TYLER BRYANT & THE SHAKEDOWN – Electrified (2024) *HQ*

American singer / guitarist Tyler Bryant and his band pleased us with their fine last album two years ago. Today, TYLER BRYANT & THE SHAKEDOWN are releasing their new CD “Electrified“, an aptly-titled 11-song album that crackles with onstage rock n’ roll energy.
It takes about 15 seconds for Tyler Bryant to announce himself. That’s as long as it takes to find a groove. Bluesy, yes, but a crunchy, rocking sort. His sort. Their sort. That raw, primal thing. “Electrified” indeed. No reading ‘between the tines’ here; instead, TBATS lay it all out there. Even when he burns slower, as on “Crossfire”, he’s special, the solo, the acoustics. There’s so much going on.
The best thing about Bryant & The Shakedown is their confidence. The strut of ‘Snake Oil’, with its sleazy groove, is the real deal. Everything here is from the highest of top drawers. The ballads, like “Trick Up My Sleeve”, on which the solo is sensational, maybe show a different side, but if they do, they are two sides of the same coin. You’ll not get one without the other.

Yet when it lets its hair down, it finds a new level. “Shake You Down” is made for the sweaty, packed shows, and there’s a timeless quality about this band. “One And Only” could have come out at any point in rock ‘n’ roll history – and fitted in – and as a Nashville native these days, Tyler nails country on “Movin’”, and if he puts his heart and soul into everything then it’s especially true here.

And as ever, they go for quality. Not quantity. Shaking it down to only the best as it were, so “Dead To Rights” and “Mona” (and I was so hoping for a cover…!) don’t have anything approaching “coasting home” in them. “Carefree Easy Rollin’” and its air of contentment belong to a different era, but whatever era they were in, Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown would have stood out.

The hunger on display here is what marks the band as special. They give the air of a band – who if we may paraphrase Tom Petty, will be forever running down their dream, but one who if they manage to achieve it, would simply set their sights on a new horizon.
Rock ‘n’ roll isn’t a job to these boys. It’s a vocation. It’s what they were born to do. Listen to “Electrified” and see how charged up they are. You can’t come to any other conclusion.
Highly Recommended

01 – Between The Lines
02 – Crossfire
03 – Snake Oil
04 – Trick Up My Sleeve
05 – Happy Gets Made
06 – Shake You Down
07 – One and Lonely
08 – Movin’
09 – Dead To Rights
10 – Mona
11 – Carefree Easy Rollin’

Tyler Bryant (lead guitar & vocals)
Graham Whitford (rhythm guitar)
Ryan Fitzgerald (bass)
Caleb Crosby (drums)

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tylerbryant-and-the-shakedown.myshopify.com/