Tyler Halverson knows who he is, and sometimes he doesn’t like it. But all of the mistakes he’s made and hearts he’s broken have led him to In Defense of Drinking, his stone-cold honest country album that takes a stark look at a life lived on the road.
“It’s been a life spent falling in and out of love and finding something to write about, at the expense of your heart and somebody’s else’s,” Halverson says. “I’m not proud of the actions that that boy took to inspire these songs. But I’m very proud of how they turned out. The Nashville scene today is all so pretty and polished, and some artists try to come out looking a certain way, but how about you just show yourself exactly how you are, the good and bad?”
Growing up in the tiny town of Canton, South Dakota, Halverson has never been afraid to be himself. Before he answered the call of the road, playing bars and rodeo beer gardens, he spent as much time on his skateboard as he did showing cattle at livestock shows. “I grew up in sale barns and skate parks,” he says, and those two disparate worlds inform the music he makes. There’s a decidedly alt-country edge to the songs on In Defense of Drinking, including the thumping, unrepentant single “More Hearts Than Horses.”
“If you come walking my way/I’ll send you running someday,” he sings over pedal steel and acoustic guitar. It’s an admission as striking as that of Willie and Waylon, when they sang “Take what you need from the ladies and leave them/with the words of a sad country song” in “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys.”
“That comes with the territory of being a troubadour,” Halverson says. “It’s a warning: whatever you’ve heard about cowboys and cowboy singers is probably true, and sometimes you best just leave it alone.”
Texas is in the DNA of the music Halverson writes and records. He’s been all over the Lone Star state with his guitar and harmonica and came up with some of his best songs there. In the tailgate jam “Like a Rodeo,” featuring Australian country star Wade Forster, Halverson struggles to connect with another restless soul: an ambitious barrel racer. “Could she ever love me like the rodeo?” he sings.
“You can lose yourself in the troubadour lifestyle, where every night is a damn party and you’re far from your family, your home, and your faith,” he says. “So, this album may be a little bit of a personal battle: Who are you on the road vs. who are you at home. These songs are often about me admitting that I can be reckless and impulsive, but that I’m trying my best. Conflict isn’t always bad if you can make some good out of it.”
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