Tyler Bryant was born to play music. At age 7, he picked up the guitar and never put it down. Tyler quickly commanded the instrument and began playing with a natural ability and depth of feeling that many guitarists fail to attain over a lifetime.
Now, at the age of 18, Tyler is a phenomenon – an extraordinary virtuoso electric guitarist, a singer, songwriter, a compelling stage presence, a burgeoning musical alchemist freely intermingling rock, blues, soul/funk and pop.
Tyler Bryant’s destiny is unfolding fast and in ways most people only dream about.
Although he was raised in an obscure town in Texas and graduated early from high school just last year, Tyler has co-starred with Slash, Santana, Jeff Beck, ZZ Top and other music legends in the recently released Rock Prophecies, a film about famed rock photographer Robert Knight’s obsession with finding young artists and helping them to follow their dreams.
Tyler won the Robert Johnson Blues Foundation’s New Generation Award, which recognizes him as one of the most promising new artists on the music scene. He has performed at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival in Chicago, recently recorded a new song, “Bittersweet,” with legendary Led Zeppelin producer, Kevin Shirley, and was signed by Creative Artists Agency on the spot after one performance.
“It’s all been a whirlwind,” Tyler says, as he recalls a musical turning point at age 11, when he walked into a music store in Paris, Texas and heard 63-year old bluesman, Roosevelt Twitty, on guitar. “He was playing a Lightning Hopkins song. The soul just got me. It was all about the feeling,” Tyler says. “He was performing with such emotion that it translated over and I understood. Whenever you hear someone play with that much soul, where they really believe what they are singing, it’s so inspiring.”
Mr. Twitty became Tyler’s first mentor, teaching him blues guitar technique, but most influentially, how to express his “soul” through music, how to let it rise up and travel through his fingers, finding its way onto the frets and strings. “He just opened my eyes to this whole new world,” Tyler says.
This ‘new world’ has propelled Tyler to evolve beyond blues and develop as a musician, expanding his guitar playing into rock and pop, and taking on singing as well. “Playing the guitar is the greatest feeling in the world and singing is the other greatest feeling in the world,” Tyler says. “ It is like twice the feeling.”
Performing live, Tyler learned how to let his feelings go. “I am kind of OCD (obsessive-compulsive). I’ll play something over and over until I get it right. But on stage, I don’t think about technique. It’s like instinct, you just move toward it. I try to be the biggest showman I can, and I am never more energetic than when I perform.”
“It’s hard to believe what is going on,” Tyler says. “But then again, music has been the one thing I have always cared about.” Now living in Nashville, Tyler Bryant is immersed in the very music that he is so passionate about, and is actively songwriting, playing shows, and working on his first record.
John Huie, of CAA, says it best. “It has been a while since there has been someone who has the full package and can shred a guitar like Tyler Bryant. At 18, it is clear that he has a bright future ahead. With Guitar Hero, we have a whole new generation falling in love with the rock-n-roll heroes of their parents’ era. This is about to change with the emergence of Tyler Bryant.”
