Tyler Ward: Shameless coattail rider or shrewd, talented musician fueled by ennui with a plethora of equally talented friends, a readily available recording facility and ample time on his hands? You make the call.
Personally, although we're leaning more toward the latter -- given the other videos posted on h is YouTube page -- it's a little bit of both. The guy's undeniable talented, but we'd be genuinely remiss if we didn't also acknowledge the fact that there's also a distinct scent of opportunism prevalent in his approach.
Case in point: Remember the "We Are the World" clip of his, in which he assembled a bunch of his friends to record their own version of the song? Timing is everything, and that clip generated more than a million views -- the kind of organic exposure that money can't buy.
Told you the dude is shrewd. Let's not forget this is the same cat that posted a Top 40 remix mashup, in which he sang all the parts and played all the instruments himself. And just a few weeks ago, he was front and center at the Taylor Swift show, courtesy of tickets he won on the radio for a version of one of her songs he offered up.
And that brings us to today's clip: Here Ward has once again corralled a group of homies to take on "Airplanes" by B.o.B., which just happens to be one of the most buzzed about tracks in the country right now by an artist who's rightfully achieved Next Big Thing status.
Capitalizing on that buzz, Ward and his mates (Eppic and Joel Burns) quickly recorded their own version of the tune, filmed it and popped it on YouTube this past Sunday. Already it's generated more than fifty thousand views. Do you get the feeling that someday somebody somewhere is going to be recording renditions of Ward's songs? We do.
