LITTLE ROCK — Jonathan Tyler is "just getting into Oklahoma," headed northeast from Dallas toward St. Louis and a next-day gig at a classic rock radio-sponsored festival with his blues rock band: Jonathan Tyler & The Northern Lights.
Cell phone reception is bad between downtown Little Rock and southern Oklahoma. That's why the lead singer and guitarist calls six times to finish a 20-minute interview. Calls are garbled. Reception is lost. Calls vanish. Tyler dutifully calls back each time.
One interview question is what did Tyler learn while touring with Rock and Roll Hall of Famers and blues rock legends ZZ Top earlier this year? He wants to answer it.
"I think they've always done what ... they wanted to do," Tyler says. "They are Texas and a three-piece band that never tried to do ..."
Static.
"... just doing what's natural and what you want, that's what I take away."
Silence. The line is dead.
A phone rings.
It's Tyler.
"It definitely gives you confidence to see them 40 years later doing what they started out doing ..."
Silence again.
A phone rings.
"I'll just keep going. I think in an age of synthesizers and autotune ..."
Silence yet again.
A phone rings.
“Dude, sorry."
Tyler continues. "Honestly, I really want to get this point across. Nowadays, pop music is so produced and put together, and everything is computerized and synthesized. We try to perform and do all the instruments. Maybe we're getting into an age where that's going to be old news and no one cares about people really playing music. And I just see ZZ Top. They understand the old, classic way of making music. It's almost like a folklore type thing where it's tradition. I think it's important, and I think that's what I learned from them. Just the way they did things, it was definitely inspiring."
The point is, in a world of pop music where plastic stars wearing meat suits, doe-eyed country innocents and teenage-girl idols outshine real music, Tyler and the Lights are sticking to their guns — the way their heroes and influences did. The Rolling Stones. Led Zeppelin. Early, drug-fueled Aerosmith. The music makers who were always a little bit dangerous and unruly, even when singing about Angies and Tangerines. The swaggering rock 'n' roll that is best turned up with the windows turned down. The classic sound for cruising a high school parking lot circa 1976.
This is the sound of Jonathan Tyler & The Northern Lights — a little blues-soaked, sex-driven rock 'n' roll balanced with the save-your-soul howl of gospel music.
"We were actually raised — not all of us — in church," Tyler says of himself and the Lights. "From when we were very young to when we left our houses. It was a very gospel upbringing. ... Blues and Southern rock music really takes a lot of influence from gospel and [the] church side of music. It's just sort of natural for us to play that type of music. We weren't aiming for any specific kind of band. We didn't try to do that.
"You don't have to fake it. You just do what you love, and it'll always be there and you can always create from that."
Before you think the band's music is buried in the past, know this: Tyler listens keenly to the music of today, purchasing the latest albums by The Arcade Fire, Black Mountain, Tom Petty and The Black Angels. Both for influences and (He didn't state this but it can be sensed.) to keep a keen eye on the competition. Not in a competitive way, but just to be up to date on what else is out there.
Formed in 2007, Tyler and the Lights built their fame the old-fashioned way — through constant touring. And in the last year or so, the band — a core lineup of Tyler, guitarist Brandon Pinckard, drummer Jordan Cain and bassist Nick Jay — is reaping the rewards of the long drives and hard work. The band released a 2007 debut, Hot Trottin', that sold well in the band's hometown of Dallas. The music fell into the right hands, and in April, Jonathan Tyler & The Northern Lights released Pardon Me, their official debut on Atlantic Records subsidiary F-Stop.
In between, the band toured solo and with AC/DC, Kid Rock, Lynyrd Skynyrd and ZZ Top, playing their Texas roundhouse rock for someone and sometimes hardly any one. The Black Crowes' Rich Robinson co-wrote a Pardon Me track with Tyler. The band played Jimmy Kimmel Live!
But the band is no overnight sensation, they put in the hard work and the days of poverty and blood. Still, it's heady stuff, this fame game.
"When you are a musician you dream about playing in front of these big audiences and think about how crazy that might be, but you never really know it's going to happen," Tyler says. "You hope that it happens, but you can't know it'll happen. There are a thousand miles between that dream and the actual fruition of that dream coming true."
And then Tyler's voice fades into the Oklahoma afternoon.
But don't worry. He called back to finish his point and say goodbye. Off to his next gig with his Northern Lights.
See the show:
Jonathan Tyler & The Northern Lights return to Sticky Fingerz on Thursday, with the music kicking off at 9 p.m. with an undisclosed opening act. Tickets are $10 for the 21-and-up show.