Rhett Tyler to Perform at Saturday Fireside Event

Musician Rhett Tyler has shared the stage with great musicians like Kenny Wayne Shepherd and has been compared to Jimi Hendrix and Johnny Winter. On Saturday, April 16 at 7:30 p.m., music fans will be able to hear Tyler as part of The Fireside Event, sponsored by the Christian Community Church of River Edge. Tickets are $10.

Tyler, who graduated from Mahwah High School and has been playing music since the 1970s, received the call from fellow musician and church member Joey Brennan. Tyler said performing at this kind of venue is part of him getting back into the music industry after having endured a few difficult years.

 “In 2000, I was at the top of my game,” he said. “I was playing in Morristown with Kenny Wayne Shepherd and in 2002, I broke my hand.” 

For a musician that makes his living with his hand, he said it was devastating and the musicians he was playing with went on to perform with the likes of John Mayer and Aretha Franklin.

“It took me three years to come back from that,” he said. Just as he was about to make a comeback, he contracted Lyme Disease.

“It was terrible,” he said in a telephone interview. “Six or seven years away from the music industry is an eternity, but I am making my way back.” 

Throughout his missing decade, Tyler claims it was his faith that helped bring him through. It is one of the reasons why he is appearing at the Christian Community Church.

“My faith is what got me through,” he said. “When I do gospel music, I do not do the typical praise stuff you hear, but I do real blues. To me real blues is a celebration of getting past the difficulties in life. It should put a smile on your face to tell you what God has done.” 

He explained that Muddy Waters said that if you want to hear real blues music, go to church. Tyler further said that blues music was born in the Baptist Churches in the South by black people who wanted to express their hearts going through difficulties.

“Most people think the blues is about drinking and loose women, but it is not,” he said. According to Tyler, the blues would go on to inspire other forms of music like jazz and rock and roll and good music will reflect those roots. He also said that good musicians know how to make it come to life in the moment.

“All jazz is supposed to move you and it is not about the commercial dinner club,” he said. “It is about improvising [musically], telling your story and moving people.” 

Tyler, along with musicians Al Buonanno, bassist, and Don Moffatt, drummer, will be on hand to tell their story and give the crowd show to enjoy.

“We take our fun very seriously,” Tyler said with a laugh. “And it is just same thing as if we were playing for anyone in Los Angeles or New York City. We give as much as we can to the audience and work hard doing it. If it ain’t fun, it’s no good.” 

As for playing jazz, blues and rock and roll in a religious venue, he said he was glad to do it. He praised the Christian Community Church for reaching out to the community.

“I think it is great and important,” he said. “We are all about spreading God’s joy and not Bible-thumping. I look at this as a chance to tell people about my best friend.”