Band Profile: Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown

Tylermain

This is Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown.

If the radio was still a valid avenue for artists to break through, this band would already have cracked the mainstream.

As it were, music is often lost in the sea of noise that is our gluttonous appetite for entertainment.

Floating in that sea… are islands of raw talent living so many stories untold.

Witness the saga of Tyler Bryant. Picked up his first guitar at the age of six and at the age of 11, swapped his Christmas present dirtbike for for an electric guitar. And here’s where it gets all, “Crossroads”…

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While in elementary school, young Tyler befriended 63 year old Roosevelt Twitty, a blues musician from Paris, Texas. Mr. Twitty taught the young upstart the blues, and by age 13, Tyler was playing regularly around Texas.

By 15, Tyler Bryant had his own band and started to tour heavily, even reaching as far as Prague and Germany.

The almighty Eric Clapton also took notice of the young prodigy and in 2007 invited him to play the Crossroads Guitar Festival in Chicago.

While in high-school, the burgeoning songwriter started to fall under the influence of bands like Counting Crows, The Rolling Stones, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

If you are a metal band… you head for the coast. If you are a bluesy southern man… Nashville is your calling. So at 17, a young Tyler Bryant relocated to Tennessee. There he crossed paths with drummer Caleb Crosby and bass player Calvin Webster.

Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown were born.

The band is currently filled out with bass player Noah Denney and guitarist Graham Whitford (the son of Aerosmith’s Brad Whitford).

The band has a full length, “Wild Child” (2013, Carved Records) which showcases the heavy blues influence Tyler was raised with.

But before we get to that, let’s listen to the bands newest material, which is what put this group on the Modern Fix radar.

In November of 2015, the band released an EP titled, “The Wayside” (John Varvatos Records/Republic Records) that was produced/engineered by Vance Powell (Jack White, Beck).

It is a progressive move for the band, taking their blues rock foundation and honing it into something more alternative, while still keeping the song writing accessible.

Check, “Loaded Dice and Buried Money”

And here is another dark rocker from that EP called, “Stitch It Up”

If you are really feeling the bluesy undercurrent of those two tracks, dive into their previous “Wild Child” full length where the band follows more traditional blues paths, while still throwing in some uniquely Bryant attitudes. Listen to the delta blues inspired, “Lipstick Wonder Woman”…

Here’s an entertaining video that shows some behind the scenes travel as well as a few songs the band played in studio at an appearance in New York.

The band is on tour Spring/Summer of 2016… check the Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown site for dates.

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