Jared Tyler Bio:

Songwriter/Producer/Musician

There’s no best way to introduce Jared Tyler. He’s too many things.

He’s a recording artist, to be sure, with two striking albums to his credit. He’s a singer of effortless beauty and soul and a writer who disarms with clear-eyed vision. He’s also a multi-instrumentalist who’s supported some of the most discerning performers in roots/folk music. But back up a bit, and you’ll see the true Jared Tyler – a reaching musical mind and spirit who brings out the best in others. That’s why his years of experience as a record producer suggest that Jared Tyler’s trajectory is not toward the spotlight he once sought as a singer on country radio, but toward a prominent place in music creation - both behind and in front of the microphones. At 33, Tyler is squarely in a Generation Y that is growing more in touch with American roots music and looking for its own T Bone Burnett or Daniel Lanois. Jared Tyler is on his way to being that producer/visionary.

In his relatively short career, Jared has made music with a remarkable array of respected artists. He’s opened shows for Nickel Creek, Merle Haggard, Wilco, Shelby Lynne, Shannon Lawson, John Hammond and Willis Alan Ramsey. He’s performed or recorded with Emmylou Harris, David Wilcox, Suzi Ragsdale and Stony LaRue. And as a producer, he’s worked with the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, Monica Taylor, Jimmy LaFave and Malcolm Holcombe, among others.

Tyler’s journey from his hometown near Tulsa, Oklahoma to Nashville and back to Tulsa has been streaked with the unpredictability of real life. In the early 2000s, he was one of the most promising young talents in Music City, with a publishing deal and a growing pool of supporters and believers excited about breaking him as an artist and songwriter. Then family called. The grandmother who’d raised him was dying of Alzheimers in Tulsa and when she literally came to him in a dream and urged him to come home, he went without hesitation. Jared helped in looking after her through her passing and then endured the subsequent death of his other grandmother, godmother and mother. Even during these personal trials, he delved into the surprisingly rich music scene in Tulsa. He became a go-to guy there, working out of Soultree Studio, where he produced artists such as Monica Taylor and Andrew Jacob Holm. He also produced songs and soundtrack material for a few ambitious feature film projects, some of which ended up top picks at Sundance Film Fest. After eight years in Oklahoma however, Tyler is planning a move back to Music City in late 2011, a harbinger of bigger things to come.

Tyler’s musical world was heavily influenced by his grandfather. “When I was a kid, every Saturday night my dad would take me on his way to work and drop me at my grandparent’s house. And my grandpa got out his fiddle and he got out his tater bug mandolin and handed it to me, and we played along with Hee-Haw from start to finish.” After some trumpet in the high school band, Tyler found a path to singing and songwriting after joining Future Farmers of America, like a good Oklahoma kid is supposed to do. He played FFA events and banquets and even made an album that made the cover of the FFA magazine, New Horizons, and sold thousands. At about age 16 he began making trips to Nashville, where his voice and prodigious songwriting and instrumental chops got him noticed by moguls on Music Row, including Arista’s Tim DuBois and super-producer Paul Worley. Garth Brooks himself called Jared out of the blue one day and invited him to a private guitar pull with his best songwriters buddies. Garth saw a path for Tyler but recommended he finish high school then come back to town and go for it. That’s what happened, launching a whirlwind of activity that took Jared from Nashville to New York to Los Angeles to Austin, as he made connections and pursued projects.

He won the admiration of bass legend Dave Pomeroy (currently head of the Nashville musicians union) who pulled him into his studio for Jared’s first serious demo recordings. Around the same time, he met Malcolm Holcombe, one of the most revered and complex songwriters of his age, becoming his key support player on numerous tours and recordings. Many music fans encountered Tyler for the first time at Holcombe gigs, where they saw a musician capable of searing call-and-response lines on the dobro and uncanny harmony vocals for one of the most unpredictable and idiosyncratic singers in the world. Tyler has played and sung on numerous Malcolm records, and produced his latest effort "To Drink the Rain."  Malcolm says that Tyler “sings and plays as good as anybody. Period. His songs are poignant justice.” 

 

One night after playing with Malcolm in Brooklyn Jared  happened into a relationship with New York punk/hip-hop/jazz producer Scott Harding, which led to the most progressive recordings of Tyler’s career (so far). Tyler then wound up with a significant part in the musical movie Killer Diller in 2004. But the apex of Tyler’s recording career so far came when his movie role led to meeting  multi-Grammy-winning producer Russ Titelman (Steve Winwood, Eric Clapton), who tapped Jared as the debut artist on his new Walking Liberty Records. Featuring guest appearances by Emmylou Harris, Mac MacAnally and Mary Kay Place, the resulting album Blue Alleluia is a remarkable effort that straddles lines between country, pop and soul. It showcases a voice that suggests a blend of Darrell Scott and Ray LaMontagne as well as the eclectic, global vision that has distinguished Tyler’s wide-open love of good music from everywhere. Tyler’s more recent album Here With You, made in Tulsa with co-producer Chuck Zwicky (mixing engineer for Prince) takes an even broader scope, with shimmering songs that elude categorization.

"Jared Tyler not only has the rare ability to see through to the heart of a song, he illuminates it so that others can see it too,” says Zwicky. And roots/Americana producer Ray Kennedy says “Jared Tyler is equally great as an artist, songwriter, musician and producer. He transcends all the boundaries of music with a remarkable force that makes his music timeless.”

“I’ve had many people tell me I have a universal voice,” says a deeply appreciative Tyler. “I’ve always thought I could appeal to the country audience but also maybe I could open up their ears to different production approaches and show the universality of music like back in the day when you could turn on the radio and hear it all.”

As we said, Tyler is no one thing. And he’s a much more remarkable creator of music for it.