Tyler Bryant and The Shakedown
Nashville based southern rock band Tyler Bryant and the Shakedown made their way down to Gainesville, Florida to play The BASH Music Festival on November 5th, 2022. The BASH, which stands for blues, americana, soul and heritage, is a free music festival created to celebrate Gainesville’s heritage and to honor Tom Petty in the town he called home. And what better way to honor him than to invite a band that is so heavily influenced by him. With an unmatched energy level and a genuine passion for making music, Tyler Bryant and the Shakedown put on one hell of a show.
Let me start with this question: If you have not heard of this band, what have you been doing? They have toured with some of the biggest names in music including Aerosmith, Guns n’ Roses, Jeff Beck, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and so many more, yet they somehow fly under the radar of mainstream music. At just 17, front man Tyler Bryant moved from Honeygrove, Texas to Nashville, Tennessee where he met drummer Caleb Crosby who joined The Shakedown. The two were then joined by guitarist Graham Whitford and most recently, bassist Ryan Fitzgerald. The Shakedown have since released five studio albums, five extended plays, and an independent record label, Rattle Shake Records. Their most recent release, Shake the Roots, is a humble homage to the blues that built the foundations of rock n roll.
It is hard to think of a band that enjoys performing more than Tyler Bryant and the Shakedown. They hit the stage with a contagious energy that the crowd instantly feeds on, and it is impossible to not get into it whether you know the song or not. The Shakedown opened their set with “Off the Rails”, a fast-paced track from their new album, and they never slowed down. They played a mix of hits from all their albums and threw in some covers from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Elvis Presley. About halfway through the show, Tyler brought out Rebecca Lovell, his wife, and Megan “the Slide Queen” Lovell of Larkin Poe. Larkin Poe was set to play the following night, so it was a surprise to see them join The Shakedown on stage. For the first time ever, they played “Tennessee” together. The chemistry was incredible and left me hoping for some future collaborations between the two groups. They closed out the show with one of my personal favorites, “Lipstick Wonder Woman”, where the whole band took front and center stage for a hard-hitting finish to one of the greatest shows I have ever been to.
I came to this show as a huge fan of The Shakedown and left an even bigger one. There truly is no one like them. They have the kind of passion and genuine love for music that cannot be faked, and you feel it when they play. I had already bought most of their merch earlier that day, but I had so much fun at this show that I had to run back and grab a copy of Shake the Roots before heading out. I talked to the lady working the merch table, and she said that immediately after the show ended, a swarm of people who had no idea who Tyler Bryant and the Shakedown were before the show came over to purchase their albums. It is plain to see that some people were put on this earth to be on stage and make music, and I can think of no better example than Tyler Bryant and the Shakedown. Whether you are streaming their music at home or you’re front and center barricade at their show, you feel the spirit and soul of rock n roll when they play.
Wikimedia Foundation. (2022, September 16). Tyler Bryant & the Shakedown. Wikipedia. Retrieved November 27, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyler_Bryant_%26_the_Shakedown#Discography