college I moved to Greeley, Colorado and started record stores with my cousin. In 1972, The Finest Record Store was born, based on our vast experience as record buyers, and the initial inventory was comprised of our "duplicates"! By 1974 we opened a second store in Ft. Collins which was an overnight success. We set out to create the "ultimate" record store, knowing exactly what customers needed. After seven years of building two successful stores and a worldwide rare record auction, I sold my half of the stores to my cousin and started exploring other areas of expression. I attended workshops in Sufism, Dance & Movement, Tai Chi, Death & Dying, and was an active member of AHP (Association for Humanistic Psychology) as well as intentional communities. I became the tour and road manager for Kate Wolf in 1980, and we toured half the country and Canada together. I drew the name "Backroads" from one of her songs as my production company. The name stuck.

After a couple years of travel and personal exploration, I arranged a meeting in 1981 with Will Ackerman in his little Windham Hill office in Palo Alto. He asked me to help distribute his records and a particular new artist (named George Winston) rather than accept my offer of tour promotion and artist management. Thus began Backroads Distributors, with a growing roster of New Age-related artists and a host of Colorado record stores as my waiting customers. With the progression from "ultimate" record buyer to "ultimate" record store, it was natural to establish the "ultimate" music distributor based on precisely what stores needed. At the same time, a mail-order structure was built into the model. It all began in my laundry room at the time. Soon this enterprise grew and I started establishing a national and then international audience. Around the same time I became a radio announcer and hosted the "Dreamscape" show in Boulder, CO for 5 years (as Captain Neptune) and subsequently hosted the "Heartbeats" radio show in Berkeley on KPFA for nearly ten years.

By 1985 I added a couple of full-time employees. I utilized my writing skills and ability to convey in a paragraph the essence of a record album in producing a descriptive catalog. At that time, after marrying and settling in Boulder, Colorado, I decided to move to Northern California and move my business along with us. I landed in Marin County and rented warehouse space "sight unseen" in the same building where my offices are today, nearly twenty-five more than twenty years later. Soon after arriving in Marin, I had my only child, a son named Robin, who turned 23 this past year. Robin and I had been living together for the past 11 years, with me as single parent, until he moved up to Chico, CA to attend college in January of 2008.

Once again, overnight success was at hand. Backroads grew dramatically, from 3-4 employees to a staff of 7 and then 10. Sales reached $1 million within a couple of years, and this climbed to its peak by 1990 with 25 employees and $6,000,000 in annual sales. Backroads was considered the leading wholesaler, mail-order company and pacesetter in the marketplace, and I was becoming recognized as the "world's leading authority" on this music. At the 1st International New Age Music Conference I was awarded the very first "Crystal Award" for my contributions. The Heartbeats Catalog, through two dozen issues, had become a renowned compendium of the best offerings in the overlapping genres of New Age, World Music, Ambient & Space, Contemporary Instrumental, Vocals & Chants, Music for Yoga & Healing Arts, Tribal, Electronic & Chill Out styles and more. A couple of years prior I had started the Shining Star Music record label, with Bruce BecVar and Patrick Bernhardt, and we achieved the status of "#10 label" in Billboard Magazine in 1990. As you can guess, it was set up with the idea of being the "ultimate" record label, based on exactly what distributors needed from music labels. Simultaneously, Backroads became the sole supplier for the Natural Wonders chain (140 stores) and this required a separate warehouse and many unusual requirements in conjunction with the nearly $2,000,000 annual revenues.

With the downward turn of the economy and the realization of the difficulty in running four "full-time" businesses under one roof at the same time, something had to give. The wholesale trade (1500 accounts), record label, and Natural Wonders fulfillment were discontinued, and in 1991 Backroads became a "Mail-Order only" operation, focusing all of our efforts on offering an extensive selection of music in this vast area. We served over 50,000 individual customers nationwide and in 80 different countries abroad.

For the past 17 years, Backroads had been a mail-order business, with toll-free phone, internet access, printed catalogs as before, and a growing walk-in traffic that provides on-site sales, in spite of the non-retail set up of the Corte Madera location.

In 2004 I produced a CD called "Heart of Innocence," a beautiful collection of "songs by women for everybody everywhere" -- including 11 different female artists at the leading edge of their craft (Donna DeLory, Bliss, Lisbeth Scott, Tina Malia, Suzanne Sterling, Miriam Stockley, Maniko and Pollyanna Bush). The CD was released on a New York label called Valley Entertainment (which had previously purchased the Hearts of Space label).

In 2007 I produced a second CD called "Max.Chillroom,” which gathered exclusive tracks from the cream of the worldwide chill out artists. Sixty-five tracks that were submitted were culled down to the 11 selections that comprise the CD. It was released on the now defunct New Land Music label, and was well received around the world. I envision producing follow-up CDs to continue & further both concepts, as well as other thematic compilations.

I am also a widely recognized review writer and generally considered to be the leading authority on this music. In the mid-‘90’s I was an Editor for the All-Music Guide publication. For the past few years I have also been on the Grammy Award selection committee for New Age Music. And I was just named Music Editor for Common Ground Magazine. While deepening my spiritual practice over the past couple years, I have been fortunate to be able to create and co-host with Elizabeth Rose Raphael both guided meditation evenings called “Journeys of the Heart” and larger events called “Journey Into Dance,’ with powerfully evocative music accompaniment. My current interests include dancing, hiking, tennis, yoga and personal disarmament. I appear as the DJ at a local venue once a month and hire out for other desirable DJ jobs as "DJ Heartbeat".

In the past couple years, significant events have brought about deep changes and all levels of transition. I went through a six-week Ayurvedic cleanse called Pancha Karma in Spring 2007, began hosting an ongoing monthly concert series at a beautiful spiritual center in Berkeley called Rudramandir, witnessed the closing of Backroads Music and my son moving off to college. This led to turning my home into a beautiful sacred space, with my dear friend Elizabeth and four wonderful cats. That has since transitioned into a new living situation which is equally harmonious and supportive. As Backroads Music gracefully “left the planet” in 2008, Lloyd Barde Productions was formed. Above all, I wish to express the gratitude I have for these connections, for the many years of fine music and service to the public. If there are ways I may be of service to you in your endeavors, please do not hesitate to contact me. I consider all of what has happened to be a blessing on every level, and that my life is filled with grace at each turn.