Music of the Mountains: Tyler Ballantyne of Good for Nothin' Thunder Mountain Boys

Send us Fan MailTyler Ballantyne has always loved music, but he didn’t start playing seriously until his college years. Around that time, he became obsessed with Dave Matthews, particularly his right hand—the way he played rhythm guitar.Ballentyne bought a guitar, and he says that at the time, he learned about half of one of Matthews’ songs and otherwise strummed it to play songs like “Take Me Home, Country Roads” and “Ring of Fire.”Once he arrived in Colorado, he fell in love with bluegrass and folk.A few months into the COVID pandemic, he decided to take guitar more seriously, inspired by acts such as The Grateful Dead, Phish, and Billy Strings. He bought a Martin D-18 and signed up to take lessons from Bryan Sutton.Our theme song is courtesy of singer-songwriter Brittney Wagner. Stream her record Better off Dead here. Support the showThank you for listening to The Mountain-Ear Podcast, featuring news and culture from peak to peak! Additional pages are linked below.If you want to be involved in the podcast or paper, contact:Barbara Hardt, our editor-in-chief, at [email protected] Hickman, multimedia producer, at [email protected] Lammers, podcast host, at [email protected] inquiries: [email protected] to our website for all of the latest news. Subscribe to The Mountain-Ear in print and online.Submit local events to promote them in the paper and on our website.Find us on Facebook @mtnear and Instagram @mtn.earListen and watch on YouTube today.Share this podcast by scrolling to the bottom of our website home page or by heading to our main hub on Buzzsprout.Thank you for listening!