2015 SRS Band Bio: Bryan Adam Joyner!

Bryan Adam Joyner

“Bryan Adam Joyner’s first guitar was a stringless toy guitar from Sears. He excitedly strummed to “That’ll be the Day” by Buddy Holly over and over until the record skipped so much, it couldn’t be played anymore. For the 7 year old, seeing the 1978 film The Buddy Holly story ignited a life-long passion for music.

Born in Ranger, Texas in 1971, Bryan’s family moved to Mineral Wells, Texas in 1977 to pursue his father’s dream to own his own grocery store. His father was a butcher, and he ran the market while his mother managed the store. The family worked long days, and evenings were often spent listening to Willie, Waylon, Haggard, and Jones on the record and 8 track player.

But the happy times soon ended. The collapse of the Texas oil industry in the 80’s brought on the collapse of Joyner’s Food Store. Bryan’s dad turned to whiskey and his mother collapsed mentally and emotionally. Neither one ever recovered. Bryan turned to music as an outlet, immersing himself in hard-rock music of the 80’s. The toy guitar, he exchanged for a real six string.

In 1989, Bryan turned away from music and left the guitar behind. His family instability, fear of failure and lack of family support drove Bryan to pursue other career options. So he left his guitar behind to become a Texas Aggie.

After a couple years at A&M, Bryan rediscovered his country roots and found he could sing a little. Strait, Yoakum, and Black cassettes could be found on the dash of his F150, and the guitar he left behind found its way to College Station.

After college Bryan stopped playing music to start a family. 15 years of dust settled on the guitar Bryan left stored under the bed until he attended the 2004 Americana Jam at Gruene Hall.

The annual music festival had a profound impact on him. Cory Morrow, Charlie Robison, Cross Canadian Ragweed, and Reckless Kelly moved him to not only want to pick and sing again, but to also write, which he never thought he could do before. So Bryan dusted off the old guitar under the bed, formed the band Hard Country with his brother John, and began writing and performing original material. Hard Country released their first album in 2011, on which Bryan was the primary song writer. He still performs with Hard Country, but primarily performs solo and now has a new solo album due out in 2014.

You’ll find in Bryan’s music some of his dad’s honky-tonk, some of the rock he turned to when his life was falling apart, some of the Strait, Black and Yoakum he sang in college, some of his favorite songwriters, such as Hayes Carll and Sean McConnell, and some of his songwriting buddies such as Rory Payne and Jeff Hopson. All of his subject matter is close to his heart; typically about his own life experiences where the song is an outlet for emotions that he sometimes has difficulty expressing such as his anger at his father for his alcoholism or his overwhelming sadness and desperation he experienced throughout his divorce.”