Dylan Adams is a guitarist from Jacksonville Beach, Florida. He grew up hearing a steady stream of classic rock and blues from his parents’ stereo and from his musically-inclined extended family, so it’s only natural that he eagerly started playing guitar at 9 years old.

Initially just a pastime, things got serious as soon as he heard The Allman Brothers Band’s legendary live album At Fillmore East for the first time at age 15. Enthralled by the band’s powerful yet nuanced sound and Duane Allman’s stunning slide guitar playing, Dylan would go down a path of intense study of the styles of Duane, Derek Trucks, and countless other all-time great musicians spanning the genres of blues, rock, jazz, funk, R&B/Soul, reggae, gospel, and more. This passion for learning and immersing himself in these styles of music are still an integral part of who Dylan is as a person and as a musician to this day.

Dylan went on to attend Berklee College of Music for two years. While he didn’t graduate, he formed valuable friendships and filled in major gaps in his musical knowledge that were a result of his almost entirely self-taught, learned-by-ear background. This would be a turning point in his development as a musician, as would one more key moment at Berklee.

After taking a class from respected professor and cutting edge avant-garde slide guitarist Dave Tronzo, Dylan realized there could be more to slide guitar than just mimicking Duane and Derek; he could try to find his own voice. This prompted his “breaking away” from the time-honored Open E tuning/ring finger slide tradition, and dipping his toes into the relatively uncharted waters of Standard tuning/pinky finger slide with the addition of Sonny Landreth-style “fretting behind the slide.”

Dylan returned to Jacksonville and became a member of one of the area’s tightest, most authentic blues/rock bands, Smokestack. His pre-Berklee jamming with them had been highly educational in the ways of being a true team-player in a band, and becoming an official member only strengthened this. It also gave Dylan the opportunity to practice and hone this “new” (at least new-to-him) approach to slide guitar playing, which would ultimately be the final step towards finding his own voice.

In 2022, Dylan became interested in putting himself out there by posting videos of himself playing guitar on social media. This would lead to his discovery by guitarist and youtuber Rhett Shull, who in early 2023 would make a video entirely highlighting Dylan and launching him into the awareness of the online guitar community, quite literally overnight. Full of gratitude and inspiration, Dylan has since seized this incredible opportunity and worked hard to build his following on YouTube and other social media platforms. He’s currently in the thick of establishing his place in the music industry both on and off the internet, with aspirations to be a full time content creator and release his own original music. You can find him on YouTube, Instagram, or at Smokestack gigs in the NE Florida/SE Georgia area.