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Tyler Goodson is undoubt- nerves took over. Instead of butterflies, it was big that he felt like he had this conduit, this
Just edly his own man. He happens! You work through it by putting yourself in connection to musical energy. He said he
hawks and eagles, even a fire-breathing dragon. That
doesn’t take it for granted and he under-
knows his music, where he
those situations as much as possible. You’ll become
stands that there’s a lot of hard work to
wants to take his image,
and is certainly at home numb to it, or that even if you’re shaking inside, maintain that connection. Do you feel like
you can still appear to be composed on the outside.
As with a guitar in his hand. You have to put in the hours of feeling that way and cal energy?
you have some sort of connection to musi-
By the end of the interview,
facing that fear. It’ll eventually put a fire under you
TG: Yes, I really do. It’s not a sense of having power,
to change that, to where you’ll want to approach it
I thought I had asked such
or that you sound good, it’s just a connection coming
I N T E R V I E W W I T H T Y L E R G O O D S O N powerful questions that it differently. You might have to do brain homework or from up above that hits your heart and goes out into
exercises, but you can change it, for sure.
the audience and then comes back.
moved Goodson to tears.
However, it turns out he
has a sensitivity to lights. ZPG: You sing also, right? ZPG: I’m always amazed by people who
can play something from hearing it. Can
TG: Yes. I didn’t do that until I couldn’t find some-
Goodson is one of the most
Am. humble guys I have ever body to sing, so I started. It worked out. Ultimately, you do that?
TG: I wish. That comes from playing your instru-
I want to be playing like Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray
ment so much that when you hear a sound you can
Interview by Tammy Yosich had the pleasure of meeting. Vaughan, and Duane Allman. However, right now hear where it is on your instrument. To me, a light
Seriously, ever.
Written up by: Merideth Myers I get hired to do solo acts, so I have to know four bulb rattle, sounds like the key of E. An ambulance
hours of material, so I had to learn to sing if I wanted siren sounds like the key of A. There’s a lot of differ-
ZPG: I love that you brought your guitar! know people like Beethoven, who used the to keep playing guitar. ent stuff like that, you just got to mess with it.
Start at the beginning Tyler, when did mu- vibrations to produce really great music
sic start for you? even though he was deaf. It’s amazing that ZPG: Do you write songs? ZPG: So, you said that you guys play at
TG: When I was very young. My grandfather and at such a young age, Tyler, that you almost TG: Yes, I do, but not as much as I’d like. I play gigs Hub City Deli, right? Are you part of the
father played Bluegrass before I was born, so I was instinctively knew to do that. pretty often, probably 200 to 250 dates a year in band Electric Gumbo? Where did that
literally listening to it since birth. Soon I was visiting TG: Well, music is vibrations and rhythms so if Jackson and the surrounding areas. I stay busy doing name come from?
my grandparents’ house and listening to bluegrass, you’re in tune with that, it will feel right when you that. TG: Yes, it’s Allen Rothrock, Jake Flippin, and Stan
and them putting a guitar in my hands and saying, put your head close to the guitar. I especially can Clayton. It’s just other bands that have come togeth-
“Here we go.” So with that, and my grandmother sense it while playing bluegrass. My dad showed me ZPG: Do you think Jackson will ever get to er. They were doing an acoustic thing and I brought
having me watch a recording she made of Chuck a blues lick, and that was my introduction to the the point where we can venues like Nash- some west coast style pedal steel, where it’s a little bit
Berry’s song Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll documentary, blues, but I never really got into it until I watched ville that plays music all day? raunchier, swampy sounding rather than Nashville
music just resonated in my soul. I bet I watched that Stevie Ray Vaughan when I was in high school, and TG: The town is definitely big enough, and we have sounding, like Hank Williams stuff. That’s where
Berry video every day, for three or four years when I then I just started digging backwards, down to the enough musicians, it’s just having the outlets, avail- the jambalaya, gumbo vibe comes in, and “electric”
was little. 1920’s. ability, and support to get that going. Jackson’s tour- is just a spin off of what they were normally doing,
ism needs to grow just a little bit more to get there. I since they're normally acoustic. It’s just an experi-
ZPG: How old were you when a guitar was ZPG: That guitar almost appears to be an could see Jackson growing into that. I’ve done some ment, and a really cool band name. We’ve been doing
first put in your hand? extension of your body. lunch gigs, at Redbones and currently at Hub City it for about three months.
TG: Probably three or four years old. It was a little TG: I want it to be! It’s the easiest way to express Deli, and that’s going well.
guitar, not very big, but it felt like a huge surfboard to myself. ZPG: You’ve been playing music for at
me. When I was young, I had too much wax pro- ZPG: Where do your lyrics come from least 15 years, maybe longer. When you
duction in my ears, and I was legally deaf up until when you’re writing a song? first came on the scene, does any particular
the second or third grade, and the teachers noticed TG: To me it’s given, it’s something that you hear acts of kindess stand out to you?
I wasn’t really paying attention. When I was playing inside of you. It’s pulled out. I don’t just sit and write TG: Yes, there’s multiple of those, but the most
before that, I would put my jawbone on the guitar to lines and words, it’s more about the notes. I like to significant would be playing with Chuck McGill and
connect with the vibrations. sit around and play music, and if I’m playing a song, Paula Bridges, for sure. We played every Friday at
I will hear words come out of that music, but the Mulligans, working that show and getting it built
ZPG: Yes, we’ve talked about that in a ZPG: Do you remember the first time you music has to be there first for me. up to something, and having the crowd built up so
previous interview! I think we sometimes got on stage? that they came out more. It was really special, just a
take our hearing for granted, however we TG: Yes, everything I knew went away because my ZPG: In a 2015 interview, Tom Petty said special time. Continued Next Page

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