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Like his music, Bryan Howell is an exciting mix of contradictions.
He's originally from upstate New York's "Rust Belt", but he calls Nashville, Tennessee, the "Athens of the South", home. He's heavily influenced by blue collar singer-songwriters from rock and roll and country music, but also equally loves guitar-laden alternative and indie rock. Onstage he will perform as if in a tornado of abandon, but he is polite and grateful when offstage.
"When I first moved here, I thought there would be a lot of people like me in Nashville who were into multiple elements of the town's music history, so to speak, and I wouldn't stand out as being eclectic," he says. "I thought lots of people would listen to country, Southern rock and roots music, while they also were into cranking fuzz pedals and doing the whole garage rock kind of thing. It doesn't seem weird to me to be equally obsessed with straightforward songcraft and having a level of polish in the studio, while also having a raw side, just cranking up the amps and the tempo and letting loose."
The duality comes out clearly in his new singles "Still Hungry" and "Like Summer Thunder", off his upcoming EP, Stories Worth Telling. The two songs, initially inspired by coming out of the pandemic as the Nashville music scene re-awakened, and a beachfront vacation trip that reminded him of a summer fling, bring out a bit of everything: impassioned vocals with vivid lyrics and big choruses, roaring and cascading guitars alongside swirling organ and piano, drums and bass laying down a spirited tempo, even a keyboard break.
The passion injected into the varied material from Howell comes through clearly in both the recording studio and his live performances as well. From his solo acoustic sets to raucous full-band shows, his love of performing shows through in his energy and contagious excitement. His passion and focus on craft has garnered him a steadily growing audience, with airplay on SiriusXM and college radio, increasing Spotify playlisting, and strong press reviews. "There's a lot of musicians in this town who are constantly talking about how to grow their social media followers or go viral or whatever, and the quality of the music itself is like a secondary element they consider," he says. "I'm going to put the music first."