TYLER BRYANT
Tyler Bryant is a force of nature. We’ve been lucky enough to see him play live twice recently – once with his band The Shakedown and once trading blistering licks with fellow Southern wunderkind Daniel Donato at Fender’s JammJam event at Winter NAMM 2020. One thing’s for sure: whether jamming in the round at an industry event, tearing up concert stages with his favourite Shell Pink Strats or even just rocking out on Instagram… Tyler Bryant goes all-in.
Originally hailing from Honey Grove, Texas – 90 miles northeast of Dallas with a population of less than 2,000, the city bills itself as the ‘sweetest town’ in the Lone Star State – these days Bryant resides in Nashville with his wife, Rebecca Lovell, singer/guitarist in roots-rock duo Larkin Poe. Their home is situated in a leafy suburb south of Music City, and as you might expect, there are a lot of guitars inside.
In 2019, both Tyler and Rebecca’s touring guitars went missing in separate incidents on British Airways flights from Nashville to Heathrow. Happily, the instruments were eventually located and Tyler’s gear is all present and correct at the time of our visit. It’s immediately obvious that Stratocasters are a prevailing theme, but it wasn’t always that way…
SWITCH CRAFT
“My first guitar was an Epiphone Les Paul,” he remembers. “I never liked Strats at the beginning. I remember going to Guitar Center, picking up a Strat and playing the few things I knew, and hitting the toggle switch. I was like, ‘That’s a bad design! The switch is right where you’re playing!’
“Then I saw videos of Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan… but most importantly, there’s
