Today’s spotlight shines on an artist that expresses his unique gifts through music. Singer-songwriter, Tyler Halverson is the real deal. While reflecting on his childhood and where he is now, Halverson shared with us how important music has been all along and what fans can expect moving forward.

“I grew up in South Dakota in a small-town there, kind of grew up playing in church and different little festivals,” he began. “The radio was on a heck of a lot more than the TV was which I’ve very grateful and thankful for.” Halverson recalls growing his love of music thanks to his parents love of music and love for concerts.

During car rides with the radio on, the singer shares listening to 80s and 90s country, as well as, 2000s hip-hop with his parents. “I didn’t really have control over what was playing on the radio, it was whatever my mom or dad were feeling. […] It was all over the damn place [in the best way].”

Specifically, Halverson recalls garnering a liking for artists like George Strait and Garth Brooks from his dad. “My dad was a big fan of that, and then my first country concert was a Montgomery Gentry show and I think that that was a little moment of I think I might want to try this one day. That was a big influence on the songwriting too.” He later added, “Music was always associated with whatever we were doing.”

The Turning Point:

Upon graduating high school, Halverson attended South Dakota State University for two years. “I’d be playing bar gigs and whatnot in the summertime in between school, and I think that’s what kept drawing me back to music more and more.” It is also what convinced him to finally make the move to Nashville.

“I don’t know if I ever really had a moment of [I’m going to do music for a living.] It was a lot of moments of ‘I’m in way too deep to do anything else.’ But as a child, I always loved going to shows,” he shared. Adding, “I moved to Nashville when I was 20 and I’ve been in and out of Nashville for the last 8 years, just playing a lot in Tennessee and Texas, and back and forth.”

While attending Belmont University in Nashville, Halverson cultivated a greater love for music and fine-tuned his craft, especially in songwriting. “The songwriting started getting more serious and started to weave its way in when I moved to Nashville, and I started to go to Belmont University. I got in on their songwriting program and then switched that to music business and kind of just learned and started writing around town.”

Belmont and his Nashville community helped him to develop into the artist he is now and find the people that are in his corner. “This last year, hopping on with Atlantic Records has really helped a lot, and getting some publishing and management, and just good people in my corner in Nashville has really helped a lot this last year or two.”

Today:

Currently, Halverson is making a name for himself in the country music landscape, which includes putting out music. According to the singer, the songs he has out now are special ones. “The whole first batch of songs we have were written a couple of years back. It’s been an interesting collection of digging up what we were and weren’t putting out.

Most recently, the singer-songwriter shared his newest song “Run Wild.” The track features all the elements of Halverson’s one-of-a-kind talent. “The song kind of snuck up on us,” he shared. “We decided to do it performance style with just acoustic and a harmonica, I really wanted to show that because that’s how I was playing live a lot. It’s really only been a year or two that I’ve been playing with a band.”

For Halverson, “Run Wild” truly gets to show him in all his glory. “That song was a little ‘show off song.’ It’s me in a one take performance, a one take deal, and a solo write all in one.” Adding later, “it was just a good display and representative of what I do and what I like.”

Moving ahead into the rest of the year, fans can expect more new music coming down the pipeline in the fall. Halverson is currently on the road, playing shows, and recording new music for a record as we speak. Checkout shows in your area here. “We’re just trying to build it one gig at a time, one show at at time.”

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