Tyler Childers Sees Career High Debut for “Snipe Hunter”
Tyler Childers has set a personal best debut with his new album Snipe Hunter, released on July 25th.
The album debuts at #2 on the Billboard Country Albums chart, disrupting the Morgan Wallen party at the top of country, and also comes in at #7 on the all-genre Billboard 200—a personal best for Tyler. His album Country Squire from 2019 hit #1 in country upon its debut, but debuted on the Billboard 200 at #12. This means this is the best showing for a Childers title on the all-genre charts.
Snipe Hunter also has the best debut showing of any of Tyler’s albums in regards to raw numbers. The album sold 47,585 total units in physical albums and streaming equivalents, beating his previous high of 32,000 for Country Squire. Tyler’s 2022 album Can I Take My Hounds to Heaven? debuted with 27,000 units sold, and #3 in country. 2023’s Rustin’ in the Rain debuted at #4 in country.
Snipe Hunter sold 26,935 in physical album sales, along with 25.5 million audio streams. This gives Childers top honors in physical sales in country, and puts him at #2 all genre behind Korean band Tomorrow X Together.
In equivalent album sales, Childers was beaten out in country by Morgan Wallen’s mammoth I’m The Problem with its 37 tracks. Wallen occupies the #3 and #4 spots on the Billboard Country Albums chart as well. Shaboozey helps round out the Top 5 with Where I’ve Been Isn’t Where I’m Going.
Produced by Rick Rubin with assistance from Nick Sanborn, Snipe Hunter has stimulated great conversation if nothing else. Though many critics have lauded the record, reception among country fans has been mixed, making Saving Country Music to declare it the most polarizing album of Tyler Childers’ career.
But sometimes conversation can be the best thing for a record. It also helps that Snipe Hunter includes 13 tracks, where his last albums only had eight, and then seven songs respectively.
The strong debut comes on the 8th Anniversary of Tyler’s best selling album of all time, 2017’s Purgatory, which sits at #32 on the Billboard Country Albums chart, surpassing many newer titles in country, including Tyler’s own. Purgatory is a good reminder that the proof of an album’s success often isn’t measured in weeks, but years. Purgatory debut at #17, but ended up rising to #9 over time, and still remains one of the most popular albums in all of country music.
The story of Snipe Hunter is just getting started. But so far, it’s off to a good start.
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August 4, 2025 @ 6:20 pm
Another great album! Who wants to hear the same sounding album each time?
August 4, 2025 @ 7:23 pm
Good question. I’ve never heard anyone ever say they do. Yet somehow, I see this claim all the time made on the behalf of others.
August 4, 2025 @ 6:53 pm
The sales were largely pre-sales.
The fans were tricked by “Grindstone” and “Oneida” into buying before hearing.
Otherwise, why those two songs?
Yeah.
Fuck Tyler Childers.
August 4, 2025 @ 7:27 pm
A lot of cope in this comment.
Remember, the first thing we heard about this album was from the head honcho of Tyler’s label touting how Rick Rubin produced it. That in itself was probably worth a sales boost. The you had the whole “Feathered Indians” kerfuffle, which put Childers front and center in everyone’s mindset. I agree releasing two songs that didn’t exactly represent the album was a lame move, and yes, pre-sales were strong. But he also created a curiosity/car crash factor that worked in his favor.
We’ll see if in three weeks it’s still ahead of “Purgatory” in the charts.
August 5, 2025 @ 8:52 am
If Childers was so flagging as to need a sales boost from “Trick” Rubin, then he was already a has been.
Rubin ain’t country and, now, neither is Tyler.
But the pop element is not there either. There is no hit on Snipe.
Tyler ain’t the new Beatles.
Sorry to break it to you.
August 5, 2025 @ 10:33 am
I’m not sure you’re breaking any news to me that Tyler Childers won’t be the next Beatles.
My guess is “Snipe Hunter” will fall beneath “Purgatory” in the charts in the next 3-4 weeks. But “Bitin’ List” and “Eatin’ Big Time” continue a big upsurge on social media. They’re already both up to 3+ million streams on Spotify, and if they continue to surge, could change the calculus. Going viral on TikTok is today’s version of a “hit,” and Childers currently has two tracks threatening to do so.
August 6, 2025 @ 2:05 am
Rick Rubin was country enough for me when he produced Johnny Cash’s “American” albums.
August 6, 2025 @ 9:20 am
Country enough for depraved Nine Inch Nails and Depeche Mode songs to warbled by a old dying legend.
August 6, 2025 @ 11:47 pm
Those got me into country music in the first place.
August 7, 2025 @ 5:23 am
Those were the best albums of his career.
August 7, 2025 @ 2:17 pm
Yeah, we all wanna hear a senile Johnny Cash sing about hurting himself with a needle or literally being someone’s personal Jesus.
Old fart, Rick Rubin needs to be hauled in for elder abuse.
August 5, 2025 @ 3:15 pm
Is this you Morgan?
August 13, 2025 @ 1:25 am
Johnny Cash’s “American” albums were amazing. So are NIN & Depeche Mode. So is Tyler’s new banger. Rick Rubin is a very successful producer. You on the other hand sound just plain sad.
August 4, 2025 @ 6:59 pm
From the beginning I’ve said the same thing about Tyler Childers and Zach Bryan: There are moments of absolute songwriting brilliance, but too many times I’m left with no hook to hang my hat on, a meandering mess of a melody, and bizarre songs about his favorite lotion or koalas with STDs. Maybe I miss Harlan Howard and Cowboy Jack too much.
That being said, I’m a HUGE fan of what these guys have done for commercial country music and the fact that they’ve brought organic sounds back into mainstream consumption. Tyler Childers gets a hearty “atta boy” from me. I’m also a big fan of artists doing what they want, regardless of public perception and reception. I love when artists try stuff and experiment, even when it’s not to my liking in the end.
I started listening to this album, but the production was a little hard for me to swallow. I’m going to give it another go sometime soon.
August 5, 2025 @ 7:48 am
Good job out of you, Conrad, for this best take I’ve read so far on this album. I’ve enjoyed a few songs on the album; it certainly isn’t my favorite, but it did shake things up, and there’s some value in that. Maybe it’ll grow on me the more I listen, but I agree with you, artists utilizing artistic freedom and not churning out the same damn thing every time is best for music overall!
August 5, 2025 @ 11:33 am
man. this comment reminded me to go listen to Conrad’s music. Dude you KNOCKED IT OUT OF THE PARK with the Welcome To The Neighborhood album.
August 6, 2025 @ 6:57 am
Haha thanks Stellar.
August 5, 2025 @ 1:45 pm
The production really jumped out to me as well. It just didn’t sound good…at all.
Wall of sound please go away.
August 4, 2025 @ 7:48 pm
I don’t think the backlash will occur until later. Even without all that the album will fall swiftly and won’t be in the top 10 next week. Think it will likely be like Cowboy Carter.
The woke country fans all streamed this album for a week. The vast majority of us aren’t woke and won’t be streaming it or his other albums.
I think his other albums have suffered as a result of conservatives refusing to stream any of his albums.
Morgan returns to number 1 where he will stay.
Fuck Tyler Childers and all the woke dirt bags. Its MAGA szn not politically correct virtue signaling summer
I’m no longer a Tyler fan. Won’t stream him now, next week, or this year. I’m done with him. He doesn’t want conservative fans like Isbell? He made my decision for me, not interested.
August 4, 2025 @ 7:59 pm
I’ve never heard Tyler Childers say he doesn’t want conservative fans, or implied anything similar. You don’t like the album or Childers, fair enough. But let’s not assign opinions to him he hasn’t shared.
August 4, 2025 @ 8:29 pm
Cry harder
Pull out the GQ magazine kurfluffle (does anyone read GQ? I swear if it wasn’t for all the outrage peddlers, no one would even know about that) and tell me how the album is woke?
Go listen to whatever crap Morgan Wallen is putting out and drop some hard Rs.
August 4, 2025 @ 8:58 pm
Of all the thought ending cliches issues around the Tyler Childers album, the “must be a Moran Wallen” fan is the most ludicrous, especially when issued in the comments section of Saving Country Music.
You’re right though. This is not a political album.
August 5, 2025 @ 3:02 am
TheJokeYadaYadaYada is literally the one who brought up Morgan in comparison, dude, noting he would stay at number 1 and TC’s album sales would stall.
So, if you wanna blame someone on “thought ending cliche issues”, might point that little finger in the right direction…
August 5, 2025 @ 9:54 am
Yeah, I’m with you Tex. He’s literally brought up Morgan Wallen in a dozen of his F – Tyler rants. Morgan Wallen is the most woke non-country pop artist associated with “country music”. Maybe because he’s had to save his own reputation twice. More so than Beyonce even. His songs are literally like a cheese grater to my ears. I’d rather listen to Taylor Swift……but a lot of people love him and I won’t hate on him or others for it. Good on him for his success. But using him as a comparison to TC is just troll like behavior. It can’t possibly be serious.
August 4, 2025 @ 8:29 pm
He should write a song about Trump flying the Lolita Express to party with his great pal Jeff.
August 4, 2025 @ 8:49 pm
Folks, if this comments section is just going to descend into politics and name calling, I’m going to shut it down. Let’s please address the topic at hand. Thank you.
August 4, 2025 @ 8:59 pm
Oh come on, Trigger. You love this. You know you get more clicks when you stir up the cult of The Orange Pedo.
August 5, 2025 @ 2:55 am
In the last TC thread, there was literally a user all over the place whose name included calling TC a “woke beta cuck.”
But, sure sure. Let’s keep it civil here. 🙄 wouldn’t want to offend.
August 5, 2025 @ 4:36 am
I guarantee you that this is the same user.
August 5, 2025 @ 7:03 am
The last Tyler Childers thread was very specifically about the polarization and politicization for the album. This is simply a news article enumerating the sales of “Snipe Hunter” and the historical context in Tyler’s career. Ironically though, this comments section once again verifies my assertion: Tyler Childers has become perhaps the most polarizing artist in country music.
August 5, 2025 @ 6:33 am
I know you don’t want to censor or limit comments, but this one person (who really seems like the one who was posting in earlier Childers discussion) is really killing the conversation and trolling it into political bullshit. Not even removing the comment, just changing the really troll comments to some form of click to read (eg the collapsed comments you see in reddit, with the header still there) would really help steer the conversation back to music.
August 7, 2025 @ 7:32 am
If you actually gave a shit at all you would ban the people that bring their politics into every goddamn discussion. You really think calling Childers a woke beta cuck is a political opinion worthy of discussion? You do this shit on purpose for the clicks and then act above it all. It’s fucking gross
August 7, 2025 @ 8:21 am
First, as I’ve unfortunately had to reiterate many, many times: Comments are deleted in this comments section. Comments WERE deleted in this comments section. The reason you don’t see them is because they are deleted. That said, I hate deleting comments. It solves nothing. It often exacerbates things. That is why I request first. If I wanted to facilitate political comments, I wouldn’t make those requests, and I certainly wouldn’t delete those comments.
I don’t get any meaningful “clicks” off the comments section. 95% of the traffic that comes to this website never goes to the comments. It’s the same small group of people commenting over and over, which means the traffic or “clicks” is not “unique traffic,” meaning I make little or no money off their presence here. I make little or no money anyway, because I have barely any ads on the site to begin with. I operate this site from my love of music, and have been catastrophically devastated financially to keep it going, especially over the last couple of years.
Also, I don’t know what I did on purpose in this article? Dryly reported Tyler’s sales numbers, which were newsworthy since he hit career highs?
August 4, 2025 @ 9:20 pm
Oh dear. I really think you need to start making plans to get over it.
I’m sure Tyler will be devastated if a career best number 2 is the album’s peak.
August 5, 2025 @ 4:35 am
Therapy, dude. Seek it. And soon.
August 5, 2025 @ 4:46 am
Buddy, you’re the one who’s “virtue signaling,” being intolerant of other people’s point of view, and having a political agenda. I also think you have a very narrow idea of who Tyler Childers and his fans are. Go to his Reddit page and you’ll see lots of young fans, many of whom don’t appear to be strictly country music listeners. I think this is a good thing.
If you don’t like the album that’s fine, listen to something else.
August 5, 2025 @ 6:12 am
This commenter, and all the usual suspects who just can’t help but reply were made for each other.
August 6, 2025 @ 9:20 pm
Sound like a 2 buck cuck.
August 5, 2025 @ 6:27 am
Could you just take a nap, go for a walk, or I dunno, chill the fuck out? You’ve made your point, we’ve all heard it again and again, and the rest of us would like to be able to move the conversation forward without hearing your endless harangues.
August 5, 2025 @ 6:38 am
Don’t know about all conservatives, but my very republican cousins are postings videos using Bitin’ List and Eatin Big Time
August 8, 2025 @ 5:50 pm
What a sad fucking dork comment
August 13, 2025 @ 1:29 am
Where do you get this nonsense from? I’ve never even heard Tyler mention anything political before. Not in his music, in interviews or on stage. I wouldn’t blame him though if he did not want anyone like YOU at his shows.
August 13, 2025 @ 7:39 am
Tyler Childers has actively endorsed Democratic nominees for Kentucky offices, and the video he made for “Long Violent History” and specifically the Black Lives Matter portion could definitely be taken as political. As I’ve been saying this whole time, the new album is not political, and none of his statements around the album have been political. But saying he’s never mentioned anything political before is a pretty untrue statement.
August 4, 2025 @ 9:12 pm
Not terribly shocking, honestly. Said it on another thread, but it’s been a minute since I’ve seen this much non-music nerd buzz on an album like this. Interested to see if it plateaus quickly or really takes off.
Theres a surprising number of earworm tracks in the new material that should help the staying power. Not sure he’s really had that element working for him since “House Fire” and “All Yourn” – and that was when the band exploded at the national level.
August 4, 2025 @ 9:51 pm
Free falling next week .
Anyway this guy is not country but indie/folk.
And the production is horrible.
I just listened the first song and it was terrible.
August 5, 2025 @ 1:31 pm
I have no idea how you could possibly argue that the person that released Whitehouse Road, Shake the Frost, Lady May, Feathered Indians, etc. isn’t “country.”
Is Snipe Hunter a country album? Not really, in my opinion. But “this guy” not qualifying as a country artist is absurd.
August 5, 2025 @ 4:39 pm
Honestly the lyrical content of this record is country as fuck
August 4, 2025 @ 11:17 pm
When country left the town
August 4, 2025 @ 11:57 pm
I don’t mind artists stretching their boundaries but it does not always work. It did not work for Eric Church and I am not sure it has worked for Tyler’s last few albums. Perhaps expectations were too high? I have mixed feelings about Snipe Hunter. For me, its not a good album but not bad either and after a few listens, with a few tracks skipped, I am quite enjoying it. He, like Sturgill, are artists I have never really understood the high critical acclaim. I have always thought them both well behind other artists. It will be interesting to see how this album does in the weeks to come.
August 5, 2025 @ 3:37 am
Tyler made two really great albums. Bottles and Bibles and Purgatory. after that not much worth listening to
August 5, 2025 @ 3:47 am
First and foremost, thank you for leaving the unnecessary, incorrectly-used comma out of the Shaboozey album title. Where in the hell are the people who should have caught that and removed it before it ever got released to the public? It is blatantly incorrect. It does not work where it was placed. Dumb.
Nice feat for Childers.
August 5, 2025 @ 5:35 am
To me it shows what having one good album under your belt will do for you. When almost everything else is slop or mediocre at best…an album like purgatory can get people to checkout even your shitty vanity projects that you tried to “fuck up.”
Good for him I guess, but if album sales were an indication of what was good or what or I should listen to, I’d be listening to Wallen.
August 5, 2025 @ 6:10 am
Look babe, another Childers article dropped! Suppose this record didn’t weaken the artist, and the community after all.
August 5, 2025 @ 6:46 am
Bitin’ List has become a meme.
August 5, 2025 @ 7:11 am
It’s still early, but if the whole TikTok/Instagram thing shoots “Bitin’ List” into the zeitgeist, it could really affect the fate of this album and Tyler’s career.
I think unlike Tyler’s last two albums where it felt like everything from the recording, to the rollout, to the promotion felt like and afterthought and he was going through the motions, this album has been much more intentional, from the Rick Rubin collaboration, to the secret shows he performed, to the social media content. I think RCA said, “Okay Red, we gave you a million+ signing bonus. Now you need to make an actual album, and actually try to get people to listen to it this time.”
August 5, 2025 @ 10:02 am
Many of our beloved artists are fully propping “Bitin’ List” up on social media.
I like the album and so do most of my family and friends. It’s out there for sure but it is interesting and thought provoking…….even if its “WTAF Tyler?” with a grin. The worst part is the production. I get the dislike but I don’t get the hate.
August 5, 2025 @ 10:29 am
The dislike comes from the production on some songs. The hate comes from political acrimony, which always solicits emotional, irrational responses.
“Bitin’ List” and “Eatin’ Big Time” are both clearly the risers on the track list and are being propped up by social media posts. Not to toot my own horn, but they were also the two tracks I touted in my review. They feel like vintage Tyler Childers songs, and the production doesn’t hold them back like other tracks.
August 5, 2025 @ 3:45 pm
Weird to me cause I thought Cuttin Teeth was a good song and sounded pretty country. While eatin big time to me felt more not country and genre bending but still very good. But I mean this sincerely I know less about this than you
August 5, 2025 @ 4:09 pm
Funny how the vegan left loves Tyler’s cannibal songs.
August 5, 2025 @ 7:55 am
At least “Snipe Hunter” has great album cover artwork. That’s pretty rare in country, I think. That would be an exciting topic for discussion here: cover artwork in country. Even though I love country music, compared to the high standard of cover artwork in rock music, country album cover art is a bit random, if not lousy, with a few exceptions.
August 5, 2025 @ 8:55 am
I’ve always been tempted to bring up the same thing around here, but I never figured how to word it without sounding overly negative. I find cover art very important, and quite frankly for the most part, numerous country artists put little or no effort into the packaging whatsoever and it bums me out.
August 5, 2025 @ 11:37 am
there was a meme going around for a while that country/americana (lke 3 years ago) album covers kept showing a dilapidated rural building. The only one I remember is the demolished house on the cover of Diamonds And Gasoline but there were like 4 other album arts in the meme and it was hilarious to see the trend pointed out
August 5, 2025 @ 1:29 pm
Ah, what you wrote about this meme is interesting. In my opinion, the cover of “Diamonds and Gasoline” is one of the really good album covers, and so is “Goodbye Normal Street”. Both motifs are somehow iconic. You see them once and you have them stored in your memory forever. – At least that’s how I feel. Another example for an iconic cover artwork is “Norther” by Shane Smith & the Saints. But those are rather the exceptions imho.
August 6, 2025 @ 7:13 am
I always felt the same about jazz albums covers. They used to be good and iconic ( blue note) but from the mid70’s on…very loosy
August 5, 2025 @ 7:55 am
Though the album isn’t my favorite, I hope it continues to do well. The more folks exposed to Tyler, the better. Especially because that can lead them to other similar artists.
The more genuine, traditional-inflected country style music spreads, the better. I think. (Now let the newer folks discover Silverada.)
August 5, 2025 @ 8:20 am
It’s a head-scratcher some outlets are calling this album a “troll” by Childers. I really wish I hadn’t ever read that because it does try to ruin it for people.
I listened to the whole album while mowing last week and thought it was largely entertaining with a some homage to where T.C. has been.
If you ask me, he kinda reminds me of a country-esque Mike Patton. There’s always room for creativity from artists who want to grow. I just hate the injection of political dribble into trying to figure out why someone does what they do.
Maybe just take a breath, sit back, and enjoy what the artist produced. You’ll either like or you won’t.
August 6, 2025 @ 12:20 am
At my age I listen to what I like regardless of opinions, which I seldom see anyway. I enjoyed most of the songs and glad I bought the CD. People projecting politics into songs or onto the artist, who does not publicly state such, bend a nerve. I respect creativity and experimenting and if I don’t like it I won’t buy it.
August 6, 2025 @ 6:40 am
In all honesty I’m not a fan of this album. It is too weird to me. I also wish the vocals were more forward. Still better than anything Morgan Wallen has ever put out. I like Tyler Childers but this album really doesn’t do it for me.
August 7, 2025 @ 3:30 am
The more I listen to this album the more I love it, and I’m listening to it a lot. I think it’s already my favorite county release this year right after the untouchable Juliet McConkey.
August 7, 2025 @ 4:09 am
Some good detail about how Tyler’s philanthropy with the Blackfeet Nation is being used.
It appears to be a serious commitment.
https://dailyinterlake.com/news/2025/aug/06/blackfeet-fast-among-native-nonprofits-to-receive-donation-from-tyler-childers/
August 7, 2025 @ 2:21 pm
Tax write off.
August 7, 2025 @ 10:33 am
Honestly disappointed that Tyler’s album is beating out Cody Jinks’s so heavily. I do think Tyler’s is doing so strong not because it’s particularly good, but rather because Tyler has one of those “he can do no wrong” fan bases.
August 13, 2025 @ 1:42 am
I’m a Cody fan but he is not in the same league as Tyler is. Not as a writer, singer or performer. Most of his music all sounds the same, album after album. Tyler has never made the same album twice. That and Tyler’s new album is actually fun!
August 7, 2025 @ 2:57 pm
Tyler lives rent free in your heads. Guy is just doing what he wants in true outlaw style and all I see from country media is at best whining and at worst attacks on his character (I notice in that ridiculous think piece Trigger wrote earlier, that while he lambasted the liberal elites there was no mention of the all the folks on the right who have been calling Tyler gay because he’s a “hick lib”). Meanwhile Bitin’ List has gone viral and his sales are soaring. BTW, I’m not even a liberal but the take on Tyler from so many here and elsewhere is so ridiculously slanted by the same politics they claim to bemoan. Yeah there is such a thing of liberal elitism, but what about the knee-jerk reaction from the other side against anyone slightly left of them, like one of the most original artists of our time And you know what makes him so original? Making great, unique albums that grow on people over a few listens like “Snipe Hunt.”
August 7, 2025 @ 3:31 pm
Hey Brody,
In my article “How Tyler Childers Made The Most Polarizing Country Album of the Year,” I most definitely spoke to the right wing reactionary element to the story on numerous occasions.
I said, ” outright homophobia was certainly part of the backlash against the video,”
I said, “The truth of the matter is that for some country music listeners, it wouldn’t matter what Tyler Childers released on Snipe Hunter. After the video for “In Your Love,” and perhaps for some the Black Lives Matter stance, his name was mud to a major cross section of country fans, and so would be anything he released.”
I said, “And this political polarization ran both ways. Along with right-wing reactionaries writhing at the idea of a “woke” Tyler Childers participating in language policing, people on the left immediately began praising the record as the “Most Visionary Country Album of the Year” and the “opus” and “masterpiece” the GQ puff piece declared.”
These are just a few examples. And the whole point of this particular article was to report that despite (or because of) the political polarization, Tyler Childers still put together career debut numbers. If I was in the business of downgrading Tyler, I would have never written it.
August 13, 2025 @ 1:39 am
These same clowns would have hated when Willie and Waylon went all outlaw back in the day. They like their music to all sound the same, year after year after year.
August 10, 2025 @ 8:32 pm
I guess this comment is little late to the party but Trigger, et al, you’d be interested to know that i was at a street fair in a rural part of the Northeast earlier today and one of the vendors had what looked like locally made T-shirts that said “if there ever come a time I got rabies you’re high on the bitin’ list’ with a picture of what was maybe a raccoon skull.
Bootleg t-shirts made – or at least sold- by local vendors at a at little town street fair (and not a wealthy or fancy town) in just about two weeks after the album was released is pretty impressive. No mention of TC on the shirts, either, just the phrase.
August 13, 2025 @ 1:36 am
Well Tyler seems to be doing something right as he sells out arenas in seconds. And rightly so, him and his stellar band put on a great show. His new album is my favorite this year so far. It will easily be his biggest one yet. I can’t help but laugh at all of the negative comments I read here about him. Sorry but Purgatory was years ago, he’s moved on yet the same stupid comments after every new album. Why bother?