Tyler Halverson: From Punk Rock to Country Music, He’s Doing Things His Own Way
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- 4 min read
Written by Lauren Page | @LiveWithLP
Tyler Halverson was the kid who turned up to cattle shows with a mohawk and a skateboard. That probably tells you quite a lot about the country artist he would eventually become.
Raised on everything from George Strait and Garth Brooks to Taking Back Sunday and The Used, Halverson has built a sound that doesn’t sit neatly in one corner of country music - and when I caught up with him at McChullis in Glasgow, it quickly became clear that’s exactly how he likes it.
“I was the weird kid at the cattle show that had a mohawk and brought a skateboard,” he laughed. “I loved punk bands growing up.”
Fast forward to 2026 and Halverson is having quite the year.
His latest album, In Defence of Drinking, arrived in February and showcases pretty much every side of the South Dakota native, moving between harder-hitting tracks and stripped-back acoustic moments.
For Halverson, that variety was intentional.
“I feel like the album was set up like a live show,” he explained. “There’s the harder hitting songs, and then there’s the acoustic, there’s everything in between too.”
The album also saw him return to working with Gary Stanton and Ryan Youmans, who he made his first record with, giving the project a certain full-circle feeling.
But those punk influences from his childhood haven’t disappeared.
Alongside the country legends playing around him growing up, Halverson was a huge fan of Punk Goes Pop, Taking Back Sunday and The Used - a combination that makes the genre-blurring moments in his own music make considerably more sense.
Basically: cattle shows meet emo kid. He’s certainly not alone.
When the conversation turned to country artists embracing alternative influences, Halverson immediately pointed towards his friends in Muscadine Bloodline.
“Charlie and Gary are always busting out some punk song or some alt song that we all jammed when we were like 15.”
There was just one problem. They haven’t come to the UK yet...
“Charlie, Gary, get over here,” Halverson declared.
You heard the man.
Collaborations have become another important part of Halverson’s catalogue, including working with Australian country artist Wade Forster. After the pair spent time chatting online, Halverson sent Forster some music. He picked out a track he loved and, conveniently, later found himself in town. “I was like, well, let’s just do it,” Halverson recalled. “We just went to the studio and cut it up.”
Then there’s Parker McCollum.
Halverson recently revisited fan favourite Beer Garden Baby, with McCollum jumping on the new version after Halverson made the decision to re-record some of his music following the end of a record deal.
“I’d just got out of a record deal and I was kind of a little salty,” he admitted. “So I was like, ‘We’re going to cut this shit on our own.’”
McCollum chose Beer Garden Baby, with Halverson later travelling to California and joining him on stage to perform it.
And if collaborations with some of country music’s biggest names weren’t enough, Halverson also found himself on one of the genre’s biggest soundtracks.
His track New Loop featured on Twisters: The Album, alongside names including Luke Combs, Lainey Wilson, Jelly Roll, Shania Twain and more.
For someone who is typically pretty reluctant to blow his own trumpet, even Halverson admitted that seeing his name amongst a line-up like that meant something.
“It’s cool to see your name up there on the list with everybody else that’s killing it and doing it,” he said. “Just like a tip of the hat - you’re going in the right direction.”
That direction has increasingly brought him across the Atlantic.
After appearing at C2C last year, Halverson has seen first-hand just how quickly country music is growing in Britain, from packed shows to fans fully embracing the boots and cowboy hats.
But there’s one thing about UK crowds that has taken some getting used to.
They listen.
Growing up performing in honky-tonks and beer joints, Halverson was used to having to fight to get a room’s attention.
“In the honky-tonks and the beer joints, you’re just trying to make noise and get attention,” he explained. “But here you have their attention. It’s cool.”
Apparently, though, we might be taking the listening part slightly too seriously.
“It’s almost so polite and quiet that I don’t know what the hell to do with myself.”
His request for Glasgow was simple: make some noise. “I don’t like silence.”
Naturally, I interpreted this as direct permission to stand in the crowd with a pint in each hand causing a ruckus.
“One in each hand, let’s go,” he laughed.
Mum, Tyler told me to...
For Halverson, coming to countries like Scotland is ultimately about building something.
“Going to places that you haven’t been and planting the seeds and getting a couple people out,” he said. “Hopefully next time you come back, they bring some friends and it just grows and rolls from that.”
It’s his favourite part of touring - even when it takes him somewhere he jokes he has “no business being”.
But his philosophy for making it work is perhaps the best quote of the entire conversation.
“The stubborn arsehole wins.” Get it on a T-shirt immediately.
And stubborn is perhaps one way to describe his 2026 schedule.
Halverson reckons he has had around two weeks off since January, with the relentless touring continuing until the end of October. November will then turn the focus back towards writing before plans to cut more music across December and January.
Rest, apparently, isn’t really on the agenda.
So, with new music, a growing UK audience and plenty more touring ahead, what would Halverson say to someone spotting his name on a festival bill and wondering whether to check him out?
His sales pitch was wonderfully on-brand. “Come see it and see if it’s worth a shit, I guess.”
Not exactly one they teach you in marketing. But perhaps that’s why Tyler Halverson is so easy to root for.
There’s no hard sell, no perfectly polished answers and seemingly very little interest in pretending to be anything other than himself.
From the mohawk-wearing kid at the cattle show to Glasgow, C2C and a place on one of country music’s biggest soundtracks, those seeds Halverson talks about planting are beginning to grow.
And the stubborn arsehole might just be winning.
Catch Tyler Halvorsen on tour this week, and Country Calling Festival this weekend.