After spending the better part of two years laying bare his country roots, Tyler Halverson is hell-bent on showing off his versatility with new album, In Defense of Drinking. “This one was just to lay out all the different tastes and flavors that I could think to come up with,” Halverson says of the project, which he dropped on Friday.
Halverson’s profile rose with the 2024 release of Western Amerijuana (Part 2), a collection of laid-back love stories and cowboy tales that landed the South Dakota native in prime slots opening for the likes of Parker McCollum and the Turnpike Troubadours. His follow-up still has plenty of those, but Halverson adds a heavy dose of rock, folk, and blues to his melodies.
In Defense of Drinking features 11 tracks and is heavy on cameos. McCollum trades verses on Halverson’s reprise of “Beer Garden Baby,” and Australian cowboy crooner Wade Forster does the same on “Like the Rodeo” — two of five singles already released from the record. Halverson tapped Ryan Youmans and Muscadine Bloodline’s Gary Stanton to produce, and the record is full of songwriting collaborations between Halverson and Nashville aces like Jon Decious, Ben Chapman, and Johnny Clawson.
“We got songs that are heavy and harder hitting like ‘More Hearts Than Horses’ and ‘Fort Worth Losing’ before we strip it down with ‘Cowboy Babies,’ which is two acoustic guitars and a vocal,” Halverson says. “It’s all over the board. I was excited for that. We set it up like a live set more than a big concept record.”
“More Hearts Than Horses” is the lead track, and one that Halverson says is in the “leave me the hell alone or I’m gonna write a song about you,” spirit. He delivers it over a heavy drumbeat, building to an electric crescendo in the chorus. It’s a sharp contrast to his lament of a woman who wants “cows and cowboy babies” on the folky “Cowboy Babies” later on.
But it’s a familiar song paired with a familiar voice that is the most likely gateway into the record for country fans.
Halverson released “Beer Garden Baby” in 2021, and — along with “Mac Miller,” a viral hit inspired by the late rapper — it became an early signature for Halverson, who built a career playing dive bars across Texas, where he lived at the time. Now a Nashville resident with a better understanding of his own musical style, he reimagined “Beer Garden Baby” for In Defense of Drinking thanks to some encouragement from McCollum.
“I just hit him up and said that I was interested in re-cutting ‘Mac’ or ‘Beer Garden’ and would let him have the pick of it if he wanted to hop on,” Halverson says of the McCollum collab. “He claims that ‘Beer Garden’ is one of his favorite songs.”
While McCollum adds star power to the record, it’s Forster’s appearance that reminds listeners of Halverson’s cowboy roots. Forster, an Australian singer-songwriter currently in the middle of a U.S. tour with dates with Treaty Oak Revival and Shane Smith and the Saints, was a professional rodeo cowboy before becoming a musician.
“Him and I have been buddies, and he understands the whole hustle of the rodeo and the music world, and they go together real well,” Halverson says of Forster. “You start out playing every little shithole bar in every no-name town, just playing as long as you can until you get on a real bill. It’s the same with the rodeo. You’re going to every small town trying to work yourself up to get your pro card and get on a circuit. You don’t make no money sitting still.”
Halverson grew up showing Hereford cattle, traveling with his parents to stock shows and state fairs across the Midwest and Rocky Mountain states. Such events nearly always feature live entertainment, and Halverson was drawn to the concerts he saw at night after a day spent showing cattle. His folks were also concert junkies, so music was ever-present in Halverson’s life. He went to college in Nashville at Belmont University to study music business, but he became enamored of on-stage side of music and picked up a steady run of cover gigs around town.
“I couldn’t hold down a job for nothing, because I was always playing. Eevery job that I had, my boss would always be pissed off that I was leaving,” Halverson says.
“Then, I got a job at a hat shop. I fell in love with making felt hats and learning that craft. But it was an interesting moment, because I’d never heard my dad get pissed off at me for having a job. He kept telling me, ‘That’s not what you’re here for. If you wanted one of those jobs, you could just move back home.’”
Halverson heard his father loud and clear and took the leap. He got serious about songwriting and committed himself to building a fanbase across the country. Now, five years since releasing his first songs, the payoffs are becoming bigger and more frequent. He made his Grand Ole Opry debut in 2024. He headlined bars and clubs and opened for Turnpike and Treaty Oak, sometimes for upwards of 10,000 fans at a time.
When McCollum invited him on tour, Halverson was ready. He’ll be with the Gold Chain Cowboy this weekend for a series of arena shows in the southeast when In Defense of Drinking drops. Next week, he’ll jump in his van for headlining shows with Angel White and India Ramey opening. It’s a brisk pace, but for now, the road is where Halverson prefers to spend his time.
“We’re just trying to give everybody the opportunity to come see it,” he says. “We are playing everything that we can, from L.A. to New York. We’ve been staying in that vein and trying to spread the good news as far as we can.”
Josh Crutchmer is a journalist and author whose book (Almost) Almost Famous will be released April 1 via Back Lounge Publishing.
