Guitar virtuoso and composer William Tyler plays at DC’s Songbyrd Music House on Tuesday, Jan. 30.
A native of Nashville, Tyler played and recorded with acts ranging from alt-country icons like Silver Jews, Lambchop, and Bonnie Prince Billy to soul singer Candi Staton and Charlie Louvin before putting out his own music. His own work ranges from experimental American primitive music to pastoral country-folk. He also created the well-received score for the film First Cow.
Last year, Tyler released a live album, Secret Stratosphere, recorded in Huntsville, Alabama, via Merge Records. Pitchfork called Secret Stratosphere “a record that exudes the kind of off-the-cuff inventiveness and open-minded collaboration that can only come from years of fine-tuned experience.” He recorded Secret Stratosphere with his group The Impossible Truth as a live album that represents their first recorded output as a full band.
William Tyler and The Impossible Truth recently shared “Area Code 601,” a rousing live performance of a previously unreleased composition that Tyler cheekily describes as a “Hawkwind meets a Barefoot Jerry number,” uncorking a sound that lives somewhere between mind-expanding prog and beer commercial–backing Southern rock.
Watch the official music video for “Area Code 601” by William Tyler and The Impossible Truth on YouTube:
Loud and Quiet calls Tyler “something of a pioneer of the new American guitar arts,” and All Music called him a master of his instrument. He’s been praised by NPR, who called his 2016 album Modern Country “a record that’s exactly as grand as it sets out to be…free and weird, big and wild. In it are expanse, elegy and celebration.” In a five-star review, The Guardian praised the album as “a beatific and expansive ambient record.”
Taking a broad, eclectic variety of influences, William Tyler makes unique and beautiful instrumental music, perfect for an intimate venue like the Songbyrd Music House.
William Tyler & The Impossible Truth
W/ Miss Monster
Songbyrd Music House
Tuesday, Jan. 30
Doors @ 7pm
$21.89
All ages