ARTIST: Tyler Grant
TITLE: In The Light
LABEL: FGM Records
GENRE: Bluegrass
TIME: 54:06 min
SIZE: 77,2 MB
RIP DATE: Jun-12-2006
RELEASE DATE: Jun-06-2006
WEBSITE: n/a
Track List:
01. Good Morning Mr. Railroad Man 04:26
02. Lockwood 04:28
03. Angela 04:05
04. The Naked Guitar 04:36
05. Solitary Man 03:19
06. Half Past Four 02:32
07. Goin' Back To California 02:42
08. Come On Up The Mountain 03:19
09. Azalea 05:40
10. Cycles: The Truth About Change 04:15
11. Far Away From There 04:28
12. Grey Eagle 05:22
13. In The Light 04:54
Release Notes:
Tyler Grant's name has been popping up everywhere in
the acoustic music scene over the past few years.
His new CD "In the Light" shows why.
In 2003 he joined Adrienne Young's band and toured
with her for a year and a half. He also recorded
with her on her acclaimed CDs Plow the End of the
Row and The Art of Virtue. In 2004 he hooked up with
Casey and Chris Henry and the Two-Stringers. He
still performs with that group and is on their newly
released CD Get Along Girl. In the fall of 2004 he
also toured China for ten days with Casey Driessen
(fiddle), Amanda Kowalski (bass), and Abigail
Washburn (old-time banjo) as part of a musical
cultural exchange. During the first half of 2005 he
also toured with Canadian fiddler April Verch. Most
recently (November 2005) Tyler joined the Drew
Emmett Band and is currently on tour with that
group. He will be performing with that band this
year at Telluride, High Sierra, Four Corners Folk
Festival, Floyd Fest, Harvest Fest, and others.
Although he is more of a band player than a contest
performer, Tyler won the Rockygrass guitar contest
in 2003, won the Henderson festival contest in 2005,
and placed second at the National Flatpicking
Championship in Winfield, Kansas, in 2005.
Tyler has just released his own solo CD "In the
Light" on FGM Records.
Nine of the thirteen tracks on Tyler's CD are
original (seven vocal and two instrumental). The
other four tracks consist of three traditional
instrumental tunes and one traditional vocal song.
Tyler started laying down tracks for this project in
September of 2005. During the first session the
group that he assembled to record with him cut five
tracks. This group included Amanda Kowalski on bass,
Casey Driessen on fiddle, Andy Hall on Dobro, Scott
Vestal on banjo and Chris Henry on mandolin. Pat
Enright added tenor vocals.
During the second session Tyler gathered the same
group together, with the exception of bringing in
both Missy Raines and Mike Bub to play bass and
having Chris Pandolfi come in to play banjo. Steven
Sandifer also added the snare drum in the second
session. For both session Tyler wanted to try and
achieve a sound that would resemble a group of
picking buddies all in one room playing together. He
said, "I didn't want it to sound too sterile."
The CD starts with a traditional vocal tune, "Good
Morning Mister Railroad Man" followed by a Bill
Monroe instrumental, "Lochwood." These first two
tunes give the CD a strong high-energy kick off.
Tyler's guitar work on both of these cuts is strong,
solid, interesting and tasteful. The third tune, an
original vocal number titled "Anglea" has a bit of
Cajun pulse to it and feels like an acoustic version
of a country song. About this CD, Tyler has said
that he really did not set out to make a bluegrass
recording. He said, "I wanted to record the sounds
that I've been hearing that really didn't fit into
the context of any of the bands that I've been
playing in. I wanted it to reflect my own style."
"Angela" and the next tune, a romping instrumental
called "Naked Guitar" would be two of the tunes that
have that Tyler Grant stamp on it. And it is great
stuff!
The next tune on the CD, "Solitary Man" is another
Tyler Grant original, but goes back to a more
traditional bluegrass feel and sound. Cut six, "Half
Past Four" is a traditional old-timey number and
Tyler's guitar work on this cut is reminiscent of
David Grier's work on his Hootenanny project. This
is one of the tunes that Tyler has transcribed for
us for this issue. You can hear this cut on the
audio CD companion for this issue.
Cut seven is a bluegrass barnburner written by Tyler
called "Goin' Back to California." This is one of
the most exciting tunes on the recording and on his
solo Tyler proves that he can handle that bluegrass
fast tempo thing! Things slow down a bit on the next
cut, another Grant original called "Come On Up the
Mountain." This tune would fall comfortably into the
folk singer/songwriter genre, or maybe the classic
Seldom Scene style, which Tyler said inspired this
sound for him. The next tune "Azalea" is an
instrumental that stays at a nice slow tempo and
clearly demonstrates that Tyler knows how to play a
slow groove guitar solo that is full of feeling and
emotion. This is one of my favorite cuts on the CD.
For cut ten, another Grant-penned tune called
"Cycles: The Truth About Change", the pace comes
back up a bit, but not to bluegrass tempos. This is
another nice singer-songwriter style tune expertly
executed by top-notch musicians. This is my favorite
of the vocal cuts. While all of the musicians on
this recording do a great job, the guitar, fiddle,
and Dobro work really stand out here. Cut eleven,
Tyler's "Far Away From There" fits the same style as
the last one, a very nice singer-songwriter style
tune with great instrumental accompaniment.
On cut twelve Tyler pulls out a great flatpicking
fiddle tune, "Grey Eagle." He also transcribed this
tune for our readers to learn in this issue and we
have included the cut on our audio CD companion.
While I would not say that the two tunes that are
presented in this issue are reflective of the whole
record, we felt like readers of this magazine would
gain the most benefit from learning these tunes.
While my favorite instrumental tune on this
recording is "Azalea," I doubt that this would be a
tune that you would be playing at your next jam
session. "Grey Eagle" is more likely going to be
something that you would be called onto play at a
jam, so that is why we have included it here.
The final tune on Tyler's CD is the title cut "In
the Light" another nice singer-songwriter style
number. All in all, Tyler's CD showcases his many
talents. Although the music does not completely stay
in one genre of acoustic music, there is a
commonality to all of the tunes that ties them
together in a very nice and listenable way. The CD
definitely demonstrates why Tyler Grant has made a
big splash in the bluegrass and flatpicking
community in Nashville, and beyond, over the last
three years. And we will undoubtedly be hearing a
lot more from Tyler Grant in the future.