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1

We knew the record, we knew the name, but we couldn’t pick Lou Christie out of a lineup.

That’s how it was back in ’66, when the Brits still had a hold on the Top 40, album rock was becoming a thing, but every once in a while something American would sneak into the chart from left field, something that sounded so right, but could have been released before the Beatles as opposed to two years after.

But we were all addicted to the radio. Top 40 ruled. Underground FM was still a year away. And there were anomalies that would confound you now, but were part of the fabric back then. Like Mike Douglas’s “The Men in My Little Girl’s Life” being number six on the WABC 1/18/66 chart, when “Lightnin’ Strikes” broke in at number 19. Unfathomable today, where the niches are so narrow, where tons of very popular music does not only not make it on to terrestrial Top 40, but doesn’t break the Spotify Top 50 either. But back in the day, if you were on the chart, you were popular, and everybody knew your song.

#1 that week was “We Can Work It Out,” the Beatles’ Xmas single which featured “Day Tripper” on the flip side, one of the amazing Beatle two-sided singles, and neither of these numbers were part of “Rubber Soul,” which was released on December 5, 1965. What a long strange trip it was from “Beatles ’65” the previous year to “In My Life” and “Norwegian Wood.”

#2 was Simon & Garfunkel’s “Sound of Silence,” which ruled over the holiday. Not only did people wonder whether Garfunkel was his real name, there was endless debate regarding the meaning of the song, something we no longer have in today’s scramble for cash music business.

#3? The Stones’ ballad, “As Tears Go By.”

#4? The sadly overlooked by today’s kids Kinks, with one of their best songs ever, “A Well Respected Man.”

#5? Gary Lewis and the Playboys’ best song, “She’s Just My Style,” which Leon Russell had a hand in and sounded like a modern day Beach Boys cut.

And then came that Mike Douglas number.

But there were other anomalies, like the Statler Brothers’ “Flowers on the Wall,” which everyone loved and sang…

“Smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo

Now don’t tell me, I’ve nothin’ to do”

I’m not going to delineate every record on the chart, but I will say that the Supremes and the Marvelettes were on there, as well as one of the best English-sounding American tracks, the Knickerbockers’ “Lies” and one other record that fit into the same slot as “Lightnin’ Strikes,” “Five O’clock World” by the Vogues, which had been completely forgotten until Bowling For Soup did a cover for “The Drew Carey Show” and we realized how f-ing great that number had been. It was there in our memory banks, but “Lightnin’ Strikes”? We never forgot that, hell, I was singing it to myself just yesterday, truly! 

2

“Listen to me baby, you gotta understand”

It was the urgency that got to us. And the record has a great intro, with even horns, but oftentimes the deejay cut that off and got right to the lyrics. But the intensity, it BUILT!

“Listen to me baby, it’s hard to settle down

Am I asking too much for you to stick around”

Ah, the need, the desire, the hormones. Believe me, we were hopped up, we felt it.

And then a complete change.

Which was heralded by a veritable twinkle, which set up the unexpected section:

“Every boy wants a girl

He can trust to the very end

Baby, that’s you

Won’t you wait, but ’til then”

The feel has completely changed. In the opening verse he’s begging for her attention, but now he’s got it. He’s softened his delivery, he’s looking into her eyes.

And then the number gets truly intense, like a teenager unable to control their will.

“When I see lips beggin’ to be kissed

(Stop)

I can’t stop

(Stop)

I can’t stop myself

(Stop, stop)”

Have you got it, he cannot STOP! He’s gone from begging to reasoning to PURE EMOTION, which then bubbles over.

“Lightning’s striking again

Lightning’s striking again”

He’s cast off all self-consciousness, he’s raw emotion, he’s in the moment, HE JUST CAN’T HOLD BACK! The release is palpable!

The falsetto chorus, angels singing from heaven, are on Lou’s side. I mean what woman can deny THIS?

It’s a veritable tour-de-force, and then the number breaks down once again, but with an added level of intensity:

“Nature’s takin’ over my one track mind

Believe it or not, you’re in my heart all the time

All the girls are sayin’ that you’ll end up a fool

For the time being, baby, live by my rules”

Now he and the background singers are positively testifying, his message is undeniable, how can she not be on his side?

As for “live by my rules”… You may think the sixties were a dark age culturally, but I must say, these words made the listener squirm even back in ’66. The man’s rules?

“When I settle down

I want one baby on my mind

Forgive and forget

And I’ll make up for all lost time”

Believe me, listeners weren’t thinking about settling down, this was a hangover from a previous era, the Beatles didn’t sing lyrics like this, and the aforementioned Kinks? They were singing social commentary.

Now the number is completely amped up.

There’s a break with a solo, but ultimately those high vocals come in over and over again, talking about lightning strikin’ again.

“There’s a chapel in the pines

Waiting for us, around the bend

Picture in your mind

Love forever, but ’til then”

The record is taken to a level unforeseen, an intensity that squeezes out everything else in the world, the listener is carried away, they’re all in.

But it’s the outro that seals the deal. Lightning is not only going to strike, not only going to strike again, but AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN!

This was the essence of a hit record in the sixties. When it was over, you could not wait to hear it again, which drove you to the record shop to buy it to spin it at home over and over and OVER again until you were finally satiated, worn out, and you were just starting to be hooked by another record and ultimately repeated the process. But not all of those records were all time, but LIGHTNIN’ STRIKES IS!

3

I can literally remember hearing “Lightnin’ Strikes” hanging outside junior high waiting for the bell. Wearing my sweater as I’d agreed with Peter we would do. Although I wore a shirt underneath, he didn’t bother, I couldn’t do this, the itchiness would get to me.

These records lived everywhere. At the school dance, at the bowling alley, they were part of the fabric.

By the next week, “Lightnin’ Strikes” was at number 7, and the week after that, the chart of February 1, 1966, it went all the way to NUMBER ONE! And it stayed there, AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN, three more weeks, four weeks in a row. And then it started to descend and by March 29th, “Lightnin’ Strikes” was off the chart completely. Which meant you rarely heard it on the radio anymore, but you didn’t need to, YOU KNEW IT BY HEART!

We all learned about the records at the same time. You couldn’t claim to be hip by knowing a song before everybody else did, we all started from the same line. Records did not take a year to break, hell, a year after their success an act could be working a day job. A hit was oftentimes a lark, a one time shot.

But Lou Christie had another hit, “Rhapsody in the Rain,” which was great, but not “Lightnin’ Strikes.” You don’t know how you reach the peak, you’re inspired, you’re channeling an energy that came from parts unknown, you lay it down and you know what you have but good luck trying to climb to the top of the mountain once again.

“Rhapsody in the Rain” had a very memorable chorus, but the dynamics were as not extreme and the verses were not as good as they were in “Lightnin’ Strikes.” “Rhapsody in the Rain” was fodder for the radio, “Lightnin’ Strikes” was LIGHTNING IN A BOTTLE!

4

So I walked in the door and Felice told me Lou Christie had died, she’d heard it from her sister. I was completely out of the loop, it was news to me, and news period, the death was on Wikipedia but you could not find it searching the Google News. Nor Apple News+. I was living it in real time.

And I’m thinking about those who didn’t live through the era. They only know the track as an oldie, with the detritus of years of charts cleaned away so only the true goodies survive. And put against the rest of the songs from that era “Lightnin’ Strikes” may not be seen as quite the triumph it was. We were addicted to the radio, every Tuesday night I did my homework to Cousin Brucie doing the weekly countdown. When a record emerged it rode shotgun with our complete life, everybody we knew knew it, in a way today’s culture knows almost nothing, when even the average person can’t say who won the World Series, but back then…our cultural moments were universal peaks we all shared.

Now I was shocked to see that Lou Christie tried and tried and tried. He never gave up, kept searching for another hit, at times changing with the times, writing song after song after song, oftentimes with his partner Twyla Herbert, who was twenty years older than he was.

Songwriting partner, not romantic partner. That was Francesca Winfield, an English model who he stayed married to, just like in the song, it was forever.

And I knew he’d changed his name. After all, I’d researched him over the years, that’s one of the magical elements of the internet, the past comes alive.

And Wikipedia tells me Lou was on “Where the Action Is,” but I don’t remember that. Then again, other than Paul Rever and the Raiders….that show was on five days a week, much of it was a blur. Then again, I remember rushing home to watch the Yardbirds perform “For Your Love” on the show. So I couldn’t pick Lou Christie out of a lineup. But that’s not what he was selling. The acts of the late sixties and seventies were selling more than the songs, their identities were enmeshed with the music. As for “Lightnin’ Strikes”…it was written to strike on the hit parade, right?

But that does not mean it was not great, just that the song has superseded its singer. And co-writer, the aforementioned Twyla. But Lou was involved with two noted crooks, Morris Levy and Stan Polley, did he end up with any rights, never mind royalties? I hope so. Then again, what do you want, riches or a hit? You think they always come together, but not necessarily. You can be famous and broke, believe me.

But being ensconced in the hearts and minds of an entire generation? That’s an achievement nearly beyond comprehension, very few achieve that, and when you do…

You and your record are for all time. Everywhere you go, every time you’re introduced, people are stopped in their tracks, they start to testify where they were when they listened to your record, what it meant to them, you’re just human, but to listeners, you’re a GOD!

AI couldn’t write “Lightnin’ Strikes.” It wasn’t a paint by numbers dream. There had to be inspiration and excitement, not only in the composition, but the recording!

Technology was primitive. There were no synthesizers. You could replicate these records at home, if not always their rudimentary reverb and other effects.

Then again, I don’t remember any local band playing “Lightnin’ Strikes.” That’d be like trying to impersonate God. It’s untouchable. Baked into the grooves is pure magic. From the piano to the horns to the backup vocals…not pieced together over days, with the vocals comped, but laid down all together, all at once.

Then again, the record was more than Lou. “Lightnin’ Strikes” was produced by legendary arranger Charles Callelo, who Al Kooper has testified about to me again and again and again. Then again, Kooper was in bed with and ultimately ripped off by Stan Polley too.

But that’s all music business history.

Then again, it was a different business back then, peopled by renegade hypesters, people who could promote and intimidate, and artists with little portfolio but an unbelievable hunger to make it.

Like Lou Christie.

Spotify: https://rb.gy/rmm2oj

I know this track came out in March. I even know that HAIM is about to drop a new album on Friday. But don’t ask me how I stumbled on this, I can’t remember. But about halfway through this cut I got hooked.

Well, let me explain that. I’m not telling you for your opinion, I’m not even sure I’m trying to turn you on to it, or maybe that’s just me trying to avoid the tsunami of abuse from the minions. Everybody has to prove their taste is better than yours. There’s a chilling effect. But…

I’ve been unable to get this song out of my head, even though this has never happened previously with a HAIM track…nice normal girls, at least the one time I hung out around them, but the music was just one step left of repeatability, it was more intellectual than emotional, whereas “Relationships” is the latter. If you want to know what the seventies sounded like, after Vietnam was in the rearview mirror, after the protests were history, this is the feeling, if not the actual notes. That’s one thing that’s been lost in the last few decades, optimism. We’ve got anger, frustration, and they’re roots of rock and roll, definitely, but hope and everyday hedonism, driving with the windows down with the radio blasting or sitting on the beach or out anywhere in the elements, that’s been eliminated. Whereas our music used to enhance our good feelings. It wouldn’t make you happy if you weren’t, but if you were, the music rode shotgun and lifted your mood even higher, that’s the alchemy of identity and music, they meld together to yield something more, that you cannot get anywhere else.

“Wasting time, driving through the Eastside

Doing my thing ’cause I can’t decide if we’re through

Well, are we?

And if we are, what are we gonna do?”

Only a woman could sing these lyrics. Men don’t reveal this straightforward honesty in music, or real life either. If men even deign to discuss relationships it’s with attitude, a power dynamic, whereas the amazing thing about the lyrics here are they’re sans heaviness, which makes them so appealing.

“Baby, how can I explain when an innocent mistake

Turns into seventeen days f*ckin’ relationships?”

After finding out that “Relationships” came out three months ago I Googled the lyrics, and this is the one that stood out. What exactly is going on here? I don’t think of innocent mistakes leading to relationships, just the opposite. As for seventeen days… That’s the life of rock stars or people floating in social circles far from mine, where the threshold to getting involved is low and you can get over someone in the blink of an eye. I mean it might take me seventeen days to reach out, have a conversation back and forth and maybe go on two dates, but this entire relationship was seventeen days from beginning to end?

“Don’t they end up all the same

When there’s no one left to blame?

I think I’m in love, but I can’t stand f*ckin’ relationships”

Actually, they don’t all end up the same. But I get the concept of the thrill of love and the baggage of the actual relationship. You look into their eyes and feel the connection, you walk with a bounce in your step, but then you find out you’ve got completely different values, they can’t show up on time and you hate their friends and…

“You gotta tell me the truth

If you don’t want to try

I hear a voice in my head

And it keeps asking, ‘Why am I in this relationship'”

The power imbalance. When you want it more than them. When you’re not even sure if you are in a relationship. They’re present and then they’re elusive. You’re invested and they’re hit and run. And you get frustrated and ask yourself whether you should disconnect, but just like in “Annie Hall” you find it difficult, because you need the eggs.

“Oh, this can’t just be the way it is

Or is it just the sh*t our parents did

And had to live with it in their relationship?

Relationships

F*ckin’ relationships”

What’s with all the profanity? I love when girls swear, when they’re not prim and proper. But if I spell the word out completely this e-mail will be blocked by corporations all over the world. Then again, there is a clean version of this song, but… How did our parents do it? Was it just a matter of commitment? And none of the HAIM women is married or has children, it used to be only men did this, maybe they froze their eggs, maybe they don’t care about having a family, I never did, then again, my window of opportunity never closed.

“But I would do it all again

If you put down your defenses

I think I’m in love, so why I am trying to escape from it?

Maybe that’s just how it goes

When you’re not fully grown”

It’s not only men who have defenses, then again, as I’ve referenced above, women will talk about their feelings, men almost never will, so you can’t even get down to the real nitty-gritty. She’s all-in, she’s ready to play, but he isn’t…is it because he doesn’t want to, doesn’t know how to or is afraid to? Meanwhile, the woman in this song is exactly the one most men want to be involved with. For all the debonair elusive dudes, most men are clueless and want women to make the move and lead, at the same time so many are afraid that by committing and tying themselves down they’ll miss out on…exactly what? Someone better who never arrives? And then there’s that twist of the knife, about him not being fully grown, not mature, women can see the window of opportunity will shut, men think it’s open forever.

Having written all of the above, the magic of the lyrics in “Relationships” comes LAST!

Maybe some musicologist from Berklee can explain exactly what is happening in this track, all I can say it’s hypnotic, your mind is nodding your head, even if your cabeza really isn’t.

You get into a trance, that you want to continue, which is why I put “Relationships” on endless repeat.

And then there’s that piano note. I think it’s a piano. Then again, I don’t like the fake drums and the fact that there may be a chorus but no real changes, so “Relationships” is not for all time, just now, but it fits a niche that is too often empty.

So I went to YouTube and found a magic video which only had 1.9 million views. But the images had the same feel as the lyrics, and listening with the captions on I realized “an innocent mistake” might have been casual sex…women might refer to that as a mistake, men never do. Also, for some reason the break where all the instruments fall out and then slowly come back in, the bass and then the piano(?) is part of the magic.

And then I go on Spotify and see there are 20 million streams, so… You can’t get rich on that number, but it does show people are listening…

And I was about to check out Mediabase to see if there was any radio action and then it occurred to me that fans of HAIM would not be listening to terrestrial radio with all its commercials, they want to hear what they want to when they want to.

So is “Relationships” a hit or irrelevant?

Neither. Not everybody knows it. Media has been telling us a new HAIM album has been coming for months, the hype building in intensity up to Friday’s release, but despite knowledge of its imminent drop, I had no intention of listening to it, but then for some reason I can’t put my finger on, I ended up playing it, and playing it…

And then I played the rest of the already released cuts from the new album and they didn’t resonate the same way.

So I went back to the earlier work, listened to track after track and felt like I always had, I had no desire to hear them ever again, never mind play all the way through.

But I can’t stop listening to “Relationships,” I can’t get it out of my head. It just makes me feel GOOD!

MY FAIR LADY

“With a Little Bit of Luck”

ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS

“Witch Doctor”

“The Chipmunk Song”

“Alvin’s Harmonica”

“Alvin for President”

RUFF & REDDY

SHEB WOOLEY 

“Purple People Eater”

THE TEMPOS

“See You in September”

BRYAN HYLAND

“Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini”

CHUBBY CHECKER 

“The Twist”

PETER, PAUL & MARY

“If I Had a Hammer”

ALLAN SHERMAN

“Sarah Jackman”

“Gotta Jump Down, Spin Around Pick a Dress of Cotton”

“Al N’ Yetta”

“Won’t You Come Home Disraeli”

“Camp Granada (Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh”

“RattFink”

“Eight Foot Two, Solid Blue”

“You Went the Wrong Way Old King Louie”

THE FIRST FAMILY/VAUGHN MEADER

“Motorcade”

THE FOUR SEASONS

“Big Girls Don’t Cry”

“Walk Like a Man”

“Dawn (Go Away) ”

“Ronnie”

“Rag Doll”

JIMMY CLANTON

“Venus in Blue Jeans”

LITTLE EVA

“Loco-Motion”

BOBBY “BORIS” PICKETT

“Monster Mash”

THE RAN-DELLS

“The Martian Hop”

THE SURFARIS

“Wipe Out”

LITTLE PEGGY MARCH

“I Will Follow Him”

THE ROOFTOP SINGERS

“Walk Right In”

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