Columbus, Ohio USA
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Tyler Band
Homage to past Columbus music talent
By Jeffrey Pearcy
November 2011 Issue

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Twenty four years ago, the Columbus band Tyler was actively being courted by music giant Columbia Records. If you were at Mr. Brown’s or Studio 5 during this series of shows you experienced the magic first hand.

Columbia quickly flew the band out to Burbank and assigned a producer to oversee the recording process of handpicked original songs b members Frank Pierce and Dick Mackey had written.

Sometimes, when creative individuals interact with the “chipper / shredder” mentality that big music has become, it’s the artist who suffers. This is definitely one such case.

Ted Lenker, guitarist for “Tyler,” had express mailed me a copy of the Columbia tracks as soon as they were completed and was lamenting “they brought Joe Walsh in to redo my parts man!”

Joe actually wrote each part out, note for note and played identical parts and accents. This was done for name recognition sake.

The short story is the band came back to Columbus worse for wear, Columbia never released the tracks and somehow the surviving members lost sight of the true accomplishment they had achieved.

While I’ve always wanted to work with those songs it wasn’t until a recent audience with multi-Grammy winning producer Phil Ramone that I realized it was time for these wonderful songs to see the light of day.

My personal favorite “Days at the Top” was chosen to be the first tune redone in this series of Tyler songs and is now available on Itunes by Bad Penny’s. This first song is the culmination of six months of production in some of the best studios in the country with truly outstanding players.

Go to the website for your chance to join Bad Penny’s producer in the studio during the next recording session.

I miss Frank and Ted and think of them often!

Visit www.badpennys.com

 

© 2011 Short North Gazette, Columbus, Ohio. All rights reserved.

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