This Album Changed My Life With Tyla Rodrigues: 'Me And My Gang' By Rascal Flatts

Today is an exciting day for Tyla Rodrigues, a rising star in Australian country music. She’s just released her debut EP, Upon Reflection, and will celebrate the release with a performance at Groundwater Country Music Festival next week.

Containing six tracks, Rodrigues worked with multiple producers, including US producer Andrew Capra and Aussie stars Jared Adlam and Rusty Crook, a deliberate move so each song on the EP could be “heard with different ears and different perspectives.”

She described the EP as a “collection of songs that tell the stories of my life over the last few years, the highest of highs and some lows too.”

The candid collection goes from the bittersweet (If Walls Could Talk) to the dark side of love (Way Out West and Straight Outlaw), to finding hope (Wish I Would), and to end the journey feeling optimistic for the future (Heart, Don’t Fail Me Now, and I Believe In Roses).

Taking the EP on the road throughout the rest of the year, you can catch Tyla Rodrigues at the Groundwater Country Music Festival from 18-20 October. More information about the festival is available here.

To celebrate the release of Upon Reflection and her upcoming tour dates, Tyla Rodrigues has told Countrytown about the album that changed her life. The album? Read on and find out…

This Album Changed My Life: Tyla Rodrigues

Me And My Gang by Rascal Flatts

I owe my love for Country music to my dad. From a young age, we had artists like Keith Urban, Vince Gill, and Carrie Underwood playing all throughout the house. But there is one standout album that changed my life and shaped me into the artist that I am today, and that is Me And My Gang by Rascal Flatts.

This album has been more than just inspiring to me. Whether we were on a road trip or cleaning around the house on a Saturday morning with CMT on the TV, the Rascal Flatts were playing. Those songs created a soundtrack for my childhood and shaped some of my greatest musical memories growing up.

Gary LeVox (Lead Singer) has been and always will be one of my favourite vocalists of all time. I would spend hours trying to mimic his runs and high notes, and the band completely opened my eyes to the beauty of harmonies—how different voices can come together to create something so beautiful was something I fell in love with. The entire album was like a masterclass in vocal technique, and I still carry those lessons learnt with me today.

But it wasn’t just about the music itself; it was the lyrics that really opened my eyes. Each song felt like a little story, capturing moments of love, heartbreak, and everything in between. As I grew up and began really understanding the meaning behind these lyrics - tracks like What Hurts The Most and My Wish are what taught me the importance of songwriting, and I found myself inspired to tell my own stories through music. This Album taught me that songs could be powerful, carrying emotions and experiences that people even halfway across the world could relate to.

Me And My Gang will always be so much more than just an album for me; it’s a huge part of who I am. Without this album, I am not sure I would have fallen so in love with country music or found my passion for songwriting. This band and this album shaped me as a musician and played a big role in creating the artist I am today. When I play it, even today… it takes me right back to little Tyla singing with her dad from the backseat; for that, it will forever be an album that changed my life. If you haven’t yet heard it, you should!

You can catch Tyla Rodrigues at Groundwater CMF from 18-20 October.