TYLER HALVERSON

Growing up in the tiny town of Canton, South Dakota, Halverson has never been afraid to be himself. Before he answered the call of the road, playing bars and rodeo beer gardens, he spent as much time on his skateboard as he did showing cattle at livestock shows. “I grew up in sale barns and skate parks,” he says, and those two disparate worlds inform the music he makes. There’s a decidedly alt-country edge to the songs on In Defense of Drinking, including the thumping, unrepentant single “More Hearts Than Horses.” “If you come walking my way/I’ll send you running someday,” he sings over pedal steel and acoustic guitar. It’s an admission as striking as that of Willie and Waylon, when they sang “Take what you need from the ladies and leave them/with the words of a sad country song” in “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys.” “That comes with the territory of being a troubadour,” Halverson says. “It’s a warning: whatever you’ve heard about cowboys and cowboy singers is probably true, and sometimes you best just leave it alone.”