Tuneful Tyler knocks Keith Urban off the top spot

AN Antrim musician is celebrating after knocking a country legend off the top spot with his new single.

Tyler Michael from Antrim is an up and coming local performer who takes his influences from country, folk, blues and soul to create music that is uniquely his own.

He launched his debut single ‘The Worst’ on April 1 and it was no April Fools Day for him, as his record pushed Keith Urban’s brand new single off the top spot in the iTunes UK Country Charts.

Urban, married to actress Nicole Kidman, is a New Zealand-born Australian-American musician, singer, guitarist and songwriter known for his work in country music.

The multi Grammy and CMA award winner has worked with Pink, Nelly Furtado, Jason Derulo, Dolly Parton, Dixie Chicks, Carrie Underwood, Martina McBride and Reba McEntire.

Tyler is even sitting above legends like Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers!

The Antrim man has been writing music and gigging with various bands over the North and South of Ireland for close to ten years, most notably as frontman and main songwriter of Alt Rock band ‘Bear Skin’, but has only now decided to release his solo music.

As a seasoned performer, Tyler has earned his keep over the years by grafting the pub and bar scene that would see him play over 100 shows annually.

With a true passion for performing and playing live Tyler aims to introduce his solo original music to the masses.

He blends country, folk and blues along with soulful, emotional vocals and catchy melodies to draw the listener in and leave them wanting more.

Fresh from finishing second place in AER’s Solo Artist of the Year 2022 Tyler aims to improve on this and keep the momentum rolling for the rest of 2022.

He also has a huge support slot lined up in May with successful Yorkshire based band ‘Skinny Living’ and aims to hit the ground running this year and is looking to make an even bigger impression locally and further afield.

The Worst was written in 2019 on an acoustic guitar, when Tyler was living in a dusty outback town in Queensland, Australia working in a bar and driving a truck to make ends meet.

With an alt country/rock n roll feel to the song, Tyler took influences from his surroundings at the time.

Although the lyrics in the chorus state ‘here it is the worst song I ever wrote’ Tyler claims that this was more a representation of how he was feeling at the time of writing as opposed to a representation of the song.

The track was recorded in Half Bap Studios Belfast with George Sloan.