Tyler Halverson Reveals Why Some Country Stars Avoid Performing in Nashville

Tyler Halverson pulling the curtain back on why artists sometimes choose to skip out on Nashville.

The singer-songwriter hailing from South Dakota (and proudly gatekeeping his state) recently joined the Whiskey Riff Raff podcast to discuss how he didn’t feel pressure putting together his sophomore album, In Defense of Drinking, revisited his dream blunt rotation, talked about his goal to sing at the NFR opening ceremony, and revealed why he wanted to keep his most recent album “less polished.”

Halverson then gave his take on modern country music albums being 25 songs long, how he never passes up a thrifting opportunity, and said that one of his favorite genres of music to listen to is… big band music from the 1940s. Like I said earlier, there’s really no stone left unturned in the conversation with the “Beer Garden Baby” singer.

And at one point during the interview, Halverson got on the topics of venues in Nashville that he enjoys playing. He touched on a couple of spots that he enjoys in Music City, but then admitted that Nashville isn’t his favorite place to play, and explained why that’s the case:

“I like playing shows, no matter where it’s at. But I think there are better places to play shows than Nashville. That’s a whole thing where you get a lot of people… it’s a lot of industry people coming out and hanging out. You can get a lot of (arms crossed and standing still).

Not so much of the crowd hanging out and jamming. I think I’ve always just looked at Nashville as a place to write and record more than to play.”

Valid point there. If artists spend a whole lot of time in Nashville working, they probably wouldn’t mind a change of scenery when it comes to touring. Of course, on the flip side of the coin, the Nashville show gives artists the chance to invite fellow artists to come out and give fans a surprise guest… we see it all the time when artists are headlining the Ryman or Bridgestone Arena.

We even asked Halverson if he think that’s why a lot of other artists – even those outside of the country music genre – tend to pass on scheduling concerts in Music City. The “Fort Worth Losing” singer didn’t want to speak for all artists, but did offer up his hypothesis on why Nashville isn’t an artist’s favorite place to play:

“I’m not really sure what the whole reason is for that. I think everyone probably just sees it as home. And we’re not trying to play while we’re at home.”

So if you were ever wondering why some of your favorite artists never seem to pick Nashville as one of their tour dates… now you know why.