In March, the BGS and Good Country teams were honored to return once again to SXSW, this time partnering with our friends at Big Feat PR for A Night of Good Country at Sagebrush in Austin, Texas. The evening featured lovely half-hour sets from artists on Big Feat’s stellar roster of clients – and quite a few Good Country favorites – including Shakey Graves, Tyler Halverson, Aubrie Sellers, Travis Bolt, and Tenille Townes.

Our pals at I Know We Should were on hand at Sagebrush to capture these Good Country performances, and over the recent weeks and months we’ve been sharing clips from that day in Austin. You can watch our Shakey Graves, Tenille Townes, Ghost Hounds, and Aubrie Sellers performances right here on Good Country. Now, for our second-to-last installment in the series, we’re sharing exclusive performances by Tyler Halverson, who hilariously – and appropriately – describes his music to the audience as “country & western” and “Amerijuana music.”

Halverson and a full band kick off their SXSW set with “’94 Camaro,” a more rockin’ and rollin’ alt-country flavored track, a hit single for the singer-songwriter from back in 2021. Songs about muscle cars are always Good Country, aren’t they? The Sagebrush crowd polish the floorboards as the honky-tonkin’ band blasts through the number like a roaring sports car, punctuated by whining harmonica solos by Halverson. “The ’94 Camaro, two dents in the door/ Belonged to my daddy, was his before/ I’m playing that game on the same streets/ Put a roof on my head and boots on my feet…” he sings, full of nostalgia and the simple charm of the kinda country you hear wafting out of a VFW Hall on the weekends. It shines in its artful simplicity – and with those screaming Telecaster breaks.

GC columnist Steacy Easton spoke to Halverson earlier this year for a Good Country feature interview all about his brand new album, In Defense of Drinking, and its performance of country & western textures, rodeo culture, and hardscrabble, blue-collar ranch living and cattle driving in the Wild West. So many of those influences and inputs are apparent in his performance at Sagebrush during SXSW. He and band perform the title track from the album, which was released in February, laying back into its lush groove and fully-fledged sound. For a drinking song about making mistakes and lost love, it’s remarkably layered and nuanced – and it shows the dynamic range Halverson and band are able to occupy, as it’s really a ballad just dressed up in twang, grit, and a cowboy hat. As he concludes each chorus, “I’m the reason that I’m lonely, drinking’s the excuse,” demonstrating “In Defense of Drinking” couldn’t just be bro-country binge-drinking radio banger. It’s so much more.

For our final clip from Halverson’s set, we’ve selected perhaps his most popular track, the viral sensation “Mac Miller.” Also released in 2021, the song has garnered tens of millions of streams online and was a huge part of the South Dakota-raised artist’s breaking out into the music industry, eventually leading to the new album and this SXSW show. “R-I-P M-A-C,” Halverson says to the crowd kicking off the number, which he describes as “a country song about a rapper.” It’s a song that closes the loop on rap, country trap, and modern radio country; there aren’t many country tropes more integral to the music than singing about what’s on the stereo, in the truck or at home or on the jukebox. Halverson’s songwriting shows how these age-old country traditions have been intuitively retooled by younger generations of artists. For fans born and raised in the ’80s, ’90s, and ’00s, whose radio dials toggled primarly between country and rap stations, this song is as nostalgic and longing for the “good old days” as any from across the decades. Whether Merle or Mac emanating from your truck speakers, memories of what’s playing over the speakers is a country tale as old as time. It’s easy to see why this song has gone so far and resonated with so many.

Stay tuned as we have one more Sagebrush SXSW Session set to arrive in the coming weeks from Travis Bolt. Coming soon right here on Good Country! Catch up now and watch all of our Sagebrush SXSW Sessions here.

Video Credits: I Know We Should, Brad Wagner, Juan Soria, Justin Sherman, and Walker Ames.
Lead Image: Jessica Alexander

These sessions brought to you in partnership with Big Feat PR.