“The dreams that keep us running, stay a little out of reach” – With those words on “Happy Gets Made”, Tyler Bryant sums up not just “Electrified” but his career to date.
The first time I saw him, opening for Guns N’ Roses in 2017, he came on at about 5 p.m., in the blazing sun, to a stadium full of people who didn’t know who he was – and grabbed them by the throat. That’s what he’s done for seven years since. To see him is to love him, and if in those early days you’d think “Oh, I wish his records were as good as on stage”, then, brilliantly, in his more recent work, he’s found the vibe and the spirit of his live shows.
This collection is no different, and indeed, it takes about 15 seconds for Tyler Bryant to announce himself. That’s as long as it takes to find a groove. Blues, yes, but a crunchy, rocking sort. His sort. Their sort. That raw, primal thing. “Electrified” indeed. No reading “Between The Lines” 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 and The Shakedown these days though, is their confidence. The strut of ‘Snake Oil’, with its tinges of Blackberry Smoke, yet Bryant is no snake oil salesman – he’s 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 that he excels in, and there’s a timeless quality about his work. “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, he 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 and 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.
Rating: 9.5/10
REVIEW: TYLER BRYANT AND THE SHAKEDOWN – ELECTRIFIED (2024)
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