BROOKINGS – Close but no cigar. But maybe next year – or the year after.
Brookings guitarist Rylee Chavez, 17, made the cut for one of the slots at this year’s 10 under 20 competition at the Dallas International Guitar Festival on May 1. However, he didn’t get the nod for one of the top three slots.
“They were all really, really good,” he said, smiling, when asked about the quality of the competition he faced. He admitted that he was “humbled by the fact that there were so many musicians there that were at a higher level than I was. Just being around players that are that good, it’s super infectious and it’s crazy to find other players that are better. … I didn’t even place in the competition. I never felt like I was cheated out of anything. The people that they chose really deserved it.”
All the guitarists played before a live audience and judges.
Russ Chavez, Rylee’s father, was there when his son played. He pointed out that each of the guitarists who took one of the top three spots “had a bassist and a drummer at a minimum and played all seven minutes and then some and played a couple of songs. We prepared for one song and used a backing track.”
Assuming he’ll be one of the final-10 guitarists in May 2023, Rylee noted that he’ll go back to Dallas with live musicians backing him up.
Rylee was born in Sioux Falls. He was raised and attended school in Arlington. He’s now lived in Brookings for about the past three years. It’s here that his musical abilities first showed up.
“I picked up the ukulele about three years ago near Christmas,” he said. “A month later I switched to a guitar. The first day, I played ‘Dust in the Wind,” by Kansas. Then after that I focused on the guitar.
“I really, really like Blues. That’s what I started on. I’m a big Grateful Dead fan, and Fish. I like a lot of older jam-band stuff. That’s who I look up to.” Incidentally, Rylee didn’t stay long with acoustic before going electric.
All roads lead to Dallas
Spelling out his plan and hope for a future as a full-time professional guitarist, young Chavez said that he wants to move to Dallas when he turns 18: “Start a band and get my own music figured out. We’re trying to make it (in Dallas).
“I have a bunch of friends that live there. We would like to establish a music scene. They’re all pretty close to my age, and our goal is to all have different bands that kind of co-exist. Ideally, we would like to start our own music scene down there.”
He has the support of his father, who noted that “the blues scene is huge in Austin (capital of Texas) and it’s kind of picking up in Dallas as well.”
“He got to meet friends that he had only known virtually through Instagram and what-not,” Russ added, noting the time he and his son spent at the festival in Dallas. “And they’re all his age; they’re all likeminded, like Rylee. Rylee hasn’t meshed with his own age – ever. “He’s always been more mature and a little bit into other things than most regular kids have been. He was able to find and meet his people down there.”
“I’ve been struggling to meet with anyone my own age for quite a while, then finally finding my own people,” Rylee said, agreeing with his father. “When you find your people, that really means something.” And for him that means moving to Dallas.
Gigs with The Barn Flies
That first step to Dallas came via a member of his Instagram “friend group” of about 15 fledgling musicians; a friend had made the preliminary cut of 10 in the Dallas festival in 2021, and all the group members gave it a try this year. They did and three made the cut. Rylee was one of them.
Via a group Instagram account, he had been regularly posting videos of himself playing the guitar. It was one of those that he submitted for this year’s competition and that got him selected.
By way of acquiring his skills, Rylee admits to being primarily self-taught. He started out on acoustic guitar but quickly made the transition to electric – and never looked back. Along the way, he dropped out of Brookings High School. He wasn’t into the old adage of “high school being your best years.” They weren’t for Rylee.
With his father’s backing, he’s up front about having attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. That was a factor in his leaving high school. He will, however, pursue a GED diploma.
“Eventually, I started doing this gig with Casey and Carleen Wilson out of Flandreau,” he said. “Their band is The Barflies.” They’re well known in the area, and they let Rylee play a couple of songs with them at Downtown at Sundown here in Brookings. Now he plays gigs regularly with them in Flandreau and Sioux Falls.
His own band – in Dallas
The Bar Flies play a variety of music, primarily “covers” with about 25% of their repertoire being original music. Their “old country, outlaw stuff” songs include those made notable by such icons as Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson. Add to that “good modern country” by artists such as “Colter Wall and Tyler Childers, some of those guys.”
Noting again that he is “pretty much self-taught,” as are his friends and fellow guitarists, he added that he learns “pretty much from ear.”
“A lot of guitar playing and learning, from my side at least, is trial and error, in my bedroom just messing around,” Rylee explained. “It’s just really great that I didn’t get to perform live for a long time, because I was able to hone in on my craft at home, rather than getting up onstage and playing a bunch of wrong notes.”
His long-range goal is to start his own band, in Dallas. “That’s my plan. I would like to move somewhere with my friends where we can struggle together,” Rylee said, smiling. “Figure it out and be prepared for it to not work and just stick it out. Try to get a band together and just write some originals.”
Contact John Kubal at jkubal@brookingsregister.com.
