Rising country star Ty Myers can cry in his beer — he just can’t drink it

Also like many country artists, Myers learned how to write drinking songs (examples include “Drinkin’ Alone” and “Drunk Love,” with lyrics that include, “So throw em’ down, shot for shot/Till I can’t feel the stool I’m sitting on”).

What is different about Myers from some of his country peers is he was playing in bars and writing such songs well before he reached Texas’ legal drinking age of 21. At 17 (and turning 18 in September), he, in fact, has a ways to go to reach that milestone.

Credit: (Courtesy of Ty Myers)

Credit: (Courtesy of Ty Myers)

“I was going to these dance halls and clubs that I probably should not have been allowed into at a young age,” said Myers, who was all of 3 years old when his parents first took him to see his father play Western swing dancehall music.

“There’s pictures of me at 1 or 2 a.m., passed out on the bar top while watching my dad play,” he said. “My parents would watch me, and they said I was always just really locked in on the music. They could just tell it was my focus.”

Myers started out playing an acoustic guitar, before his parents bought him a Fender Squier beginners electric guitar. Back home, he and his father customized it — replacing the pickups, frets and making other improvements — so that it sounded like a more high-end guitar that Ty would go on to play at gigs.

Before long, he was writing his own material, which he began uploading to YouTube and other social media platforms. Like many artists of his age, that was where he found initial commercial success. The first song he put out there was “Ties That Bind,” a country ballad that went viral a few months after it was posted.

“We released it in early 2023 and it started doing really well, especially compared to what we had expected, because we didn’t really have any expectations, right?” Myers said. “And then, just a few months later, I’m going to bed one night, and I’m looking at my phone and I’m like, ‘Man, this is weird. I’m getting a lot of Instagram followers right now. But, whatever, I’m going to go to bed.’”

The next morning, Myers’ sister shook him awake to show him that the song had, in fact, blown up overnight and now had 300,000 views.

As it happened, the family was driving to Key West, Florida, for a vacation, as the views continued to rise. Three record labels reached out during the drive. “It was like this surreal experience,” the musician said.

Myers eventually signed with Records Nashville/Columbia Records, which released his debut full-length album, “The Select,” in January.

It didn’t take long for critics to start noticing and singing his praises. All Country News called him a “teenage prodigy and a formidable force reshaping the country music landscape.” Other critics have called Myers’ music “timeless,” and more than a few of them have referred to him as an “old soul.”

Myers confirmed as much in a TikTok interview where he said he’d “always aspired to being perceived as the most mature person in the room.”

That maturity is even reflected in the name of his album and tour, which began in May and continues through the end of the year. The Select was the name of the Paris bar where Ernest Hemingway’s circle of expatriate writers and artists convened.

There’s also an eclecticism that’s evident in the wide range of cover songs that Myers has performed live or on social media, ranging from Tyler Childers’ “Feathered Indians” and John Mayer’s “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room” to George Strait’s “Down and Out” and Bill Withers’ “Use Me.”

Myers is also becoming a formidable electric guitarist, having been introduced to the art of soloing by listening to Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Myers’ musical vocabulary also is beginning to grow, which he credits in large part to his parents.

In addition to playing Western swing in Central Texas venues, Myers’ dad, Michael, was then a singer-songwriter who spent a lot of time back home listening to records by classic country artists including Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Ray Price and Waylon Jennings.

“My dad loved country music, but my mom kind of diversified my taste,” Myers said. “It was in the car with her that I first heard soul and blues and even rap. All of these genres and subgenres. And that was the first time I ever heard Stevie Ray Vaughan, which was like an out-of-body experience.

“And so that was my first introduction to music,” he said. “I owe a lot to that, because it’s really where my love for music started.”

CONCERT PREVIEW

Ty Myers

8 p.m. Friday. With Hannah McFarland. Sold out with resale tickets available. The Tabernacle, 152 Luckie St. NW, Atlanta. tabernacleatl.com.