Tyee Miles was born into the Blues.  By the time he was two years old, his Dad was homeless and he was being raised by a single Mom and two older sisters.  He would have never stood a chance in this world, but thankfully his Mom gave him his first electric guitar at age three; then on his 10th birthday, his Dad handed down a Peavy T-60 that he had safeguarded during his homelessness.

By age 12, Tyee could play Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan and many others.  By fate, his Stepfather would take him to his first concert at age 10, which influenced Tyee to want to perform.  In a strange turn of events, Tyee’s Stepfather’s drug dealer named Chuck Barklet, an amazing guitarist and performer, became part of Tyee’s life and taught Tyee about the Blues.  Chuck taught Tyee that the Blues came from the heart and to always play music from the heart.

At age 17, Tyee started taking classical lessons from John Sherry, who helped him learn multiple styles of music.  Thereafter, for two years Tyee studied chromatic harmony with Dr. Anderson, the Conductor of the Monterey Symphony.  By age 20, Tyee started playing in clubs while continuing his education in Music Composition at the Monterey Peninsula College. 

Tyee eventually started to travel and study with other guitarists, including Rusty Cooley out of Houston, TX and Mathew Lee from Nashville, TN. 

Now that Tyee has made it through the hard times, he wants to help you forget about your hard times while you watch him and his band perform and be inspired to keep going, no matter how hard life can get.  Be on the lookout for Tyee Miles and the Hard Times.  They play in their home state of Texas and will be hitting the road.

Kevin grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and as a result was exposed to and influenced by many great local musicians, bands and musical genres.  Kevin started playing guitar at an early age and eventually settled on the bass as his main instrument.

After years spent with mainly rock-oriented bands, playing clubs and festivals around the Bay Area, Kevin helped form Cold Blue as a Blues-focused band, and spent 15 years playing the Blues all over Northern California.  Kevin’s gravel-tinged vocal style is well-suited for the Blues, and Cold Blue’s song choices provided a great platform for his vocals and groove-oriented bass lines.

Kevin relocated to the Austin area in 2016 and soon started playing in a variety of bands and genres. Not long afterwards he met Tyee Miles while both played in the same project. It did not take long for the two to discover their mutual passion for the Blues, and soon they formed Tyee Miles and The Hard Times to share their vision of the Blues with Central Texas.

Arriving in Austin from New England in 1982, Chris already possessed an extensive backlog of musical experience in touring bands playing Rock, R&B and Jazz throughout the mid to late 70s.

In Austin, he was able to broaden the experiences, playing TV, radio shows, theater musicals, and studio work.

His teachers have included Jim Chapin (Moeller technique), Ed Soph (Jazz), Mike Clark (Jazz and Funk) and Johnny Vidacovich (Jazz & Funk).

In 1993, Chris was chosen “Outstanding Jazz Musician” at Southwest Texas Jazz Festival. He began teaching drums full time in 1998.

In 2006, he started Bopworks Drumsticks- a company specializing in drum sticks designed specifically for Jazz drummers  (www.bopworks.net)