Bringing calm to chaos: Musician Tyler Braden heats up on the charts after giving up firefighting to set the music world alight.
Story by Lee M. Hurley, Photos by Marisa Taylor
Tyler Braden has gotten busy being successful. While his star continues to ascend with recent hits like Devil You Know and More Than A Prayer, Braden’s journey to success has been more calm than chaos. The 31-year-old singer executed a plan to get in the right position to succeed. Of course, no plan for success in the music business works without talent; of that, there is little doubt evidenced by millions of streams of his music.
The soulful country singer shares that, on a rare day off, he and his videographer wife Marisa Taylor work on decompressing.
“We like to read and maybe play some golf, or we’ll watch movies and just make the best of it,” Braden says.
The pair are frequently on the road, he opening for the likes of Luke Bryan and Chris Stapleton or selling out his own shows, and she filming the musical duo Maddie and Tae, among other projects.
“Sometimes we are gone just one or two days at a time per week. But obviously, she’s having to work and edit those days when she is home, and then I’m having to go right back out. It is tough, but we try to schedule something to look forward to. We make it work,” Braden says.
EARLY DAYS
Born in Montgomery, Braden grew up 30 minutes away in Slapout, Alabama, (population 4,946) singing his way through church and along with his musical family at cookouts and other events. His eclectic influences would range from Kenny Chesney to the Goo Goo Dolls. Braden and his buddies hung out at nearby Lake Jordan, “kayaking and stuff.” Nothing too dangerous. After graduating high school in a class of 74, Braden joined a rock cover band and continued to perform around the area and in Montgomery sharpening his skills as a player and a singer. Yet, turning music into a career was not a consideration.
“I actually never thought about music as a career — that wasn’t even a thought like possible or impossible,” he recalls. “I just didn’t consider it.”
Instead, he became a firefighter and joined Montgomery Fire and Rescue, where, for several years, he kept his music and his firefighter lives separate.
OUT OF THE FIRE, INTO THE PAN
In late 2015, Braden won a local singing contest, and the prize was a trip to Nashville. The visit convinced him that if music were to become a career, he should move closer to the place where music careers are made. So, he came home and Googled firefighter jobs in middle Tennessee.
Six weeks later, he was on his way to work for the Brentwood Fire Department a few miles south of Nashville, where, coincidentally, plenty of country music stars have farms. When he moved in early 2016, Braden was strictly a firefighter for the first year. Then, he was asked to play Whiskey Jam, a showcase for up-and-coming artists. There, a friend introduced him to a guy with a home studio. They recorded and released Little Red Wine, which got some attention.
The hunt was on. His firefighter job was two days on and four days off, which gave him time to network.
“After Little Red Wine, I was playing softball with some people, and one of the guys on my team introduced me to the man who is still my manager to this day,” Braden said.
Other positive meetings took place with potential publishers.
“They liked my writing but wanted me to co-write with others.”
Braden’s dam broke in 2019 with a publishing deal and a label signing with Warner Music Nashville. That’s when he finally decided to leave the fire department. His crew was happy with his success. And then came Covid. Braden and his mates were in a Sprinter Van driving to Long Island, New York to play a gig when his management called and asked them to pull over.
“They told us the gig was canceled, and this Covid thing would probably last for a couple of weeks, so we turned around and came home,” he says.
That two weeks turned into months, and Braden did what the rest of the world did: hang out at home. Thankfully, life did get back to normal, and one positive result was a pent-up demand for live music. Braden hit the road again in 2021 in support of his Warner Music Nashville EP, What Do They Know.
In 2022, Braden was asked to play the Grand Ole Opry, further validating his rising star status. In 2023, Warner released a five-song EP, Neon Grave, and the single, Try Losing One, with Sydney Sierota, hit No. 1 on SiriusXM, The Highway’s Hot 30 Countdown. The Real Friends Tour started in 2024 and sold out several stops. It took him across the country and into Canada, and his song Devil You Know was nominated for the People’s Choice Country Awards’ New Artist Song of the Year.
Early in 2025, Braden heads to Ireland and the UK with Brothers Osborne on their Might As Well Be Us world tour. After that, plenty of plans are in the works, but Braden can’t reveal them yet, though it’s safe to guess new tours and songs.
KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON
Though Braden has been able to walk down Broadway in Nashville without getting recognized, he’s getting noticed more often both at home and on the road. His voice has been compared to that of Luke Combs, but Braden thinks that’s more about the beard than the music.
“When I sing slow stuff or quieter stuff, I actually get compared to Brett Young a lot,” he offers.
Braden has been asked how he could have so easily transitioned between two professions and whether being a firefighter helped him stay grounded in the music business.
“You wouldn’t think they’re related jobs at all,” he says. “But the ability to stay level-headed and not get super emotional helped because there’s a lot of ups and downs in the music industry, just like there are a lot of boring days in the fire service and then really emotional days. You have to deal with the ups and downs in both professions.”
And so, after seven years as a firefighter and four years as a professional singer, songwriter, and performer, Tyler Braden is what you would call well-grounded. He and Marisa and their two dogs, Sadie and Leila, live in Mt. Juliet, east of Nashville, where life is busy and good.
