Scrolling back through Tyler Ballgame’s Instagram posts is a striking experience. Barely a year ago, they largely comprised flyers for – and cameraphone footage from – gigs in tiny Los Angeles bars, the kind that make as much virtue out of the fact that entry is free as of who’s playing: one bills his performance alongside a vintage clothes market and “tarot readings”. A support slot with a minor jam band called Eggy is a very big deal indeed; the news that he’s playing a show in London is greeted with disbelief: “What,” asks one baffled correspondent, “does London know of Ballgame?”
Things changed dramatically over the ensuing 12 months. Not long after his first trip to London, a video of him performing live at a Los Angeles bar called the Fable began circulating online. By the time he came back to the UK to perform at Brighton industry showcase the Great Escape, he had signed to Rough Trade. Critical hosannas began raining down on Ballgame: he has variously been compared to Roy Orbison, Elvis Presley, John Lennon, Harry Nilsson, Randy Newman, Jim Morrison and Tim Buckley.
