Tyler Lyle

Some Songs is the first EP by Atlanta native Tyler Lyle. Tyler Lyle’s sound can best be described as folksy indie pop with singer/songwriter sensibilities. Some Songs has seven songs including a bonus track. On Some Songs, Lyle explores a few different styles without the EP sounding like a jumble of demo tapes. The EP is masterfully produced by Kyle Hale. The backing instrumentation fits each track just perfectly. Tyler Lyle’s voice shows great emotion and sounds very smooth. Lyle’s songwriting arrangements sound lush and detailed. His lyrics show great maturity and wisdom beyond his 22 years. Lyle’s lyrical prose can be compared to Iron and Wine’s Sam Beam and solo artist Sufjan Stevens. His sound can be compared to Iron and Wine from Our Endless Numbered Days and even Cary Brothers’ Blue Eyes early days. Love Song in the Ordinary, Lullaby, and Lesbians are my favorite three tracks on Some Songs. All of the songs on this EP are stellar to say the least. Some Songs is a must have EP for anyone who loves good music. If Tyler Lyle keeps making music even half this good, he will blow away the competition. Some Songs is a stellar EP that has it all. I give it 5 out of 5 stars, it’s that good.
- Indie Rock Poet

Fresh off the road from Atlanta, Tyler Lyle showed up on my front porch one unusually cold Wilmington afternoon. Evidently unprepared for the weather, he quickly accepted my offer for a cup of tea with a smile and a shiver. I apologize for the unpleasant temperature: “Wilmington really only has two seasons,” I say, “Summer and February. I don’t know what this is.”
It’s easy to pass the time with Tyler, there’s contentment about his character that makes him quite affable, and his humble nature makes him all the more likable. Evidenced by the fact that a good deal of the weekend was spent in conversation over a warm cup of coffee or a cool glass of wine, Tyler always welcoming ‘the-more-the-merrier’ to join in the communion. It’s a lot like hanging out with your big brother’s best friend–but without noogies and the bad advice, of course.

Tyler Lyle sometimes makes enough money to pay rent by playing his music in small venues, bars, or friends’ houses, but really he’s plays music because he loves…everything about it: its capacity to empower and to disarm, to soften and to support, to facilitate the unlikely union. And even more than music, he’s about knowing people, experiencing life, and having a good beer—I know, because I watched the way he savored his Guinness. He lives surrounded by artists in his east Atlanta community (his way of “mapping life,” he says), reads 19th century existentialist philosophy, and plans on going to grad school next year. Attention all single ladies: I have found you a thinker.

When I asked Tyler “what is art?” (only then to apologize for posing the intangible, unanswerable question) he responded with, “I’m not so much interested in that question, what I’m more interested in is what compels me, what comes from the heart, what comes from the place that puts me in a state of connection with something that’s beyond.” This how Tyler lives, he’s about connection.

Here’s an example: He was given two hours to play at a local wine bar in town, but cut the set to one hour—the rest was spent in conversation with the people around him. “More than an individual artist, I see myself as part of a community that I’m in,” he says. This is likewise his sentiment towards his own community, one that consists of artists of all kinds—from musicians to sculptors–who gather every weekend to create, and eat, of course. “There’s no real way to mark this time–this motion that we’re going through–without other people there; they’re how you gauge what’s actually going on,” he says, “if you’re all alone, then nothing really matters.

And motion has been his theme of late. He spend the bulk of 2008 abroad in the Prague and in Paris teaching English, a journey that began him turning the pages his quest for self-discovery with great fervor, “[the move] was defining that difference between skepticism and ardor, which, I believe, is the question everyone must answer.” But for lack of funds and visa, Tyler was forced to abbreviate his stay and moved back to his rural hometown of Carrollton, Georgia, only to pick up and leave three months later, currently calling east Atlanta’s Grant Park home. “My sister and I just bought a house [there], it’s completely wooden inside. People keep asking me if I’m going to paint, but there’s no way.” (I think Tyler likes feeling like a cowboy).

While Tyler has been physically mobile for the past year or two, he’s also been on the move spiritually, emotionally, and musically. “Motion,” he says, is the message of his most recent musical endeavor, Notes From The Parade, released in 2009. The EP’s pseudo title track, “A Parade,” opens with the line, “when we are old we won’t need to touch to make love,” speaking, he says, to the holiness of motion: “to be able to subtract all the component parts of a life, and at the end still have something else…that’s what philosophy was for the Greeks, it was a study of motion.”

“Pinewood Chests,” the album’s most sentimental-feeling track, also speaks to the sanctity of life. After we box ourselves and our loved ones in these chests, we must then discover what we are to do with them. “Time moves steady along,” goes the song, “it’s a similar tune for a different song,” charging, it seems for a carpe diem type of individual. “I don’t really expect everyone to get that, but the album is devoted to the one individual who will,” says Tyler, dedicating Notes from the Parade “to Hinn Enkelte,” in the spirit of Danish philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard, who wrote for this individual whose soul would resonate with his work, albeit one out of many.

But not to worry, there’s always some humor with Tyler, so he’s not about to go totally Nietzsche on you; he can’t go more than a few minutes without cracking a joke, usually at his own expense, “But really, none of this is serious,” he assures me, “I don’t take myself very seriously.”

As far as the rest of the album goes, think Bob Dylan on “A Secret,” and Sufjan Stevens on “Closer to Me,” though Tyler’s music suffers nothing from predictability—it certainly has a brand of its own, he knows to how flip influence for originality.

“I play music because I love,” he pauses, seemingly finished with the thought, “playing music,” he adds. Tyler is the kind of artist we’ve been hunting for here at red thought—an artist not so married to the art as much as the experience and that which is garnered, more for living than for acquiring.

Cheers, Tyler. Keep creating, and will keep loving.

http://redthoughtmedia.com/to-hinn-enkelte/ - Red Thought Media

Tyler is a gifted vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist. He's back in the states from Europe and performing around town. Check him out - kind of like James Blunt meets John Mayer. Tremendous talent. - Reveal Audio

Written by Kellen Owenby
Thursday, 25 June 2009

Relief and Kellen Owenby recommend you to read this post quickly so you can download and listen to Tyler Lyle (pictured left).

As a songwriter, most of the time when I hear new artists I’m disappointed. They never live up to what I hope that they will be. However, every once in a while I experience an album that I hear and immediately want to submerge myself in. This was the case with Tyler Lyle’s new EP titled “Bare.”

As a sort of b-sides pre-release to his upcoming 2nd full length record due out late this summer, I was trying not to expect too much, but I still had high hopes for these songs (most of which were written in the period of 7 months that the Atlanta native spent in Paris, France in 2008). I was NOT disappointed when I downloaded “Bare” from www.noisetrade.com for the price that I deemed appropriate. (Take that The Man.)

The songs on this EP are the type that run through your head all day—without making you angry. Beautiful melodies serve as the vehicle to deliver the lyrics. Though far from typical “Christian” lyrics, faith deeply influences his songwriting. Some of his songs wrestle with hard questions and soak in doubt. “Baptism” is lyrically stunning. Here’s a taste:

Up to the mountain/Why I don’t know
Up to the mountain/ With Abraham I go
He will protect me/With his faith and his knife
That he always keeps hidden/Just out of my sight
He won’t stop crying/And his feet want to turn
We just keep walking/And we don’t say a word.


When I introduced Kimberly to this song, she was entranced with this lyric. How perfect is it for Relief? Inherently, these lyrics bring us to the harsh reality that we would surely arrest Abraham if he tried to follow God in this way today, that Isaac might have been a bit messed up after this little test from God. We can read this scripture and be so far removed that we might think something like, “Look at Abraham’s amazing faith.” But the closer we get to the story, the more we have to admit that it’s really pretty dark.

On the other hand, songs like “By My Name” and “Lullaby” (both songs from his first album, Some Songs, that are included in the NoiseTrade download), bring out the pure beauty and the intense love involved in walking with God. In fact, Editor-in-Chief Kimberly Culbertson describes his lyrics as genius.

Deeply contemplative, yet accessible; deeply personal, yet universal—his music lands on a short list of my favorites. We at Relief are not-quite-patiently awaiting the release of his next album, Notes from the Parade. We’ll tell you when it’s available.

In the meantime, head on over to www.noisetrade.com and name your price. - Relief Journal

I was immediately taken aback by how well the Atlanta native could sing, play guitar, and play the piano and by how well composed his songs were. But I think a key component in good music (at least to me) is the fact that you can connect with what the artist is saying on a personal level. Literally every one of Tyler's songs dealt with spirituality in a way I could relate to. All I want to say is that Tyler's lyrics are honest, upright, and real. - Formula 2911

maandag 10 november 2008
Hot in de late night bar



Hot in de late night bar: Als eerste in deze serie over het Parijse underground circuit, Tyler Lyle. De van Atlanta, Georgia, afkomstige sing-a-song writer J. Tyler Lyle maakt folk muziek. Hierbij gebruikt hij zijn stem, de gitaar en harmonica. Mijn muziek heeft uiteindelijk een boodschap. Ik wil ermee bijdragen aan de 'human enterprise'. Aldus Lyle. Lyle is te vinden in het Parijse undergroundcircuit (Tennessee bar, The Highlander) tot december dit jaar. Vanaf dan wil hij gaan touren in Europa. - Willem Van Ewig

Atlanta, GA How many of us have dreamed about performing our favorite albums onstage? The ATL Collective is doing just that. These Atlanta musicians say they're performing out of love and respect for 'the album.' Their hope is to bring musicians from across Atlanta together—even if it's only for one night. Kate Sweeney has more.

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wabe/arts.artsmain?action=viewArticle&sid=15&id=1586860&pid=51 - NPR