We live in an era where a performance on The Tonight Show is not nearly as valuable as the ringing endorsement of an important celebrity on social media, for a musician or anyone else. And with the way radio refuses to support many artists, including some with major label deals, these influencer endorsements can go a long way.
Independent country is getting a huge boost in 2019, and sometimes from some unlikely places. Not only are worthy artists who’ve been working hard for years for recognition finally receiving their due from important independent record labels, even the major labels are getting into the game.
“All Your’n” has been a fan favorite live for the last many months. Similar to one of Tyler’s signature songs from his first record, “Feathered Indians,” it’s a sincere love song delivered with soul and conviction to his wife and fellow performer Senora May. It’s the arrangement of the studio version that makes it come across as less than ideal.
It’s honky tonk and heartbreakers coming at you hard and heavy in the latest additions to the Saving Country Music Top 25 Playlist. Charlie Marie and “Rodeo” don’t relinquish the top spot, but nipping at her heels is Tyler Childers with his much-anticipated lead single off his upcoming new album.
Tyler Childers has just singed to Sony’s RCA Records in a partnership with his own imprint called Hickman Holler, and will be releasing his latest record called Country Squier on August 2nd. Along with the new album, Tyler Childers has announced a bunch of new tour dates dubbed the “Country Squier Run.”
Kentucky-born resurgent country artist and fast-rising star Tyler Childers is now a major label country artist. As first reported by Saving Country Music on Wednesday (5-16), and made official during a video premier Thursday, Tyler Childers is the newest signee to RCA Records, a division of Sony. He will release “Country Squier” through the label.
You gotta love when one of your favorite music artists starts massively screwing with you head with cryptic verbiage and imagery, making you rack your brand about what it might be all about. These days this usually means new music or some other big development is on the way, and that’s what fans of Tyler Childers are hoping for.
The amount of premium festivals with stacked lineups for you to salivate over as the target for your discretionary music budget are starting to get downright overwhelming, and a new festival set to take place August 10th and 11th in Lexington, Kentucky will only add to your dilemma.
If you’ve been paying any attention to country music over the last few years, you know to be paying attention to just about any performing songwriter hailing from Kentucky. It’s the state that has given us Tyler Childers, Dillon Carmichael, Chris Stapleton, Kelsey Waldon, and Sturgill Simpson just to name a few over the last few years.
What started out to be a small and intimate alternative to Austin’s sprawling SXSW gathering every March, and that was only known initially through invite or word of mouth, has now become arguably the most important and exclusive gatherings in all of American roots music every year.
You get the sense that Tyler Chiders is sitting right on the cusp. When you mention his name, there is an energy behind it that charges the air, like you know he’s someone ready to break out in the biggest way at any moment. When he releases a new record, it could be a monumental event, and have reverberations throughout country music.
When you hear an artist like Charles Wesley Godwin sing, there is no need to power cycle your sense of disbelief. The sinewy roots of West Virginia’s hardscrabble existence seem to be intertwined with Godwin’s synapses and muscle tissue, almost as if he’s a construct of the land itself, like a scrub tree clinging to life.
It will never be the easiest festival to get to for anyone. It’s certainly not the cheapest when it comes to ticket prices, accommodations, or incidentals. But what’s for certain after the second year of Mile 0 Fest in Key West, Florida, is that this is Texas and Red Dirt’s premier musical event each year.
Saving Country Music’s home festival, and the place where Sturgill Simpson was discovered, a.k.a. the Pickathon Festival just outside of Portland, OR has just announced their initial 2019 lineup, and it includes a lot of worthy names from the country and roots world and beyond who will assemble at the Pendarvis Farm.
Here we are with a nice, tidy little bow wrapped around 2018, with the barrage of end-of-year lists finally published and in the past, the confetti from New Year’s celebrations all swept up, and the promise of an exciting new year of country music on the way. But how good or bad really was country music in 2018?
Last Saturday (12-22), as many people were hanging out with family and preparing for the Christmas holiday, Tyler Childers was at the Roy F. Collier Community Center in Inez, Kentucky in a Carhartt coat and toboggan to personally deliver 500 cases of water for residents of Martin County.
Music is just one of the many factors to weigh when naming the Artist of the Year. Unlike Album of the Year nominees, and Song of the Year nominees, this is not a distinction that is put up for a vote to the public, and it’s not just about the appeal any particular artist might garner for their yearly musical output, live or recorded.
Tyler Childers is currently one of the top artists from the wave of Kentucky musicians making a positive difference in country music. And just like many of the artists from one of the most impoverished and forgotten regions of the United States, he’s using of his good fortune in the music business to give back.
Naming the best live performances of a given year is not the same exercise as naming the best songs, albums, or artists, because it is specifically dependent on the experiences of the individual making the list. But it’s still an important exercise.
The one thing you can point to that makes a song decidedly not country is the presence of electronic drums. The human operated element of country music is one of the last great differences between country and the rest of popular music, and more frequently electronic beats have been creeping into the pop country soundscape.
Tyler Childers has a new haircut (high and tight), and a bunch of new tour dates he’s just released for 2019. Most important to note is that the new headlining dates will sell out, and probably immediately. Tyler Childers has sold out basically every show he’s played in the latter half of 2018.
Being held April 25-28 in 2019 on the campus of Wilkes Community College in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Tyler Childers, Wynonna and the Big Noise, American Aquarium, Lindi Ortega, and The Gibson Brothers are just some of the 75 names the festival has announced in their initial lineup.
Newest additions to the Saving Country Music Top 25 Playlist start off with JP Harris and his blazing new song “JP’s Florida Blues #1” from his upcoming record ‘Sometimes Dogs Bark At Nothing’ out October 5th. And don’t count Loretta Lynn done yet. At 86-years-old, she’s still pumping out tunes that get the blood pumping.
Formidable bluegrass power group Town Mountain must have left the back door to the studio open while recording their new record New Freedom Blues due out October 26, and in walked a stark raving hilljack covered in goat’s blood, also known as newly crowned Americana Emerging Artist of the Year Tyler Childers.