Tyler Bryant

Tyler Bryant got his first guitar for Christmas at age 7 and noodled around on it eagerly for a few years before, at the experienced age of 11, he was electrified by the sound of the blues. He sold the dirt bike his parents got him and bought his first electric guitar, and that was pretty much that. Bryant, born in Texas in February 1991, was originally moved by the work of Lightnin' Hopkins, Muddy Waters and the like, but later gravitated toward modern masters such as Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jeff Beck and other esteemed players such as Jeff Buckley, Alan Haynes, Doyle Bramhall II, Ian Moore and others. At age four, he told his mother he wanted to learn guitar, a desire he started to make good on a couple years later—whether it was studying the way Elvis Presley sang and moved, or sitting in front of his grandfather for hours as he played guitar, Bryant was mesmerized. While other first graders spent their Saturdays playing and watching TV, Bryant practiced guitar intently, steadily honing his talent and developing an ear. He developed a close friendship with Paris, Texas, guitarist Roosevelt Twitty, and from hanging and jamming with Twitty, this quickly resulted in Bryant's first public performance - before he'd even turned 12. Bryant and Twitty also performed together briefly as a duo, playing parties, benefits and clubs in the Dallas area. Bryant was honored in 2007 by the Robert Johnson Blues Foundation with the Robert Johnson New Generation Award as one of the most promising artists of that year, and was also invited to play at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival in Chicago that summer. While he loves the genre, he doesn't consider himself strictly a blues artist—Bryant is a versatile guitarist and performer already well versed in a wealth of musical tastes and styles, in particular concentrating more recently on rock music. Summer 2008 found him busily writing and recording for a new album; he also appeared in Rock Prophecies, a film about famed rock photographer Robert Knight, who befriended Bryant early on and helped his career by proclaiming him "the next great guitar player." The film is scheduled for release on the 2008-2009 film festival circuit and features interviews and performances by Carlos Santana, Steve Vai, The Sick Puppies, Panic At The Disco, Slash, Jeff Beck, and Joe Bonamassa.