At Just 19, Ty Myers Is Headlining Moody Center and Singing With Willie Nelson

For most 19-year-old musicians, playing Austin’s Moody Center would be a fever dream. For Ty Myers, it’s another milestone in a career that reaches new heights each week.

Myers said he’s been writing songs for so long that he doesn’t remember learning how. “It’s just a part of me,” he explained. And though it may seem hard to believe, Myers was exposed to the city’s songwriting scene long before stepping onto a stage himself. 

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Local beginnings

Raised on his family’s cattle ranch in Dripping Springs, Ty Myers is also the son of a local musician, and many nights were spent at places like Saxon Pub, Continental Club and Antone’s, where his dad would open sets with Willie Nelson’s “Whiskey River,” a song that, for Myers, signaled the start of a perfect night.

Now, when he’s back in town in between shows, Myers often returns to those same spots to decompress. “It’s a big part of what I do to just get everything off my mind,” he said. In many ways, he’s still finding inspiration around town, with local music continuing to lead the way. “Bob Schneider, I still go see him every time I’m home,” he said, pointing to the admiration he has for not only the way he writes, but also how Schneider “writes about whatever he feels like” and how that entire process is captured through his music.  

Any listener to Myers’ music will recognize how he blends country with rock, blues and soul influences and ultimately refuses to limit himself to a single genre. “I feel like we’re in the best time to make music because the genres are breaking down,” he explained. “It feels like you can write about what you want to, and that’s the way it should be,” Myers said. It’s a refreshing approach that feels fitting for someone from the Austin area, where artistic boundaries aren’t something that’s typically enforced. 

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Willie Nelson joins Myers on “Write Your Own Songs,” a track from Myers’ tribute album to the Texas musician. (Photo by Libby Danforth)

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Myers grew up on his family’s cattle ranch in Dripping Springs and spent time at Austin music venues with his father. (Photo by Libby Danforth)

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His tribute album, “Two Braids & The Truth,” features 10 songs associated with Nelson, including “Whiskey River” and “Always on My Mind.” (Photo by Libby Danforth)

A tribute to Willie

While his songs often feel well beyond his years, he notes they aren’t drawn strictly from personal experience. “You can’t sit down and write about real life all day,” he explained. “Nobody lives that cool of a life, you know?” Instead, he blends lived emotion with imagination, a balance he finds essential to storytelling. That same appreciation for storytelling, and for the artists who have mastered it, helped bring his latest project to life: a tribute album dedicated to Austin’s own Willie Nelson. 

Titled “Two Braids & The Truth,” Myers says the ten-song tribute album came about somewhat randomly. “It just kind of dawned on me. Why hasn’t anybody made a Willie Nelson tribute album? Then my second (thought) was, why haven’t I?” 

Describing the album as a particularly fun project to create, Myers said it was important that the songs were personal to his perspective rather than a collection of Nelson’s greatest hits. “I wanted it to feel like a connection between what I’ve learned and what I’ve picked up from him,” he explained. Knowing the album will introduce Willie’s music to a younger generation, Myers says the pressure is enormous, but he’s excited to take on the challenge.

Among recognizable tracks like “Always on My Mind” and “Whiskey River,” Nelson joins Myers on “Write Your Own Songs,” a Willie track that takes aim at the music industry’s bigwigs and contrasts its profit-driven nature with the simplicity of the creative process. The song’s journey to the album was unexpected. Myers recorded it during a dispute with his label, unbeknownst to them, and revealed the track months later, when they surprisingly embraced it. When Myers sent the album’s track list to Nelson’s team, it was the rebellious ballad “Write Your Own Songs” that Nelson chose to contribute to.

“It was kind of one of those things that just, you know, everything fell into place in the right way. And when that kind of thing happens, I’ve learned from the time I’ve been in this industry, it was meant to happen,” he said.

Reaching new heights

After touring everything from Texas dance halls and sold-out club dates to a national run with Luke Combs and an appearance on Season 52 of “Austin City Limits,” Myers also became the youngest performer at Red Rocks in Colorado and made his Farm Aid debut. Now, Myers is preparing for the hometown performance of his young career. This Nov. 20, the “Thought It Was Love” singer will headline the Moody Center for what feels like a full-circle moment for a teen who was raised in the Central Texas music scene. And when asked what it means to him, he beamed, “It’s pretty much the pinnacle of Austin music, if you ask me.”

As his career continues to accelerate, Myers is still taking it all in. “It’s like I’m holding on to this rocket ship and just having fun along the way,” he said. That sense of excitement, paired with his Southern charm, is part of what makes Myers so endearing. And while his music has taken him across the country, Austin remains a town he’s proud to represent and one that continues to embrace him right back.

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