It’s been a long road for Tanya Tucker, but she has finally received distinction from the Recording Academy. In fact, she received a few of them during the 2020 Grammy Awards Premier Ceremony Sunday (1-26) afternoon before the televised portion of the program for Best Country Song and Best Country Album.
Not that you needed any more validation of just how much of a good dude the 2-time reigning Saving Country Music Artist of the Year Tyler Childers is, but he just proved it yet again. After playing a full show on New Year’s Eve, wishing everyone a Happy New Year’s, Tyler stayed after the show to help the Appalachia Wireless Arena crew clean up.
Saving Country Music’s Song of the Year is specifically for a composition so moving and impactful, the mere notion of it gives you chills. Album of the Year is about the title that had the most positive impact in the genre, and what was the most enjoyable and fulfilling to listen to. But Artist of the Year goes much deeper.
Forget that in less than two months from now, Tyler Childers will be taking off on a national arena tour with fellow Kentuckian and producer Sturgill Simpson that is already some 25% sold out, Tyler Childers is selling out arenas on his own right at the moment, at least one near his hometown, and on consecutive nights.
2019 was a stacked year for top live performances. This was supposed to be a list of the top 10 live performances, but due to such a crowded field, things boiled over. And yes, there are three #1 acts. All should be considered equals at the very top level of live performance. They were all so great, it seemed unfair to put one over the other.
In 2019, an interesting new destination festival popped up just outside of Whitefish, Montana called Under The Big Sky. With acts such as Dwight Yoakam, Cody Jinks, Whitey Morgan, and Amanda Shires on the bill, it got the attention of true country fans, but the question was if it would be worth the trek.
When it comes to top-tier releases in the country and roots realm, 2019 was a year like we’ve never seen before. Though it feels like we say that every year, 2019 truly was exceptional. The albums selected to be considered for Saving Country Music’s Album of the Year are so elite, all of them should be considered the winners.
Oh thank God. Usually when country music and sports interact—especially when it comes to college football—it’s a weekly shaming ritual for actual country music fans as Florida Georgia Line or some other trash gets selected as the bumper music into commercial breaks during broadcasts, or as the background noise of highlight reels.
The distaste the CMA Awards experience can leave in the mouth of actual country music fans is chased early this year by the announcement of the 2020 Grammy Award nominees in the Country and American Roots categories. Though no set of ears will find the nominees list ideal, those with distinguishing tastes will be much more rewarded.
For years people played the musical version of fantasy football in their minds by pairing up tour partners like Jason Isbell and Sturgill Simpson, Cody Jinks and Tyler Childers, or Tyler Childers and Sturgill Simpson, sure that if anyone had the guts to put a bill like that together, it could possibly sell out arenas. But nobody saw this coming.
Presale demand for the upcoming Sturgill Simpson / Tyler Childers A Good Look’n Tour has been so robust that additional shows have been added to the schedule, with the possibility of even more coming in the future. Dates in Knoxville, Asheville, Detroit, Minneapolis, and even Nashville have been doubled up ahead of tickets going on sale.
The Saving Country Music Top 25 Playlist is built to keep you informed on all the best songs and albums coming out right here, right now. It’s available on most all streaming formats (see below), or you can just use the song, artist, and album recommendations to find something new to listen to. New songs have just been added.
Sturgill Simpson and Tyler Childers officially announced “A Good Look’n Tour” earlier this week, with 36 dates across North America starting in February. And though tickets don’t officially go on sale until Nov. 8th, the AEG-promoted tour is using the Ticketmaster Verified Fan program. Proceeds will also benefit the Special Forces Foundation.
One of the biggest adversities to a grassroots artist is success. As Chris Stapleton once said after he’d risen out of obscurity, “I have completely no street cred anymore.” Tyler Childers is the perfect example of this. He released his latest album ‘Country Squire’ earlier this year, and a small but boisterous contingent of fans love to say he “sold out.”
After screwing with us for a few days, letting word of the upcoming Sturgill Simpson / Tyler Childers tour leak out via posters hung up at venues and other prominent places in the markets where the our will stop, we finally have a formal revelation of the dates and locations. And like the rumors were alluding to, this will be an arena-level tour.
Once again, Sturgill Simpson is screwing with all of us. This time it has to do with the revelation of his upcoming tour dates behind his new album and anime film, Sound & Fury. We already knew that Sturgill was going to be touring with fellow Kentuckian Tyler Childers. Now he’s revealed the dates and cities, but not in the conventional way.
“‘Country Squire’ is 100% what I consider ‘real’ country. We have to share a space that’s been taken over—infiltrated, in a sense—by pop country. If you’re going to be in that space, on those charts, you’re going to share the space with those people. But that’s the only way to take the lunch table back.”
It’s uncanny how Chris Knight takes such simple notions, and turns them into exaltations for the common man, their common struggles, and imparts solutions to everyday dilemmas. He’s the headwaters of erudite knowledge served in plainspoken terms that all other country songwriters seek.
The magic of what makes Tyler Childers able to write country songs that seem to resonate so deeply with listeners is not rocket science. The reason Tyler Childers and other Kentucky-born songwriters are currently acting like the spearhead in the effort to save country music is because they’re singing what they know about.
Sturgill Simpson made his fourth appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast Monday night (9-30), and revealed that he and Tyler Childers will be touring together in 2020. The tour is said to be about 40 dates, and will be behind the new album Sound & Fury Sturgill Simpson just released. Ahead of the tour, Sturgill Simpson is playing six club dates.
If you wanted to see Tyler Childers perform at the picturesque Red Rocks Amiptheater in Morrison, CO just outside of Denver this Monday, September 30th, well tough titty, because the show sold out months ago. But even if you couldn’t get a ticket or convince your boss to give you time off to make it to the show, you’re in luck.
Joe Rogan and his mammoth podcast reach more people than most cable shows these days, and his ringing endorsement of music artists over the years has directly resulted in the rise of important careers. The next question is if or when Joe Rogan will have Tyler Childers on for one of his mammoth, 2-hour-plus podcast sessions.
Tulsa, Oklahoma native Zach Bryan took many fans of Texas, Red Dirt, and independent country music by surprise recently when he released an album of solo acoustic recordings on August 23rd under the title “DeAnn.” But the biggest question many have is, who is Zach Bryan?
“Yellowstone” provided a ton of music and artists for fans of the show to explore, especially throughout the country and roots realm, and especially artists that the mainstream often ignores. And the success of the show has also resulted in deserved attention for the songs and artists featured.