William Tyler

William Tyler is a native of Nashville, Tennessee, a town where guitarists are as common as television sets or pigeons. At an early age, he began playing and recording with artists that resided at the fringes of the country and folk vernacular, such as the Silver Jews, Lambchop, and Cortney Tidwell. read more…

William Tyler is a native of Nashville, Tennessee, a town where guitarists are as common as television sets or pigeons. At an early age, he began playing and recording with artists that resided at the fringes of the country and folk vernacular, such as the Silver Jews, Lambchop, and Cortney Tidwell. He also found himself doing session work with artists as diverse as country legend Charlie Louvin and soul singer Candi Staton. All the while, Tyler was at home working on fragmentary guitar pieces and tape collages under the moniker the Paper Hats, calling on the spirit of Sandy Bull and the early Siltbreeze catalog.

In 2008, his longtime friend and sometime collaborator Volker Zander released a Paper Hats LP “Deseret Canyon” on his Apparent Extent imprint, and the two toured in Europe. Now Tyler has released his first album under his own name, “Behold the Spirit” (Tompkins Square), a collection of acoustic and electric guitar works intertwined with open form audio landscapes and delicately arranged instrumentation. Equal parts Appalachian drone and ambient noise, “Behold the Spirit” is a series of homages to ancient melodies, dead languages, and ghosts. Live, Tyler has collaborated or shared bills with Michael Chapman, Yo La Tengo, Lambchop, Eric Carbonara, David Daniell, Rhys Chatham, Wooden Wand, Paul Metzger, Mountains, Steve Gunn, among others.

Discography

as the Paper Hats

• “Come and See” (Sebastian Speaks) 2004
• “Deseret Canyon” (Apparent Extent) 2008

as William Tyler

• “Between Radnor and Sunrise” on “Imaginational Anthem Volume 4” (Tompkins Square) 2010
• “Behold the Spirit” (Tompkins Square) 2010
• “Tears and Saints” on the “Benefit for the Revovery in Japan” compilation (Antiopic)

News

• William Tyler: Behold the Spirit on Pitchfork Jan 19, 2011
• William Tyler Interview on Work and Worry Jan 19, 2011
• William Tyler: Behold the Spirit on The NY Times Dec 23, 2010
• William Tyler's Behold the Spirit on Prefix Dec 14, 2010
• William Tyler's Behold the Spirit in the Washington City Paper Dec 3, 2010
• William Tyler's Behold the Spirit on Dusted Nov 22, 2010
• William Tyler's Behold the Spirit on AllMusic Nov 22, 2010
• William Tyler: Behold the Spirit on NPR Nov 14, 2010
• William Tyler: A Brief History of William Tyler on WFMU Oct 19, 2010

Tour Dates

Date	Venue	Location	With	Tickets
Thu 5/17/2012	Great Scotts	Allston, Massachusetts	The Strange Boys
Sat 5/19/2012	Cake Shop	Manhattan, New York
Tue 5/22/2012	The Pinhook	Durham, North Carolina	The Strange Boys
Wed 5/23/2012	The Lab (NC)	Ashevile, North Carolina	The Strange Boys
Thu 5/24/2012	Farm 255	Athens, Georgia	The Strange Boys