TYLER BRYANT & THE SHAKEDOWN
Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown performing at Cafe Eleven, with special guest Strayin’ Anchors.
November 2, 2022
8:00pm
The Original Cafe Eleven
St. Augustine Beach, FL
There’s something Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown learned from the huge shows they’ve played supporting the likes of AC/DC and Guns N’ Roses over the past few years. It’s what guitar prodigy Bryant calls “the cannonball approach”…
“I’m gonna run out like a bullet from a gun and let everyone know I’m here to give ’em all I’ve got,” he says.
And that’s precisely what The Shakedown do on their incendiary third album. ‘Truth and Lies’ is a taut and thrilling record, exploring Bryant’s blues heritage (‘Ride’), blistering heavy rock (‘Shock and Awe’), heartfelt balladry (‘Out There’), southern roots (‘Trouble’), love of the 90’s rock and roll movement (‘Eye to Eye’) and more…
“For me, there are a few different elements of The Shakedown,” Bryant says. “There’s the energetic, raw, jump-out-of-your-skin live version of us. Every night when we run on stage I get such an adrenaline rush that I feel like my heart and soul are going to come busting out of my skin. That version appears in rock songs, like ‘Drive Me Mad’, from the new album.
“And then there’s this other side, which is a little more sensitive, a little more insecure and hopeful, and you see that in songs like ‘Shape I’m In’, another new one.”
The urgency of ‘Truth and Lies’ comes partly from the speed of its recording…
After demoing 55 songs in Bryant’s home studio in Nashville, The Shakedown decamped to Studio G in Williamsburg, NY, earlier this year, where they laid down the 13 numbers that make up the record – mostly live, with a few overdubs – in just over two weeks. They worked quickly, with six time Grammy nominated producer Joel Hamilton (The Black Keys, Highly Suspect, Tom Waits), because they wanted the album to sound raw and visceral, not careful and labored.
They’ve done that, but without sacrificing skill and nuance: it’s a brilliant rock ‘n’ roll record that allows the ghosts of the past into the grooves whilst living firmly in the present.