Jenny & Tyler

Playing acoustic-based music that combines the melodic simplicity of bluegrass with the emotional expression of contemporary singer/songwriters, Jenny & Tyler are a husband-and-wife duo whose music and message are informed by their strong Christian faith. Jenny Appel and Tyler Somers first met in 2004 when they were students at the University of Delaware; he was a worship leader with the Baptist Student Ministry that she regularly attended. The two became fast friends, and in time, their relationship evolved into something deeper. Jenny had begun writing songs in her early teens as a means of self-expression, and her parents were serious fans of gospel and bluegrass music, while her dad was also an amateur luthier. Tyler, meanwhile, also came from a musical household: he was the son of a jazz composer, Wilson Somers, who also taught music, and his mother was a singer. Both Jenny and Tyler performed music in their spare time, and they soon began accompanying one another and writing songs as a duo.

In 2006, Jenny & Tyler began work on an album together, and their self-released debut, A Prelude, arrived in late 2007, a few months after the couple was married. Jenny & Tyler set out on tour in support of the record, and in 2008, as the duo became more serious about their career, they relocated to Nashville, Tennessee