Audio Autopsy: Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown Power Classic Rock Into New Millennium
Anachronism: "A chronological inconsistency, or the act of placing something in the wrong time period." Rarely does a rock act have their pic accompany a definition in the OED! Time for The Shakedown!
Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown: They recorded their first album in 2013, and just released their sixth in May 2024. For a little perspective, this writer saw his first rock concert in 1970 at age 15…“An Evening with Led Zeppelin” at The University of Houston’s Hofheinz Pavilion. No openers…just them, with an inch x inch square ticket stub sold on eBay for $100 two dozen years ago.
Since then, I’ve seen, literally, hundreds of arena concerts, shows, and club dates. As far as seeing recording rockers in concert, I’ve been (as Dad would say so hilariously inappropriately) “down your street, around your corner, and right up your block”! Around, in other words!
Joining Eddie Trunk (former host of VH1 Classic’s That Metal Show from 2008 to 2015, and ardent proponent of all things metal and hard rock) in lamenting the “lack of guitars” in 21st-century popular music, I was stunned to hear this song and band for the first time on Substack’s Notes platform.
of Daydreamin’ ‘Bout the Way Things Sometimes Are introduced me to them, completely out of the blue, via the November 1 Note he regularly features, called, “Woke Up With this Song in My Head”…their “Fools Gold”:“Fool’s Gold,” unplugged (lead singer/guitarist, Tyler Bryant’s actually wearing a Bowie t-shirt! Who is this guy?!? He can’t possibly have spent much time in the previous century!):
It wasn’t the song, itself, that perked up my ears…it was the general sound and electric proficiency! There was no squishy, squeamy synth noodling, and mercifully, no auto-tune or rapping, and I was guessing there would not be 84 scantily-clad dancers cluttering the stage during their live sets!
My reply to Chris and his 11/1/24 Note was swift, impassioned and urgent:
“Well now, aren’t they interesting?! I’ve never heard of them, but a brief peek uncovers this: They’re a 21st-century classic rock-sounding band, quite unapologetically (and this song is a great intro to them)!
“They even have an Aerosmith kid in the band, and have recently toured with a lot of bands they have no business being into (y’know, this being the rock-fallow 21st century, and all)!”
🎶One Part Jimmy Hall/Wet Willie, One Part Steven Tyler/Aerosmith, One Part Chris Robinson/Black Crowes
On that one song, they sounded, for all the world, like they could’ve been on the roster of Capricorn Records circa 1974 (joining The Allman Brothers, Grinderswitch, The Marshall Tucker Band, Wet Willie—live video above from Macon, GA, 1973—and others), even channeling ‘80s Black Crowes, and any ‘70s group that dabbled freely in the hoo-choo-cha-boogie, and proudly wore the mantle of bluesy, Stones-ian Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry rawk’n’rollllll! That’s The Shakedown recipe, y’all….
In 2013, TheNashvilleBridge.com opined, “If one wanted to compare them to Aerosmith, you would have to really stretch. They would be a closer comparison to Humble Pie during the Frampton years [1969-1971] with a Johnny Winter heart. Tyler and Graham both show a penchant for Texas and boogie blues as well as Classic Rock.”
And, finally, “They may not be the original Yardbirds, but, in the same vein that Phil Lynott said he wanted Thin Lizzy to be a modern Yardbirds known for strong guitar players, this is the real deal. If they can hold it together for a couple of years, this will be the guitar tag team to be reckoned with.”
Speaking of “Texas and boogie blues,” Dallas native, Gary Myrick (Epic Records, 1980s), paid a welcome visit recently:
He Talks In Stereo, PART 2: Singer/Guitarist Gary Myrick Embraces His Texas Blues Muse-EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
In “He Talks in Stereo, Part 1,” FRONT ROW & BACKSTAGE spoke with Gary Myrick, as we filled in the many highlights in his 4-decade-long career recording his own material.
The Shakedown Daddy
The Shakedown, not that they need one, even feature a brag-worthy link to one of that era’s most respected (and, as it happens, hit-making) bands: Aerosmith! Shakedown rhythm guitarist, Graham Whitford is Aerosmith guitarist, Brad Whitford’s son (both shown above, axe-shopping, earlier this century)!
And, The Shakedown didn’t even have to place a Hollywood Reporter ad, desperately seeking a “bitchin’ guitarist with a father in a big-name ‘70s rock band who’d give new band a bit of instant credibility”!
In fact, the band has recently toured with such 20th-century “classic rock” groups as Jeff Beck, ZZ Top, Aerosmith, AC/DC, Guns N’ Roses and Lynyrd Skynyrd, as well as making appearances at several rock-themed music festivals.
Their current lineup: Tyler Bryant (lead guitar & vocals), Graham Whitford (rhythm guitar), Diego Navaira (bass), and Caleb Crosby (drums).
“Tradition + Contemporary Energy = Modern Rock Classic”
Tim Peacock, in the November 3, 2021 Udiscovermusic.com, praises the band’s 2017 self-titled second album (on Snakefarm Records), as having “infused tradition with contemporary energy, resulting in a modern rock classic.
“Co-produced by the band and John Fields (Soul Asylum, Paul Westerberg, The Rembrandts), Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown handsomely delivers what Snakefarm A&R head, Dante Bonutto (former Kerrang! Magazine/UK writer) astutely referred to as ‘barrel-loads of attitude.’
If you’re wondering about the overtly Aerosmith-y riff in the above “Weep & Weepin’,” Bryant helps us out with the song’s genesis: “Graham had the riff for this song for so long. He drove us all crazy with it during countless rehearsals and sound checks! Eventually, we just wrote the damn song! I’m glad we did, because it’s so much fun to play!”
“The tough, anthemic likes of ‘Heartland’ and the shape-throwing ‘Weak & Weepin’ [above, from a live 2018 Nashville show] are tailor-made for slaying stadiums; ‘Backfire’ and the fuzzed-up, Allman Brothers-esque ‘Don’t Mind The Blood’ tip their hats to the band’s Southern forebears”:
Texas Shakedown: Tyler Bryant
Tyler Dow Bryant was born February 24, 1991 in tiny Honey Grove, 22 miles WSW of the teeming metropolis of Paris, TX, in the far NE corner of the state, not far from Dallas. He got his first guitar at age 6. When he was 11, he sold the dirtbike his parents had given to him for Christmas and bought his first electric guitar, a red Epiphone Les Paul from Hollybond’s Music Store in Paris.
When Tyler was 11, he met Roosevelt Twitty, a blues musician who became Bryant’s guitar teacher and mentor, according to The TexasMusicTimes. Together Bryant and Twitty formed The Blues Buddies, playing shows around Texas. This was the point that Bryant started writing songs.
“To all my blues buddies back in Texas, I’m grateful I had you guys in my life as a child. You were teaching me about the blues, and I didn’t even realize you were also teaching me about love and equality.
“I’m sending that big love to anyone out there who needs it right now.”—Tyler Bryant
Tyler, on Instagram, June 2020: “I can’t stop thinking of my friend Roosevelt Twitty. As a white person who loved him like a family member, I’m sure it would kill me to know some of the things he experienced in his life due to racism. Mr. Twitty and I became friends when I was 11 years old. He shared the gift of music with me and it changed my life. Music brought us together.
“If y’all don’t know, I’m from a small town in Texas. A lot of people didn’t know what to think when they saw an old black man running around with a little white kid. I didn’t think much of it then... It never felt like anything I was supposed to think about. We were just friends who loved to listen to and play the blues. Now when I look back, I see that our relationship was more.
“Now I see that he was doing so much more than teaching me the blues: Mr. Twitty was silencing racism with his voice, his guitar, and the goodness in his heart. He was bringing people in our community together through music and it was magic. I had his name tattooed on my arm so that when I play, I remember that... I want to constantly be reminded that music is about bringing people together.
“I’m thankful for all the black artists whose music has been felt and cherished in the deepest part of my heart since I was a little kid. The music and the culture has brought so much joy to my life and I will be forever grateful for it. So many of these artists took pain and turned it into something beautiful. That’s what Mr. Twitty did. Now, more than ever, we’ve got to do that same thing.”
Up-To-Date
In 2024, Tyler has produced new albums by fellow Texans, Ruthie Foster (recorded for Sun Records, and recorded at their famed Memphis studio), and Rodney Crowell.
Tyler, again on Instagram (this past summer), on meeting one of his idols: “I said hello to Rodney Crowell at the Troubador in Los Angeles, and told him what a fan I was of his songs and his records. A couple phone calls later and we’d struck up a friendship. After a basement session or two, I was asked to produce an album!🤯(emoji his)
“Our initial agreement involved the exchange of a push mower, which is more meaningful than a blood handshake to a couple of Texas boys. Before long, a sprinter van was acquired and filled with guitars and microphones… Together we road-tripped down to a swampy Louisiana recording studio (shown below) and proceeded to record Rodney’s new record with a dangerously brilliant cast of characters. It’s been one of the great honors of my life getting to work with one of the coolest guys to ever do it.”
“Happy Gets Made,” the latest from Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown, with Ruthie Foster on backing vocals (produced by the band, May 2024):
The Show: Recounts Seeing a Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown Show in 2012
It was Sunday December 9, 2012. I was bored of studying for whatever law school drudgery I was studying that week, so I decided to surf the web, as they used to say a dozen years ago. Even in those days, I was a tireless musical explorer, and spent hours searching out new artists and tracks.
I don’t remember the exact circumstances of how I stumbled upon Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown, but sure enough, they were playing a show in Pittsburgh (my home at the time).
My then-girlfriend-now-wife joined me on this escapade. It turned out the show was at the Hard Rock Café located in Station Square…not a far trek for us.
I had done some preliminary research on Tyler Bryant, and it turns out he lived the life I wanted to live when I was a teenager, but he actually put in the work and also got to hang out with an older blues man, Roosevelt Twitty.
At age 17, Bryant moved from Texas to Nashville to pursue a songwriting career.
Back at the Hard Rock Café, we took our seats, ordered our food, and I spent a few minutes wondering just how a four-piece rock band was going to play in that cramped restaurant and tiny stage. I ordered a mediocre burger and settled in. To say I was blown away would be a huge understatement.
Here is this band, absolutely ripping the walls down in a very sparsely-populated restaurant in downtown Pittsburgh. I’ll give credit where credit is due: They seemed undaunted by the low attendance and went out and played like they were in a full arena.
All in all, it was a great introduction and experience! Enjoy the photo below of the autographed version of Wild Child, their debut LP that came out a month after I saw them live. I went right home and ordered it after the show!
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Wow, these guys are great and what a heartwarming story.
Love "Don't Mind the Blood" and "Happy Gets Made." The backup singing by Ruthie Foster on the latter is also a wow, must explore her further.
More proof that rock is not a dead or dying art form, new gens are making it their own.
Really good one today. Thanks, Brad!