… James Dean meets Johnny Cash
Far off in the Wild West, gunshots echo. Your mind paints a picture, while tuning in to just one of 13 countrified, folk/rock flames sure to set your ears alight. “City on Fire,” is musician Tyler Hilton’s first studio spark in over four years.
Get ready, get set, “Get Down.” Homestyle, outland, rustic country collides amid Hilton’s imperceptibly rebellious, inner rocker as harmonies hoot in the distance like a train chugging along deep in the south. Channeling a familiar Jonny Cash in the inaugural riff of the album’s title track to the howling of the wind on a seemingly barren dirt road — images conjured through the dim-lit, full-bodied production selling “Anywhere I run” — Hilton investigates a sound variant of vintage rockabilly. Close your eyes and you’ll likely envision a scraggy saloon, complete with cowboy boots and a dancing banjo, animating Hilton’s tenacious, “Find Me One.”
The snarling syllables of a blues crooner and his unshaven accent decorate anthemic love stories (“it’s like finding what I didn’t know I was looking for,”) persistent drums, a chatty harmonica and, encircling softer strokes, Hilton’s plethoric folk/pop. While emerging youthful in his interpretation of such musical icons as Cash and Elvis Presley — his exterior resembles a young James Dean — the songster fronts seniority, sipping on craft beers while denouncing a uniquely 1960’s fingerstyle with his hollow-bodied guitar.
Tune in at: http://www.tylerhilton.com.