The best artist in America for me.

Joe Taylor

Record of the Day

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The last public event I attended before COVID lockdown was a concert in Pittsburgh where he opened for Sturgill Simpson. I swear, half the crowd left after Childers was done. I’ve never seen anything like it.

As for his politics, check out his song (and video) “In Your Love,” and the heat he took for it. It’ll explain all you need to know.

Lastly, my then 17 and 21yo daughters “stole” the tickets I had bought to see him last summer. They would choose him over Taylor Swift in a second, which I admit is unusual. But it speaks to his very broad appeal.

The dude is sneaky popular.

John Dick

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Tyler sold out the University of Kentucky football stadium in Lexington a few weeks ago. His opening act was Wynonna. As in Judd.

He’s also a great guy. We used him in a pro bono TV spot during COVID and he donated his services.

If you know, you know.

Best regards

David Vawter

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I’m assuming when you say he doesn’t have a hit you mean that he hasn’t charted.  But I’ll tell you, I’m not a country music fan, but have 3 kids aged 20-24 and Tyler Childers is at the top of their lists of artist they listen too.  And if his song Feathered Indians isn’t a hit….then I’m not sure what is.  I’ve heard that song 100’s of times with my kids and their friends and they all sing every word…and I live in the heart of Dallas so maybe that has something to do with it, but from where I sit Tyler is a star and Feathered Indians is absolutely a “hit”.  And I love that song too!

Now go listen to Zach Top…he’s next.

Chad Jones

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Tyler played on my little stage in the specialty camp I managed at Bonnaroo 2018. He literally brought his middle school teacher Dave along for the ride and had him playing on stage. The teacher is better known as the Laid Back Country Picker and he was telling me how he knew Tyler was going somewhere after Tyler shared some poems he’d written with him back then.

One of my friends and former bosses, Emily Cox, does Tyler’s set design among other creative work for him. We have all known about him for a long while. He is the real deal and a very nice guy.

Beth Hardy McLennan

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As someone who loves heavy hardcore music, Tyler often ends up intermingled amongst some of the heaviest songs on earth when I hit the randomiser button on my iTunes library. He ALWAYS holds his own.

Check the acoustic Whitehouse Road on his OurVinylSessions live record. The only thing in music I have heard intensity wise that matches the way he sings ‘lawmen women or a shallow graves, same old blues just a different day’ was when Zach refrained ‘you’ve got a bullet in your head’ in rage against the machine.

Tyler is arguably  the most exciting artist I have ever heard in my life and after all these years of listening, I still have no idea why.

It’s just really special

Paul Clegg

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It’s his voice, unique and sorrowful, cuts to the very essence of what is soul.

Julien Jørgensen

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Tyler spoke up for BLM surrounding the Floyd thing. He posted online and said he realized that a lot of of his fan base would be at odds with his position. I was already a fan but that’s when he got me for life.

I don’t know how I found him. I’ve been listening for years. I fell in love with his solo unplugged version of White House Rd. from some YouTube thing.

Oh I just looked it up. Eight years ago I was talking about this dude. I wonder how it found me.

Ben Davis

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I knew “You’re all mine….” before the pandemic. Then heard a rarity (even detailed by you) a protest song. A Long Violent History was played in LA the other night and it just resonates.

Sean Tighe

Havertown PA

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UK loves Tyler too (including me)! He’s playing the O2 in London in the autumn. 20k cap. Not the right venue for him imho (too big), but it demonstrates his appeal.

Andy Fordyce

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Tyler is a real southerner with a real consciousness.  It’s SO GREAT to have a young southern musician/writer who is not afraid to speak their mind.  Someone who has “progressive” (basic humanity) values.

Take your toes in the sand and beer at the beach “country” music and shove it.  Which side are you on?!

Kirby Hamel

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reading you for 13 years now….Tyler is the best one you have introduced me to! Thanks!

Chris Rodinis

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Love your stuff Bob. I was at that show to see Tyler and my great friend Robert Earl Keen who was the opener and introduced Tyler. Yes, Tyler has  never has had  a hit but Feathered Indians has now had almost 600 million spins on Spotify. Isn’t that amazing that an Americana/country song could do that? I think so. It shows that sometime the listening public gets it right. As you wrote, the show was great. How about when he played those love songs out in the middle of the audience? As an early fan, I’m so happy to see him get the recognition and  success he deserves.

Will Vogt

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It’s not rural south…this is Appalachia. It’s a different American story Bob and he’s just the guy to tell it. There’s no more authentic artist than he. Glad you loved the show.

Best,

Jeff Rabhan

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Tyler is doing so much right. And to be doing it from eastern KY is special. He’s from the same neck of the woods (literally) as Sturgill Simpson, Chris Stapleton and before them, Dwight Yoakam. And his accent isn’t just rural southern. It’s the hills (pronounced ‘heels’) of eastern KY. Nasal with the strongest twang.. Yep, the hard stuff. No polish here.

His buildup has  been a slow burn starting in Pineville & Pikeville but now he regularly sells out Rupp Arena (23,000) in Lexington (where he taught voice for a while).

I’m looking forward to the Rick Rubin-produced album.

As someone from “the 606” myself, it’s fantastic to watch and ride along in the cheapest of seats. He’s the real deal.

 

Tim Wood

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Loved reading this piece on Tyler Childers, Bob!

Re: wondering how fans found Tyler Childers… I found him because a local band I like plays “Whitehouse Road” as one of the covers in their set. So random. Found it on Spotify and went down the Tyler Childers rabbit hole from there.

Sarah Martin

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Great write up of a great artist. We in the Drive-By Truckers/ Isbell/ Sturgill community have know about Tyler for a while.  Country Squire was the big breakthrough, with semi-hit “Your’n”. The triple album “Can I Take My Hounds To Heaven” from ’22 was terrific; three versions of the same record, touching on Memphis gospel, Elton John, and Electronica.

I saw Tyler open with his band for the Rolling Stones in a stadium in Orlando last summer and he absolutely killed it, earning an invite out to duet on “Dead Flowers” with Mick.

There’s plenty of good music out there you just gotta poke around.

If they’re not on your radar yet, highly recommend the Drive-By Truckers.  Deeper and way smarter than the name would indicate.

Dave Arbiter
Margaritaville, Daytona Beach, FL

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Just like I was, you are several years late to Tyler. His breakthrough album, Purgatory was released in 2017, and I didn’t get my first taste until roughly three years ago.

Purgatory is a masterpiece in songwriting. Minimal production – just great lyrics and melodies. He was my number one played artist on Spotify for two years in a row, and it was only songs off that album, and I don’t even consider myself a country/bluegrass guy.

Please go explore that album, well worth the time. The opening number sets the tone, and is my personal favorite, even though Feathered Indians is the biggie. It’s hard to find a no-skipper these days, so when I find one, I have to tell you about it!

-jared jones

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Tyler is interesting in how he has built his career. He’s definitely not a “Nashville guy”. I first became aware of him in 2017 when Miles Miller, who is Sturgill Simpson’s drummer, began talking him up online. The Sturgill-produced Purgatory album came out and got my attention. He did a three night solo acoustic residency at the Basement (150 capacity) in September of that year and I believe Miles sat in with him for part of it. I first saw him in December of that year when he returned with his band to headline the larger Basement East venue (575 capacity). That show sold out almost instantly and everyone there knew the words to every song-not just those from Purgatory, but ones from his earlier locally released records as well.

He returned in the Spring of 2018 to open 2 nights of Margo Price’s 3 night Ryman Auditorium residency. I was at both of those and the crowd was there as much for him as they were Margo (who is an amazing artist as well!)

By the time Country Squire came out in 2019 he and his band had toured extensively in the US and Europe and appeared on both Fallon and Kimmel.

The turning point from my perspective was early 2020. Tyler headlined 4 nights at the Ryman, one of which I saw. The merchandise line prior to the show was one of the longest I’ve ever seen at the Ryman. Then Sturgill Simpson launched his first arena tour, the ‘Good Look’n’ tour in support of his left-turn rock album, Sound and Fury, with Tyler and his band as the special guest. Sound and Fury was a divisive record among Sturgill fans. Some loved it, some hated it.

I was at the first show in Birmingham on February 21. After Tyler played, there was a break and when Sturgill took the stage he played Sound and Fury all the way through before returning to his earlier work. I loved it, but by the time Sturgill had finished his second song, there were a noticeable amount of people leaving the arena, enough that Sturgill himself commented on it.

That was the point, in my mind, when Tyler became fully established as an artist with a fan base that was loyal, committed to his music, and growing. Last time I saw him was in August of last year, at a sold out Folsom Field Stadium at the U of Colorado. From what I can tell he has stayed fiercely loyal to his Ashland Kentucky/Huntington West Virginia roots-choosing to live around his family and long time friends. When you talk about people wanting authentic, he embodies it. That’s what resonates with me and I would imagine, with most of his fans.

Jim Blaney

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I live in Philadelphia and I play 4 to 5 nights a week. For the past three years or so every time I play at a university in the Philadelphia area weather Villanova Trexall Saint Joseph’s or Vilna University, Pennsylvania they have been always asking me for the last three years to play Tyler Childers. So I did my job. I learned a handful of his songs. It doesn’t matter where I play what university or if I’m down in Center City, Philadelphia or out in the suburbs Philadelphia everybody knows Tyler Childers. I did not learn about them from the radio or anything. I learned about them from the dozens and dozens and dozens request which began over three years ago.I can’t explain it all. I know I have a job to do. When people start requesting a certain artist over and over and over like Tyler Childers or Morgan Wallen. I learned those songs. It’s a mystery but it’s a good mystery.

Kenn Kweder

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I’m a bluegrass guy-an obviously niche market (and thankfully not nearly as right leaning as it once was) and Tyler came up through this roots avenue.  He’s played a few sold out Red Rocks shows over the past few years and something that I found very impressive was how he handled both his openings acts as well as promotion of other music in the area when he was here in CO.  Bringing in bands who would seemingly never have the opportunity to play such a venue as well as bringing hip hop acts to open for him, understanding about bringing diversity to his audiences.  But the thing I found most impressive was that the morning between his 2 sold out Red Rocks a couple years ago himself and his band went to a local elementary school, set up, and performed for the kids and faculty.
That screams of authenticity and to me in this world of constant show, he really stands out.

Jason Hicks

Blue Canyon Boys

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Tyler Childers is THE SH*T. He’s Sturgill-stubborn, meaning he follows his own muse, labels be damned. He even released three different versions of his 2022 album, Can I Take My Hounds to Heaven?

His backing band is called the Food Stamps, a little clue to where his heart lies. I discovered him three or so years ago, when YouTube’s algorithm served me his version of the Dead’s Greatest Story Ever Told, replete with band intros and vamping instrumental jam: https://youtu.be/U6QMsnlL7DY?si=jr_AvqnRoovIjMnS

I loved his magnetism, leaned into the Food Stamps’ mighty groove and went on a deep, deep dive. He’s now at the top of my very short ‘must see’ list.

John Kendle

Winnipeg, Canada

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Yes Bob to all of this! When the pandemic started here in Canada, we shut ourselves in at the cottage, stocked the beer fridge and worked on our playlists.  We spent a lot of time in the garage by the woodstove, playing cribbage and listening to music. That’s when we discovered Tyler Childers. So my boyfriend loves country (ugh) and I’m so in love with classic rock. The Outlaw country was a compromise and we discovered a lot of decent bands! Authentic and amazing guitar players like you mentioned. I thought Whitehouse road was a hit. It seemed like everyone we knew was listening to it. Anyways, our neighbours gave us tickets to Tyler Childers at Ottawa Bluesfest last year and I was so impressed! He has a groove and I was digging it. I’m not kidding you, he reminded me a smidge of Gord Downie…and that’s huge. My friend leaned in and said are you getting Gord Downie vibes and I said yes absolutely holy sh*t!

Wondering about their political views – yes me too! I started doing that because one of my favourites The Screamin’ Cheetah Wheelies are from Tennessee and I wondered how I couldn’t hear their southern accents and maybe they don’t have a twang and maybe they’re not Republican and maybe I’m completely ridiculous because it’s sooooo likely they’re all God Guns and Trump?! And I’m just going to listen to the music because I can handle the odd shout out to God but no more than that.

Susan Schreider

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Bob, he’s had NO radio hits, but he’s been wildly talked about even before he was putting out records.

Tyler is a singular talent, true to the Kentucky he comes from. Bluegrass underpinnigs, Appalachian heart: it cuts into you that almost bray. AND his intensity. Few people mean it as much as Childers, who is respectful, almost shy and burning inside for his heart.

Sturgill as an ally is a good thing.

Jeremy Tepper, from SiriusXM Outlaw Country + Willie’s Roadhouse*, wasn’t just a believer, but a champion who knew how to program Childers’ music for the win to people primed to like it.

AND like Willie, when he went back to Texas, Childers understands be true to the music, passionate + forthright, have a band that jangles with you? You’re winning.

Saw him debut his last album at the Grand Ole Opry, both proud/dignified AND passionate/joyful.

People want authenticity, That’s what permeates every line you wrote below. Tyler, so unlike most of us, so truly the hollers most will never see, is just that. It’s why the production feels off-kilter and fascinating. Who needs smokebombs with that voice + that band?

You can’t know ’til you see. Unless your friends turn you on.

Welcome to the club —

Holly Gleason

* and it’ll be one year ago tomorrow, we lost Tepper. Came to Cleveland to see Mojo Nixon’s artifacts in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame — alongside roots iconoclasts Dan Baird (Georgia Satellites), Warner Hodges (Jason & the Scorchers), Eric “Roscoe” Ambel (the Del-Lords) + Cait O’Riordan (the Pogues) — flew home to be with his family, and passed. Tepper knew how to slip artists like Tyler, Charlie Crockett, Joshua Ray Walker + elder country icons from John Anderson to Emmylou Harris to Kristofferson into a space of honor in our culture.

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My contention for why people love Childers:

– He doesn’t use complex chord arrangements (most songs are G, C Am, F kinda thing using a capo to change keys…

– his image and lyrics are the opposite of everything shi*ty about Nashville manifested in people like Luke Bryan

– he’s independent so much so that I would go so far as to say he’s a modern day Outlaw country act a la Kristofferson/Willie Nelson/Jennings

– His voice is upper register

– Sounds as good live as on record

– great melodies

– and his lyrics paint a picture of his image which is that of a badass – blue AND white collar folk think he’s cool and true and real when he sings about cocaine and gettin stone ragin blind etc…

Like this line from his song Charleston Girl:

“Charleston girl in a darkened room

And you don’t know her like I do
We took the fire escape to her room
And got stoned, ragin’ blind”

And later on in that song:

“I don’t know if it’s the wine or the coke

That makes her sound like her jaw is broke”

You can hear in early Zach Bryan lyrics his love for Childers music – no doubt he would’ve inspired Bryan to write his own songs. The album that put Childers on the map came out 2017 – so a bunch of kids saw his success then and now 8 years later are writing their own stuff …

From Zach Bryan’s Flying or Crying:

“We’ll find a porch to hold us

Where we could all scream “Childers”
Drink the sh*t that kills us
Until we all remember”

Bryan sees himself as a Kerouacian rogue, smokin cigs, drinking JD, blastin’ Cash, live fast die hard… and I think Childers was the first for a lot of young listeners to express that kind of raison d’etre…

Childers is in a lane of his own… and yes I’m a fan.

James Rose

Netflix trailer: https://rb.gy/4kocqr

I wanted “Families Like Ours” to be good, but I wasn’t expecting it to be one of the best series I’ve seen this year.

I’ve been kind of on a losing streak. I want my series to be as good as a movie. Then again, how many mediocre movies did I go to see back in the last century, when moviegoing was still a thing? I want more than entertainment. Not only do I want to be engrossed, I want to feel, and what I want to feel most is a connection to the human condition. In this frazzled world in which we live there’s a focus on escape, but I’m more into the real nitty-gritty.

The Danes and the Israelis make the best television. “And “Families Like Ours” is Danish, but the premise… I’m not usually a fan of sci-fi, not that that’s the proper description of the series.

The concept is very simple. The Danes can’t hold back the encroaching water that has resulted from climate change, and they’ve decided to empty the country. But you’re not prepared for a complete exploration of people’s choices when they’re broken down to zero, doing their best to escape a slide into poverty. You lose all your assets, you lose all your status, then what?

A secret cannot be held. This is why I doubt all those conspiracy theories. People love to talk, almost no one can hold back from telling others juicy, private news, always with the admonishment not to tell others, which they promptly do.

There’s disbelief, before ultimate acceptance.

There’s frustration with the system…after all, you had no part in this decision!

As for the rest of Europe, except for the Netherlands, it’s business as usual. But EU rules do not apply. You cannot go to another country willy-nilly, there are rules, and they probably eliminate your choices, never mind hopes and dreams.

And under all this hopes and dreams remain. Some romantic, others career… What’s more important, preparing for the inevitable future or being beside your loved ones?

One question after another is raised. To the point where you start to anticipate them, but just like human nature, you can’t anticipate them all.

And unlike an American show, everything is not hunky-dory. The prick brother remains a prick.

There are so many issues. It’s not just as simple as decamping. What about your relatives, your ex, do you have a responsibility to look after them? And if they go to a different country than you, will you ever be able to see them again?

Question upon question is raised. Everything is more complicated than you think it is. Can you hang back and go with the flow? When the government is being shut down and there’s no one to look out for you?

Now they’ve made this kind of show/movie in America before. The closest analogue is 1983’s “Testament,” which is very good, but not as good as “Families Like Ours.”

I tried to watch the Apple shows. “The Studio”? Elements of amazing insight, leavened by predictable insanity, it’s hard to watch more. Maybe if you were watching week by week you’d have hope it got better, but now that the series has played completely, and everyone is unsatisfied, I see little reason to go back to it.

The venerated “Dope Thief”? Okay, maybe I’ll go back, but despite the flip of the script, it’s very American, and I say that in a negative way, two-dimensional actors playing to an audience that wants whiz-bang spectacle more than reality.

Now “Dope Thief” is not that bad, but in truth it’s not really that good.

I want a show so good that I suspend disbelief, where I become entwined with the characters, to the point where I believe they’re real and their trials and tribulations affect me.

That’s “Families Like Ours.”

There are none of the traditional America tropes. Sure, there is some violence, but that’s the nature of life, unfortunately. Everything is normal and there are no real heroes and what’s it like to start all over? Do you have to start all over? And what do you prioritize, your job or..?

I would expect “Families Like Ours” to be remade in English like other legendary Danish shows like “The Bridge” and “The Killing,” and these regionalized remakes tend to be faithful to the original and very good, but never quite as good  as the progenitor.

And you can see the original right now, on Netflix. Sure, it’s subtitled, and you can watch with English voices dubbed, but one thing is for sure, you won’t be bored, you’ll become enraptured and stick with it.

Your move.

Tune in Saturday June 14th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.

Phone #: 844-686-5863

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz

1

How did everybody know?

It’s a big city, but you run into people you know everywhere. You can’t go to a show without seeing someone you went to school with, someone you met at a party, but on Wednesday night I didn’t recognize ANYBODY! Other than a handful of music business insiders, but there was not a plethora of the usual suspects down front, it was like they imported a whole new audience that I wasn’t even aware of.

This was not the Riverside crowd… Leave the city center and you don’t exactly get rural people, but those more roots oriented, more country, but that was not this crowd, they were positively middle class, scrubbed-up, dressed well, HOW DID THEY KNOW?

Tyler Childers has not had a hit, but he can sell out the Hollywood Bowl?

Now the dirty little secret is the Bowl has turned into the Garden. Acts many have never heard of play Madison Square Garden and sell out, or close, and ditto with the Hollywood Bowl. Is this one and done? If Tyler Childers played another venue within a fifty mile radius could he sell this number of tickets? I mean I’ve gone to the Bowl to see household names and there are empty seats, but not the other night.

His agent told me that Childers normally plays amphitheatres. But with lawns he can sell up to 20,000 tickets. And he’s reciting other numbers and it’s clear this is a veritable phenomenon. How exactly did this happen? There are theories, but nobody’s really sure. But one thing is for sure, the music business revolution we anticipated at the turn of the century is now here. There are fewer hits, and they’re not ubiquitous, but there are acts most people don’t even know with huge fanbases making beaucoup bucks. It’s got to do with the internet, but it doesn’t have to do with the label.

Childers was playing bars, as far as Missouri from his hometown in Kentucky. Hell, he’d never even BEEN to the west coast until he played his first gig at the Echo, where 180 people attended.

Did the label blow him up? THERE WAS NO LABEL!

He and his manager met with Keith Levy at Wasserman and it was decided it would be best to do an album with Sturgill Simpson, whom the agency represented. That took a while to happen. But the record came out and the audience built and it did not happen overnight, theory is it happened DURING Covid. When everybody was at home with time on their hands and looking for something to listen to, word of mouth broke Tyler Childers.

Who is truly country. I don’t mean country like the massaged hits that come out of the Nashville hit factory. In many ways, not even Americana. This guy SOUNDS like he came from the country. That voice, you don’t hear that in hit music. This is not what Beyoncé and Post Malone think of when they decide to go country. This is closer to the fifties than it is to today. Then again, it’s about the songwriting, which speaks to the audience.

And who is the audience?

Used to be there was a clear divide between north and south, everybody below the Mason-Dixon Line was considered an inferior redneck. But that’s not how people view the country or music these days. We’re all in it together. Sure, there are political prejudices, but those are mainly fights between politicos that the average person feels estranged from. When it comes down to living your life, today most people are surprisingly on the same page, despite media trying to divide us. Just like you don’t have to be Jewish to love Levy’s, you don’t have to be from the holler to like Tyler Childers.

2

Most acts are concerned with the economics. They don’t want to spend money, they want to make it. But including Tyler himself, there were eight musicians on stage. And projection and other production. This was not overwhelming, this was not the bells and whistles of today’s arena acts, the production complimented as opposed to overwhelmed, but still…someone was spending money.

So the first number begins and after a couple of verses, they go all instrumental, they start to IMPROVISE! ON THE VERY FIRST NUMBER!

Sure, the Dead might do that, but almost no one else. Maybe Dave Matthews Band, but that act appealed to a more upwardly mobile crowd, which also likes Chiders, but you don’t have to be an educated intellectual to get on the train.

And Tyler comes out in a sweater that resembles nothing so much as that ratty green one Kurt Cobain wore in Nirvana’s MTV “Unplugged.” But Tyler’s was new, and it didn’t seem to be ironic.

And he’s playing an acoustic, got another acoustic player on stage, got a guy with a Les Paul…

This is not Keith Urban, this is not a rock show. Then again, there was occasionally wailing.

And it wasn’t down home country either. It was an amalgam of those sounds, and more. A melting pot of Childers’s own creation.

AND THIS GUY HASN’T EVEN HAD A HIT! Tyler’s success is not the result of a label push, hell, the breakthrough record was put out by David Macias and Thirty Tigers.

And now Childers has made a record with Rick Rubin. Does this portend further success?

Rubin lets acts be true to themselves, he doesn’t force them to sell out, he tries to hone their essence, will this be a breakthrough?

Not everybody is going to like Childers. Zach Bryan sounds like you and me, Childers does not. You hear that voice and it says rural south. Natural if you live there, but if you don’t…there’s a decent chance you’ll consider it hick and don’t want to hear it.

And the band is firing on all cylinders and then Childers employs the modern country trope of going out to play in the audience, Morgan Wallen has been doing this for a while, never mind a slew of other acts. But it illustrated that Childers does not need support to do his act. This is not a studio concoction, this is raw and from the heart.

And then Childers introduced the band…

3

Normally band introductions are a simple going from player to player, maybe mentioning their hometown and who else they’ve played with. But Tyler turned it into a whole routine. Like a cross between a carnival barker and an auctioneer. Usually it takes years and years for acts to develop their stage patter, never mind be comfortable in their skin and deliver their words with ease. You felt like you were at a revival meeting, albeit with a preacher with a sense of humor. The bit about the keyboard player having sat in with Lynyrd Skynyrd… Tyler said he’d known this guy since he was fourteen, how come he’s just hearing about it now? Is it true?

This is when Childers controlled the audience.

Now the cheaper the seat, the more people were standing and involved. But when the music got quiet, you could not hear a pin drop, there was an undercurrent of noise, of people talking. Were people diehards, paying rapt attention? Some were. Some were singing along. I was trying to judge fan involvement and passionate devotion, then again a night out under the stars is a unique environment.

And I was wondering which side of the political spectrum Childers was on, after all, merely a few miles away law enforcement and protesters were battling it out, and the majority of Nashville acts are firmly on the right, or busy staying out of the fray for fear of losing their audience. But the words of Martin Niemöller’s legendary “First They Came” poem were put up on the video screens and Childers performed a live version of his song “Long Violent History” for the very first time. So there was an underlying current of politics, it all wasn’t just a good time, you’ve got to take a stand, where on the spectrum are you? And when do you stand up and say NO MAS!

4

Like I said, this guy has no hits, not a single one! And let’s be clear, his music is not Spotify Top 50 friendly, it’s far from hip-hop and pop. But if you go on Spotify Childers’s songs average hundreds of millions of streams. One has 600 million. Another 522, another 421… What is driving this? Certainly not radio play. Sure, there’s been some ink, but nothing of the volume given to Jason Isbell during his ascension.

No, the audience decided they liked this music. All by their lonesome. And I doubt it was playlists, they were looking for THIS GUY! Who is certainly unique. And playing rock and roll, but the music is closer to Nashville’s roots than Crosby, Stills and Nash and the rest of the country rockers.

The AUDIENCE decided they liked this music, and not only did they listen, they had to go to the show.

Do you get it? Every record business rule has been broken here. Childers doesn’t sound like anybody else. He didn’t gain attention via the traditional avenues of exposure like radio and media onslaught, rather he made the music, went on the road and the public embraced him.

Which doesn’t mean the audience will embrace you. Anybody can pick up a guitar, but not anybody can be Tyler Childers, with talent and a vision.

Childers might not be your thing, but I’m telling you we’re now reaping the benefits of the internet revolution in music. You don’t have to sound like anybody else, you don’t have to have a hit and recordings are just documents, entry points for people to become fans and attend the live show. We keep reading that people are economically-challenged. You wouldn’t have known it on Wednesday night, people didn’t think twice about paying to show up.

And there were no hard drives. And the show is not the same every night. It’s a living, breathing thing. Sans compromise.

It might not be for you, but you don’t have be for everybody to make it these days. As a matter of fact, the truer you are to yourself, the more people are attracted to you. They don’t want what everybody else is selling, they want authenticity, credibility, and those are at the heart of Tyler Childers.

I’m just hipping you.