The Talbott Brothers

As Nick and Tyler Talbott stand elbow to elbow in a dark, Imperial, Neb, backyard, bleary eyed at 1:30 a.m., there’s a bittersweet meeting in their voices between joy and woe.

On one hand, their hometown lies before them: in their eyes, the perfect place to settle down, grow a family and cultivate a career. Comfort and security unfolds from their lips in crisp harmony.

The alternative, the path that pulls more strongly from within, is a touring career and a rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle the offers sprawling vistas and new experiences: The Ride.

There is resolution in the end as their voices strengthen, affirming the decision that seems at once to tear them apart inside and give them hope. In a way, it’s as though they sing tearfully and consolingly to a lover: I’m sorry, baby, but this is what I was meant for.

Watch The Talbott Brothers perform “Love The Ride” by lamplight — little more than an hour after their 2015 Good Living Tour appearance in their hometown Imperial.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEKPAWfxH4c - Nickolai Hammar (Hear Nebraska)

Updated: Wed 8:24 AM, Jun 18, 2014
By: WOWT 6 News Email

Omaha rock band The Talbott Brothers has won the Bank of the West Celebrates America Opening Band Contest and will kick off the Memorial Park concert on June 27th.

More than 200 entries from across the country were received during the two-week open call. The Talbott Brothers received the most votes on Facebook. The public was invited to vote for their favorite finalist June 10th-16th.

The Talbott Brothers, led by Nick and Tyler Talbott and backed by bassist Ben Frerichs and drummer Jake Culey, play alternative rock infused with blues. “We’re just beyond excited,” said Nick. “We feel really humbled and thankful for all of our friends and our fans for supporting us. Our band went up against some good artists and we feel pretty honored to be selected. We really look forward to representing Omaha and being a part of Bank of the West Celebrates America.”

The show also features Blues Traveler, Sugar Ray, Uncle Kracker and Smash Mouth. - Omaha Sun Times

It might mean a warm bed, a home-cooked meal and a slew of old friends, but based on The Talbott Brothers’ brand new EP Coming Home — the end of a long and somewhat lonely tour can mean a lot of conflicted feelings.

The EP serves as a sort of epilogue to their 2013 full-length The Road, all songs from that record, all fleshed out from slightly drier folk pop to full-fledged rock songs and all curated to get at a certain part of the road. Specifically, the end of it.

Through the four songs — “Morphine,” “On The Run,” “Wretched Man” and the title track, Coming Home rings as a passionate but troubled ode to what happens after a return and some of the raw nerves that come about when the traveler has changed and the people he’s left behind have as well. Or maybe they haven’t. And that can be it’s own sort of problem.

Brothers Tyler and Nick Talbott released the EP earlier this month at The Waiting Room and it sees them drawing on classic rock influences — nearly always open to harmony — with both the pop structure of a John Mellencamp song, as well as with that pop star’s America-by-birds-eye-view perspective. And it’s pop music in that way very deliberately.

In a Hear Nebraska song premiere of “The Road” last year, Tyler (who writes songs in the band as well as Nick), told us: “We don’t want to take three minutes and 30 seconds and talk about ourselves. We want to give a voice to everybody, so to speak.”

These are songs then that, yes, are very simple to trace back to a touring band, but are general enough to try and get at broader experience. You could say most people are in state of constant departure or return.

You can see The Talbott brothers at The Bourbon on April 4 with Evan Bartels and Clay. But right now they join us as a full band in the studio on Hear Nebraska FM. Ladies and gentlemen, here is The Talbott Brothers. - Chance Solem-Pfeifer

The Talbott Brothers, an Omaha, Neb.,-based band fronted by brothers Nick and Tyler Talbott, will bring their band south to Kansas for a 7:30 p.m. Saturday gig at Uncle Bo’s, the blues nightspot on the lower level of the Ramada Hotel and Convention Center, 420 S.E. 6th. Tickets, sold at the door, are $10. After spending time in Chicago, New York and New Jersey, the Talbotts returned to Nebraska to record an EP appropriately named “Coming Home” before hitting the road again with a new drummer and bassist. - Topeka Capitol Journal

The Talbott Brothers were losing money and playing to small crowds in a New Jersey winter, half a country away from home. Through it all, they faced a pressing question: Could they tolerate more?

“We had to come to terms,” says Tyler Talbott, one half of his Imperial, Neb.-bred, pop/rock duo with his brother Nick. “It strengthened our brotherhood. We’ve learned that we’re so different in so many ways.”

The brothers spent the better part of the winter touring after the release of their debut, Leaving Home, in November 2012. The trip provided the bulk of the source material they needed to follow up immediately. What came out was a kind of sequel record about what happens when being away from home becomes its own lifestyle.

“Everybody else that sees being on stage, they see it as glamorous or maybe even see the people on the stage as self-centered,” Tyler says. “No one sees the grunt work that you do. We wanted to start the [title] song out by saying, ‘It gets the best of you.’”

Earlier this spring, heading toward what would be a successful crowdfunding process, the seeds of The Road were already sprouting when Nick — who splits songwriting, singing and guitar duties with Tyler — auditioned a definitive track.

LISTEN TO "THE ROAD" BY THE TALBOTT BROTHERS

“He played it and I knew and he knew that that was going to be the title track,” says Tyler, noting that “The Road” felt so right he didn’t engage in the brothers’ customary editing and fraternal arguing over a new song.

In addition to the autobiographical details about the pavement and the highway signs, Tyler says he derives a more metaphorical meaning from the track, as well. The Talbott Brothers aren’t just singing about The Road with a capital “R,” but one road in particular: the path Robert Frost calls “less traveled by.” In the Talbott songwriting rulebook, identifying a universal message in what might begin as a personal song is as important as crafting the song in the first place.

“When we write a song, we ask ourselves a question: ‘Are we speaking for everybody?’” Tyler explains. “We don’t want to take three minutes and 30 seconds and talk about ourselves. We want to give a voice to everybody, so to speak.”

For Tyler, the broader resonance of “The Road” is posing the question of what a listener will do when confronted with his or her own challenging winter tour. When your bandmates leave to pursue other careers — as the two non-Talbott members of The Talbott Brothers did leading up to the making of The Road — is the reward of the road less traveled worth the strain?

“I think everybody in some small way does that in an area of their life,” Tyler says. “Nobody wants to be a number or be lost in the crowd.”

To release their album, which officially drops this Tuesday, The Talbott Brothers will return to their new homebase of Omaha for a show on Wednesday at The Waiting Room with The Deadly Gentlemen. - Chance Solem-Pfeifer - HearNebraska.org

Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, John Lennon, Marvin Gaye and Otis Redding wrote great, life-changing songs.

Music that generations upon generations have related to, listened to and felt were taken straight from their own lives.

Nick and Tyler Talbott of Omaha's the Talbott Brothers attempt to do the same and write their music with others in mind.

Admittedly, that might make writing a song more difficult, Tyler said, but "as an artist, whatever you do, if you do something that's based around yourself, I think that can get pretty shortsighted."

"We don't like to just write music for ourselves," Tyler said. "We want it to be an experience for everyone in the audience."

The Imperial, Neb., natives will bring their music to the Chesterfield, 1225 Fourth St., at 9:30 p.m. Friday (April 18).

Nick started playing music at 6, with a plastic guitar and a matching plastic tape player. He eventually upgraded to a 12-string guitar, playing with friends in bands and banishing his younger brother from rehearsal.

"He was cramping my rock star mentality," Nick joked.

They grew up watching their father rise from sweeping floors to managing 21st Century Equipment, a local John Deere dealership. That's where their Midwest-worthy work ethic was born.

"Growing up in a small town, you're always going to be working for things," Nick said. "Nothing is handed to you."

When the Talbott Brothers released their debut album "Leaving Home" two years ago, Nick said their community was watching them and probably holding its breath a bit.

A year later, they returned to perform at the Chase County Fair to play the main stage, the same stage where they'd seen Dierks Bentley, Trace Adkins and Bad Company perform.

"The fact that we got to play on that main stage for 2,000 people was pretty surreal," Nick said.

After releasing their debut album, the Talbott Brothers headed to Chicago and then New York and New Jersey in the peak of winter. The following months were filled with turbulence.

They booked the tour as a band but their drummer and bass player dropped out shortly before they were set to hit the road.

The tour provided the source material for their next album, "The Road," with songs about the nostalgia of travel as well as the feeling of exhaustion while trying to stay within the yellow, dotted lines.

This March, the Talbott Brothers released an EP, appropriated named "Coming Home," with four tracks from "The Road" re-imagined.

Last fall, the brothers added a drummer and bassist, who hopefully won't ditch them before their tour this summer. "Coming Home" takes the acoustic tracks from "The Road" and gives the songs a bluesy, rocking finish.

"Wretched Man," one of Tyler's favorite songs to perform live, shows the evolution the band has undergone in the past few months. "The Road" version starts with Tyler's folksy vocals, but the "Coming Home" track starts with a blues guitar riff.

"Coming Home," Tyler said, shows the musicians coming into their own and getting back what they wanted to be when they started, a blues-rock band.

That's the sound the Talbott Brothers brings to their live shows and will take on a summer tour to the Pacific Northwest. In the meantime, they're hitting regional venues and took the Chesterfield stage in January. - Kay Kemmet

Hailing from the far reaches of the Nebraska hinterland, delightful brothers Nick and Tyler Talbott add their prodigious talents to the ever expanding folk-rock genre as The Talbott Brothers. With spot on harmonies and the eerie synchronicity shared by especially close siblings, the brothers have created something truly special. Falling somewhere along the music spectrum between the rockier side of The Avett Brothers and a folkier NEEDTOBREATHE (also a brother band), the Talbotts bring their uplifting singer-songwriter sensibilities to bear lyrical witness to life on the road and the difficulties encountered in pursuit of one’s dreams. Currently on tour in the US Midwest, Tyler’s soulful lead is supplanted in gorgeous accord by brother Nick’s vocal accompaniment as they trade duties on acoustic and electric guitar, mandolin and harmonica, their funky live sound fleshed out by bandmates Ben Frerichs on bass and Alex Ritter on drums. - Amy Michalik

They’re Nebraska natives. They’re down-to-earth. They’re The Talbott Brothers. An Americana Folk/Rock band that we [a collective entity in Buckle’s Marketing Department] considered ourselves lucky enough to meet.

When we first threw out their name as potential artists for our fall campaign, the office’s reaction was a resounding “YES”. Standing up from their seats to share personal encounters with Nick and his younger brother Tyler, our teammates were buzzing with positive memories.

That’s why we couldn’t wait to get to know more about them. Moving to Oregon to pursue music full time, Nick and Tyler have been spending the last few years on an artistic journey. One that has continued to challenge them to better understand their music, their dynamic as a brother duo, and how to adapt to life on the road.

Check out their full interview below and take a sneak peak of The Talbott Brothers starring in our Gimmicks and Outpost music video.

You have both recently moved to Oregon. Tell us about that.

Nick: Oregon has been really good to us. People there have been really receptive to our style. We like being outdoors, and obviously the Pacific Northwest provides a ton of hiking and great beaches. We love home, but felt the next step for us was to make the move.

What is it like working with your brother?

Tyler: We fight pretty much whenever we get the chance. Haha. But, it’s fun traveling together and working together. When we’re doing it right we make a great duo. At the end of the day, we have each other’s backs.

If you could travel anywhere, where would you go?

Nick: Basically anywhere outside of the U.S. We love it here, though, and hope to keep traversing the states like we have been the last few years. One area that we’ve left untouched is the Southeast. We’re planning to make our way there at the end of this year or the spring of next to accompany the new album.

Who inspires your music?

Tyler: Everyone we meet runs the risk of ending up in a song. We love writing about things we experience while on the road and at home. Our favorite writing subject: the human condition. It’s been fun to play with the idea of telling other peoples’ stories, too. These are some of the ideas that our third album will be centered around.

Tell us about the time you decided you were going to pursue music.

Nick: Three years ago we decided to go all in. It was difficult because we knew we’d be leaving behind a lot of security, but it’s been worth it because we get to do what we love and be a part of other peoples’ journeys.

In three words, describe your style.

Tyler: Denim. Classic. Simple.
Nick: Denim. Denim. Denim.

What’s your favorite closet staple?

Tyler: I love henleys. Breathable, comfortable, and versatile.
Nick: A good brim, boots, and jeans. - The Buckle

Except for the snarled traffic, Nick and Tyler Talbott love Portland.

“It’s been awesome,” Tyler said while on the freeway, stopped in traffic trying to get to a gig at a winery. “The traffic is pretty hectic. As of right now, we’re not moving very quickly. But it’s been really good for our music career. That’s the main reason we moved out here.”
Originally from Imperial, the musical duo recently relocated to Oregon to try to find their place in the Americana musical scene in the Northwest.

“The business side of it just made sense for what we do,” Tyler said. “It’s a really good market for our style. We rode the wave out here.”

The Talbott Brothers return to central Nebraska for a 7:30 p.m. show Friday at the Minden Opera House in Minden. Tickets for the show are $16.

“We love it when we’re able to come back to Nebraska and play in the Midwest, in our home state, for sure,” Nick said.
The move to the Northwest helped spur the band’s creativity, too.
“There’s a lot of new inspiration for us here,” Nick said. “Just because we’re not from this area, being around the ocean or the mountains helps with the creativity. With our new album, we’ve been focusing more on the storytelling aspects of our music. We’re meeting a lot of new people and hearing their stories as well.”
The Talbott Brothers prefer playing shows such as the one at the Minden Opera House.

“This is something we appreciate the most about these places in Nebraska,” Tyler said. “Whether it’s the Minden Opera House or a place like The Lark in Hastings, these are very intimate settings focused on listening. We’re trying to move all of our shows into venues like that where maybe the crowd is smaller but really engaged.”
As brothers, Nick and Tyler’s personal relationship supersedes their professional stage relationship.

“We see eye-to-eye on our values and stuff we find important in life like family,” Tyler said. “We also see eye-to-eye on a lot of decisions we make in our career, but obviously when two people try to lead, you’re going to butt heads from time to time.”
While one of the brothers might like an idea, the other one might reject it.

“We can occasionally be opposites,” Tyler said. “It can be a whirlwind. At the end of the day, we’re still brothers. If we have a catastrophe and something doesn’t go as planned, we can always fall back on family. Having that is part of what really keeps us going.”
A new track on the duo’s upcoming album addresses this topic.
“It’s call ‘Family,’” Nick said of the song. “Our fans can’t listen to it yet, but it goes a little deeper in dealing with that sort of thing. That’s a pretty recent thing for us. Within the last year, we realized that we needed to overcome some of that crap to get things done.”

The Talbott Brothers perform at 7:30 p.m. today with Evan Bartels & The Stoney at The Waiting Room in Omaha before heading to the Minden Opera House on Friday. For more information, visit www.thetablottbrothers.com. - Kearney Hub