Tyrone’s earliest inspiration came from listening to the raspy, inspirational voice of his grandfather, the Reverend Cleveland Roosevelt Williams, in his childhood home. It was at a very young age that Cotton began playing guitar and over the years has found himself listening to many songwriters of different genres such as Malcolm Holcombe, Smokey Robinson, Tom T. Hall, Guy Clark, and Sam Cooke. Though he draws his greatest inspiration from Bob Dylan. He explains, “Bob Dylan is my favorite. He’s the mountain! With him, the listener steps into many different worlds, some familiar, some unfamiliar. His writing is incredible. Listening to him has led me to styles, genres, and also to other songwriters that I knew little or nothing about. He’s been a door.”

Cotton’s own writing is deeply personal and pulls from those influences and embodies a vast landscape of musical genres described by him as, “Rock that borrows from soul, folk, and blues. Vivid and sometimes dreamy.”