Woodyfest 2019: Jared Tyler

The FAA Years

By his own rec­ol­lec­tion, Woodyfest reg­u­lar [Sidenote: This is the six­teenth post in our cov­er­age of the twenty-sec­ond annual Woody Guthrie Folk Festival. We’ll be alter­nat­ing our report­ing with essays and photo gal­leries from the sev­en­teenth fes­ti­val in 2014, so check in often for a mix of old and new Woodyfest good­ness.] Jared Tyler Frederick began his pro­fes­sional music career around the time he turned four­teen or fif­teen (circa 1992 or 1993). [Sidenote: Joan, Tara, The Daily Country, “Jared Tyler Releases His Most Personal Album to Date with Dirt on Your Hands” (1 May 2017)] A cou­ple of years later, the Owasso high-school stu­dent began trav­el­ing to Nashville with his then-musi­cal men­tor, Michael Garrett. [Sidenote: Joan, Ibid.] Around this time he short­ened his name to Jared Tyler, which he con­tin­ues to use pro­fes­sion­ally. [Sidenote: Copp, Jarrod, Tulsa World, “On a Good Note /​/​ OHS Senior Cuts Album” (27 May 1996)]

Tyler’s first album, which he mostly wrote or co-wrote with Garrett, was a trib­ute to the Future Farmers of America (FAA), the orga­ni­za­tion that had given him some of his ear­li­est gig­ging oppor­tu­ni­ties. Tyler cred­its the club’s empha­sis on pub­lic speak­ing with giv­ing him the con­fi­dence to per­form his music. [Sidenote: Copp, Ibid.] He pro­duced and recorded the album, Vision of Blue, Heart of Gold, in the sum­mer before his senior year, recruit­ing three fel­low FAA mem­bers as addi­tional singers. [Sidenote: Copp, Ibid.]

Journeyman to Musical Master

After high school, Tyler con­tin­ued work­ing in music, releas­ing two albums and pro­duc­ing, record­ing, and per­form­ing with the likes of Emmylou Harris, Merle Haggard, and Stoney Larue.

In fact, Tyler kept so busy and sup­port­ing other musi­cal acts that the gap between his third album, Here with You, and his lat­est, Dirt on Your Hands, was a full seven years. During that time he also appeared at Woodyfest on six sep­a­rate occa­sions, as well as accom­pa­ny­ing many of the other fes­ti­val artists. [Sidenote: Tyler per­formed at every Woodyfest from 2015 to 2020. The last per­for­mance was remote due to the COVID-19 pan­demic.]

Tyler’s 2019 band lineup com­prised Isai Mireles (key­board), Seth Lee Jones (gui­tar), Paddy Ryan (drums), and Casey Van Beek (bass).

Gallery