Tyler Nail with Steve Harz
April 17, 2026 @ 7:00PM — 9:00PM Eastern Time (US & Canada) Add to Calendar
The Buttonwood Tree Performing Arts Center: 605 Main Street Middletown, CT 06457 Get Directions
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Tyler Nail witth Steve Harz
Nail is a wiry figure with a dark, prominent beard. He marches around club stages like he can’t bear to stand still. His voice is rough, loud, and unmistakably Southern. His two-finger Piedmont-style guitar playing weaves intricate compositions that carry both rhythm and melody.
Nail has been an artist and performer since 2008. Throughout his long career he has toured heavily, landed song placement in film and TV, and released multiple LPs, EPs, and singles, including his 2025 release, Family.
He entered into music performance as a singing drummer, piling his friends into a hot backyard building to play rock songs. At sixteen, he picked up his first guitar and started writing original songs. He was not a natural singer. His early recordings were as rough as they come. But he kept at it, playing open mics and bars, learning his voice.
From there, music consumed him. He gained his first fans in a coffee shop in King, NC, and more in the clubs of Winston-Salem. He started playing in a local competition called the Winston-Salem Shuffle, where he became its most decorated winner. In 2011, he released his first proper album, Winter to Winter. That same year, he produced When I Go Away: A Tribute to Levon Helm – a project that strengthened his place in the local scene.
Over the years, Nail released more albums, shared stages with Americana staples like The Hackensaw Boys and American Aquarium, and toured the country with his band, The Tyler Nail Trio. In 2016, the band disbanded and Nail took a break from touring. Nail stayed in North Carolina, releasing music quietly until 2019, when his double album Life Lessons marked a darker and louder chapter in his artistry.
The pandemic halted his touring entirely, but it reignited his drive. His 2020 single “I Don’t Wanna Die Alone” spoke to a renewed dedication to the adventurous life. In 2021, his DEVIL EP hinted at a fresh fire burning in his artistry.
In 2023, after years of rebuilding and soul-searching, Nail decided to leave North Carolina. He moved far from the Appalachian foothills to the little city of Providence, Rhode Island, to seek new inspiration and opportunity. In 2024 he worked aggressively on music, sharing songs through Patreon and YouTube while expanding his creative team. During this time, he recorded Family, an album honoring his North Carolina roots, capturing the warmth and weight of home from afar, and honing in on a pure, guitar-driven Americana sound.
Tyler Nail’s catalog boasts nearly 300 songs. The Southern recluse-turned-wanderer writes with wisdom and craftsmanship, earning accolades along the way: winner of "Best Country Artist" at the Forsyth Entertainment Awards (2018), semi-finalist in the International Songwriting Competition and American Songwriter Road-Ready Contest (2024), voted in the top 5 songwriters of the Piedmont Triad for multiple years, and nominated for best Americana artist in Providence by Motif Magazine (2025).
From his humble beginnings in his grandfather's cabin, he found his to packed-out music clubs in Winston-Salem. Years of hanging on to home led him to the snowy streets of Providence, RI. Nail's story is one of exploration, transformation, and authenticity. He is a Southern songwriter, an observer, and a heavy-hitting Americana artist. Much like his musical heroes, Nail is driven by the careful craftsmanship of his songs, and sharing them with as many people as he can across the country, on stage and on recording.
Here is a link to my EPK.
Opening for Tyler is Steve Harz
Steve Harz
Steven Harz is an indie folk/rock musician and songwriter. In the past an award-winning poet, Steven now repurposes those words into song lyrics, in an effort to create something with which all listeners can identify, whether they be love and loss, failure and redemption, or ghosts and God. Steven recently released an EP titled, “Rosebud” which is available on all streaming platforms
Depending on the location or depending on what I’m working on, I’ll either try to pick a song that I’m confident in that I know I can perform well and I want the practice, or I’ll play a new song that I’m working on - either a cover or an original - so I can figure out in real time how I want to play it. It takes me 5-10 times playing a song live before I know how I want it to sound. The final, and very important, aspect is meeting other musicians, networking, learning from them, and the friendships and camaraderie
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