William Tyler Gathers a Wealth of Friends at The Blue Room

From the stage awash in green and yellow spotlights at The Blue Room at Third Man Records on Saturday, Nashville multihyphenate musician William Tyler suggested that the crowd take a seat on the floor. “This isn’t church,” Tyler joked, but it sure felt something like it. 

Cellist Cecilia Stair stood at the ready. Audio engineer Jake Davis manned a synthesizer and Tyler’s grandfather’s reel-to-reel tape machine, outfitted with a loop carrying the ghostly whine of wind and train cars that signals the opening of Tyler’s Time Indefinite with “Cabin Six.” Released in April via Psychic Hotline, Time Indefinite is one of two albums from Tyler this year, alongside a collaborative LP with producer Kieran Hebden (aka Four Tet) called 41 Longfield Street Late ’80s.

On Time Indefinite, Tyler renders in music images of natural bodies like the moon, stars, trees and lakes, which are both in and beyond the field of human consciousness. The album’s title points to things in the world that are uncertain and thus both indefinite and limitless. In an April interview about the record with In Sheep’s Clothing Hi-Fi, Tyler discussed influences on the LP including Mark Fisher’s application of hauntology (the philosophical idea that cultural concepts from the past keep coming back) to music and William Faulkner’s immortal quote: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”

During the first set of the evening, the three-piece ensemble traversed Time Indefinite’s nine ambient folk pieces, shifting deftly from haunting guitar solos to melodies of jangling bells to expressive, urgent cello pizzicatos. Tyler switched between acoustic and electric guitar and at times employed an EBow, playing on top of the hiss and buzz of background feedback.

The live arrangement of “Star of Hope” began with ghostly murmurs of choral music, which were slowly eclipsed by a steady chord progression. Meanwhile, electric bleeps and whirs radiated from the beating center of the fifth song, “A Dream, a Flood.” These disparate scenes reached a trembling climax on “Electric Lake,” a cinematic mélange of all the instruments and sounds Tyler assembled over the course of the album. The final song “Held” embraced the audience in a soothing odyssey, returning to the core interplay between acoustic guitar and cello. 

Ever lighthearted, Tyler likened the night to therapy, with the album performance being a kind of process group therapy session. Before the “And Friends” juncture, it was time for recess and snack time, he quipped. 

After the break, he introduced bassist Jack Lawrence, pianist Jo Schornikow and drummer Brian Kotzur, who play with Tyler as The Impossible Truth. In what has become a Thanksgiving-time tradition, a diverse lineup of special guest musicians joined the band on vocals for a whirlwind assembly of folk-rock classics and other covers. 

First up was singer-songwriter Annie Williams. She crooned a rendition of “Till I Gain Control Again” as made famous by Emmylou Harris, as well as Richard and Linda Thompson’s “I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight,” while Tyler played guitar and sang backing vocals. Sean Thompson, Jemina Pearl and Dillon Watson followed. Then Joseph Plunket, local business owner and frontman of Country Westerns, rocked out to Flamin’ Groovies 1976 standout “Shake Some Action.” 

Then came a duet from Cassie Berman and William’s father Dan Tyler. Berman introduced the song, giving thanks to her late husband David Berman, who was also her bandmate in Silver Jews alongside Tyler, Kotzur and others. 

“Of course, we would all like David to be here,” Berman said, noting that she had felt his presence more strongly recently. She also pointed out it was her first time playing “We Could be Looking for the Same Thing,” the closer of Silver Jews’ 2008 record Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea, with a new partner. The duo eased into the familiar tune, with the elder Tyler’s gravelly overtones melding and interchanging with Berman’s bright, country-tinged melodies. 

To close the night, Kotzur stayed at the kit but took the mic for a cover of Thin Lizzy’s rollicking “Running Back.” The crowd brimmed effusively with a blend of rhythm, nostalgia and camaraderie that, as Tyler put it, could only happen in this special Southern music city.

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