Tyler Childers Wants to Take the Country Music Lunch Table Back
It’s been over 3 months since Tyler Childers released his latest record Country Squire, and with all the other landmark releases lately, you could almost forget what a great piece of work it is, and what a victory it was when it crested the Billboard Country Albums chart at #1. But Childers has been putting a renewed push behind the record lately, including appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Thursday night (10-17), and releasing an EP of live renditions of songs and a short film exclusively through Apple Music on Friday (10-18).
Tyler Childers also participated in a rare interview with GQ recently where he went more in-depth about his opinions on the state of country music, and his concerns for Americana more than ever before. “‘Country Squire’ is 100% what I consider ‘real’ country,” Tyler told the magazine. “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.”
As many may remember, in 2018 when Tyler Childers was accepting his Americana Music Association award for Best New Artist, he lambasted Americana term as “…ain’t no part of ‘nothin,” and a distraction from the problems facing country. When asked about how today’s actual country music is often sifted to Americana, Childers responded,
“That’s true, and also, it lessens the agenda for Americana. It weakens the genre over time. What I’ve done with my last two albums is country. I feel that in my heart. What Margo [Price] has done in the past is country. What Kelsey Waldon’s doing is country. What a lot of these artists are doing is country, but we’ve all been pushed over by the wayside into Americana. Nowadays, Americana is synonymous with good country. I say Americana, you just think “good country.” Through time and habit, Americana now sort of means good country. Then you’ve opened yourself up to things that aren’t pop country, but aren’t exactly good country songs, either. They get pushed in there, and it waters down Americana too. Now, pop country is infiltrating the Americana scene as well.”
But Tyler Childers saved his most choice words for what he thinks has happened to country music proper.
“It doesn’t hurt my feelings if you listen to shitty country music. That’s your fault. What I consider country music doesn’t make it the end all be all, but if you ask me my opinion, that’s what you’re going to get,” Tyler says. “A lot of times, you’ll be flipping through country radio and there’s just no substance. Like I’ve said before, it’s all about props: Solo cups or whatever. It’s not about a dude’s work day or someone that lost a good friend or relative. There’s nothing to hold onto when you’re going through something. That’s what music is supposed to do. It’s supposed to help people out … Anybody can listen to what they want, I just don’t have the time or patience for it. I would prefer not to be lumped in with that. If you wanna listen to that and what I’m doing, that’s cool, but if I think something’s garbage I’m gonna say so.”
October 17, 2019 @ 10:44 am
“Yeah, I read a lot of Flannery O’Connor back in high school.”
One more reason for me to love this guy. Flannery O’Connor is amazing.
October 17, 2019 @ 10:19 pm
I wonder if someone is going to break it to him that she was a woman though…
October 18, 2019 @ 5:55 am
Tyler doesn’t refer to Flannery as a man. That’s Pollock he’s referring to in the next sentence.
October 18, 2019 @ 6:30 am
He doesn’t refer to Flannery O’Connor as a man. He’s referring to Pollock, who is a man.
“Yeah, I read a lot of Flannery O’Connor back in high school. I’m not sure he’s a Southern writer, because he’s from Ohio, but Donald Ray Pollock is in that Gothic vein.”
October 18, 2019 @ 7:04 am
Man. I may need to re-up my Hooked on Phonics perscription!
October 17, 2019 @ 11:28 am
This guy is amazing. After clicking on that awful link about Brantley Gilbert at halftime, I had to wash my ears out with a bit of Country Squire. I’m glad to see Tyler Standing up and calling “radio country” what it really is, garbage. His #1 album shows that real country is a viable business model, which makes me hope for the future. We need more authenticity like this.
October 17, 2019 @ 12:06 pm
I don’t love Tyler in a fangirl type way. “Country Squire” isn’t even in my top 5 for the year. With that said, I do respect his genuine love of country music & his honesty concerning some of today’s country. Well said, Mr. Childers!
October 17, 2019 @ 12:17 pm
Trigger what’s the chance that Cody Jinks goes number one on one or both of his albums?
October 17, 2019 @ 12:47 pm
I would say there is a good chance. “After The Fire” is trending really well so far, and isn’t facing any major competition that I know of. “The Waiting” will have to contend with Chris Janson releasing his new album on the same week, but I expect his sales to be low, even if his streaming numbers are steady. It will be interesting to watch, and unprecedented if he pulls it off, especially with no label.
October 18, 2019 @ 7:32 am
Just got done listening the “The Wanting” and it might be my favorite album of his.
October 18, 2019 @ 5:23 pm
I thought After the Fire was a great album but it’s some heavy material. Lyrically amazing but it’s not something I can mentally prepare myself to listen to over and over again. Country Squire I think I played on repeat for a month straight. I made it through After the Fire once and felt like someone beat me with an emotional shovel.
October 17, 2019 @ 12:26 pm
Tyler’s saying exactly what I feel about real country music vs trashville.
He’s also correct to focus on songs and songwriting. There’s a lot of creative freedom to dress up a song in different ways and still call it country, but if it’s not even a real song to begin with, who cares? And why subject yourself to such worthless garbage?
Good to know we have a heavyweight on our side.
October 17, 2019 @ 12:30 pm
For what it’s worth, when he made the “ain’t no part of nothin'” quote, I believe he was probably pulling from his Kentucky native Bill Monroe. Bill used the phrase pretty often when describing newgrass, dobros, etc.
October 17, 2019 @ 12:51 pm
Country radio has been crap for decades. Nothin’ new there.
October 17, 2019 @ 12:59 pm
He’s right about the Americana term as that’s what I generally think about Americana being “good country”
October 20, 2019 @ 10:06 pm
Americana is usually most often wannabe country made by rich white yuppies. The production is usually real thin, unimpressive, and not enough singing talent of good enough songs. I havnt looked over who gets included in the Americana awards each year. But who in their right mind would brag about getting their award? Rich non-country folks.
October 17, 2019 @ 1:08 pm
This is a more nuanced take than the “ain’t no part of nothin'” bit that he said last year, and I honestly agree with everything he says. If he needs any help taking the lunch table back, there are a lot of artists who are hungry and ready to sit down to eat!
October 17, 2019 @ 1:23 pm
A great ambassador. He is spot on.
I bet a number of “country artists” think the same but they prefer to bury their hand in the sand and cash their paycheck. How many of them have released one good song and then revert back to crappy music and poor pop trend chaser?
October 17, 2019 @ 2:01 pm
I would call Jason Isbell Americana, but to Tyler’s point, Isbell and Childers get lumped into the same category which is unfair to both men. Isbell would tell you he’s not County but will occasionally do a county song or two. Tyler IS country and will occasionally do something outside of the genre. So again, it seems reasonable for him to want to stake a claim to the term which actually describes his music. God bless him.
October 17, 2019 @ 2:02 pm
Tyler hit the nail right on the head with his assessment of Americana! If genre labels were accurate, Kelsey Waldon and Margo Price would be played on country radio, and Maren Morris and Kelsea Ballerini would be pop!
If Americana needs to be a label, it could be assigned to artists like Jason Isbell and John Prine who combine country, rock, and folk influences.
However, with the way things actually are, I don’t think it makes much sense to blame the Americana Association for trying to promote good country artists that are being shut out by Music Row. I’m glad Tyler at least got a chance to expound on what he said after winning the Best New Artist Award.
October 17, 2019 @ 2:11 pm
I also wanted to say that I think it’s great for the cause of “Saving Country Music” to finally have an artist who believes in the importance of preserving traditional country influences and has the following to be able express his opinions in a major publication without the worrying about backlash from his label or others in the industry.
Now Tyler just needs to find himself a producer who feels the same!
October 17, 2019 @ 2:10 pm
Maybe it’s inappropriate to say this in the comments section of a site called “Saving Country Music” but aren’t guys like Tyler and Sturgill, by all accounts fortunate beneficiaries of a ton of glowing mainstream press and promotion, stirring up a tempest in a tea cup? Being belligerent and adversarial about really trivial stuff?
This is starting to remind me of the grunge era, when artists felt compelled to out-underground and out-real each other, despite the fact that those bands were being promoted by Rolling Stone and Time magazine and had literally become the mainstream, sharing chart position with Michael Jackson. I mean, just the way Tyler phrases it, “taking the lunch table back”, sounds really petty, and printed in GQ of all magazines?
I’ve purchased over a dozen albums (Taylor Alexander, Tyler Childers, Charley Crockett, Vincent Neil Emerson, Charles Wesley Godwin, Ben Jarrell, Gethen Jenkins, Cody Jinks, Kendell Marvel, Mike and the Moonpies, Ian Noe, The Steel Woods, Billy Strings, Joshua Ray Walker, Yola etc.) and attended over a dozen shows this year that are absolutely, unequivocally country, and I spend literally zero time thinking about, much less worrying about, pop country or whatever gets played on mainstream country radio.
There’s obviously enough of an audience, and a healthy enough market, for the whole spectrum of non-pop, non-mainstream country to thrive right now. It certainly looks like a lot of great artists can tour and release great albums entirely outside the pop-country ecosystem. I’ll keep spending my time and money on that stuff because the quality is self evident, and nothing else matters. Railing against pop and mainstream country seems entirely unnecessary. If Tyler wants to call himself “country” instead of “Americana” that’s perfectly fine, but live and let live. We’ve got our stuff, they’ve got theirs.
October 17, 2019 @ 2:40 pm
I don’t consider either Tyler Childers or Sturgill Simpson mainstream artists. They definitely don’t receive mainstream radio play, and they certainly don’t fit into the entertainment zeitgeist like bands such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam did back in the grunge days. IN this specific instance, Tyler was asked some questions by a journalist about how he felt about country music, and he answered. Sure, they’ve received press from Rolling Stone and GQ, but the media is not what it was 25 years ago. There are artists who’ve never sold 5,000 records receiving press from these kinds of periodicals. Whether anyone reads it is another story.
October 18, 2019 @ 6:02 am
Of course Tyler and Sturgill aren’t mainstream and certainly aren’t at the same level Nirvana or Pearl Jam were back then (no bands, rock or country, are). But, they are at the top of the heap when we’re talking about non-pop country (Underground country? Indie country?).
All I’m saying is that the belligerent, adversarial talking points are still the same. The “us vs them” mentality. Art forms definitely need their heroes, their leaders, and their advocates, so I’m thankful for guys like Tyler and Sturgill, but I think this particular argument is tired and rarely helpful.
The argument against Lil Nas X this year was valid and necessary because we had an obvious interloper (clearly a hip-hop artist) backed up by a dishonest and disingenuous mainstream media more concerned about politics than music, but Tyler and Sturgill railing against the pop-country establishment amounts to a decades old cliche that exists in every music genre. It’s not compelling to me, considering non-pop country seems to be thriving right now, and it’s not an endearing attitude. It strikes me as pompous and presumptuous.
October 21, 2019 @ 5:43 am
“Country” will do just fine.
What you hear on the radio is Na$hville Pop. It’s the Monsanto of the music world.
There’s still a lot of southern rock around these days, and now more country soul, which is a good thing. People who play and sing need music where they can actually play and sing.
All the folkies who use drums now market themselves as “Americana.” They’re just Amish who don’t come back after Rumspinga.
And then there are all the traditionalists, working their patches and rows. Seed saver types. Bluegrass, western swing, etc.
October 17, 2019 @ 3:30 pm
I think there’s definitely something in what you say, particularly about grunge era artists trying to “out-real” each other. Unfortunately “alternative” music (my more expansive term, which nonetheless includes grunge) did not sustain well into the 2000’s and beyond. Much to my regret it was overwhelmed by cheap, machine-made, commercial pop music – which continues to dominate mainstream media, in my part of the world at least. Glad I was to have been an active listener during the “alternative revolution” of the early 90’s; but I now fear for “good country” being eclipsed by the pseudo-twang of Nashville machine-country. In many ways I’m not surprised that “Americana” has become the place of refuge for genuine country artists because Country music itself has been usurped by money-hungry clones in the same way that electro-pop has beaten out rock music in the last decade.
October 17, 2019 @ 4:34 pm
I’d hardly call the topics he gets stirred up about as trivial. While I understand that musical styles evolve over the decades, the perimeters of what can be considered country now makes my skin crawl. Our musical icons are being pushed aside and forgotten. I dont suppose Hank Williams will ever be reinstated into the Opry and frankly, he would roll right over if they did. Keep stirring the pot, Tyler. Still waters get stagnant.
October 17, 2019 @ 5:25 pm
I agree with your statements until the last sentence. They do not “have theirs” because nobody actually likes the shitty mainstream stuff. These independent artists outsell, outstream, etc. The stuff that’s more sought after by fans is what should be on radio, but isn’t.
October 18, 2019 @ 6:13 am
Radio is commerce, and commerce is beholden to the whims and desires of the market. Obviously somebody likes the shitty mainstream stuff, or else it wouldn’t exist.
I don’t listen to country radio, or any radio. I don’t need it, and apparently neither do my favorite artists. Out of sight, out of mind. Why worry? I’d rather buy albums, merch, and concert tickets for the artists I enjoy. Maybe commercial radio will catch up, maybe it won’t.
Either way, no part of my music enjoyment experience requires it, and I don’t need artists like Tyler to slay the dragon of mainstream country. I just need them to make good music and have faith in the idea that good music speaks for itself and rises to the top no matter what.
October 18, 2019 @ 7:50 am
Seems to be that he does have a live and let live attitude with respect to what people want to listen to while at the same time calling it as he sees it with respect to the quality of mainstream country music when asked. Reminds me of how a friend of mine once thought I’d think negatively of him because he liked Madonna. My attitude was “listen to whatever you want, but just don’t make ME listen to Madonna.”
I’m like you in that I pretty much ignore what’s going on in mainstream country if I can. But I’m just a music fan. I’m not an artist like Childers or an advocate like Trigger. Also, I didn’t grow up loving country music. I came to it as an adult. It seems like with Childers, country music is a seminal part of his identity. And so maybe when he hears the shitty stuff and knows that’s what most people think of as “country music,” it affects him on a deeper level than it does me.
October 18, 2019 @ 8:23 am
Saying to somebody “listen to that garbage if you want, that’s on you” is a back-handed value judgement that is obviously adversarial and antagonistic. It’s not a profound point to make, nor helpful.
I came to country relatively recently and as an adult too, so maybe I haven’t felt the sting or disappointment with the perceived lows of the genre over many decades like Tyler, Trigger, and many other longtime fans and participants have. So maybe it’s not quite as personal to me (like you implied about yourself).
I’ve been focusing on a surprisingly wide spectrum of great young country artists over the last few years, and if I wasn’t reading SCM, or interviews with Tyler or Sturgill, I might not have realized anything was amiss in the genre (on a wider scale) at all. At the risk of sounding hokey, I feel really blessed to have stumbled on so much great new music in country (thanks in large part to SCM) and I quite enjoy not feeling jaded about music for a change. In fact I feel really excited and hopeful about it.
Regarding what Tyler is saying, the closest sentiment I can identify with is watching rock die a slow death over many decades, becoming impotent and irrelevant in the current zeitgeist, and hip-hop becoming an ugly, cynical parody of itself. I’d probably be totally on board with a new rock or hip-hop artist taking the mainstream to task, like Tyler is doing (or trying, at least) with country.
October 17, 2019 @ 2:56 pm
It doesn’t hurt my feelings if you listen to shitty country music. That’s your fault.
Best quote of the year.
October 21, 2019 @ 2:24 pm
I prefer “It’s not about a dude’s work day or someone that lost a good friend or relative.”
That describes everything that’s missing in today’s pop garbage and present in old country. I can instantly think of a Merle song for each of those.
October 17, 2019 @ 3:54 pm
What’s become sad, and also pisses me off, is 30 plus years ago if someone asked what kind of music you liked and you said “country” it wouldn’t be an embarrassment because people like Hag, Jones, Cash, Hank Jr. would come to mind. Now when you say it people look at you like you’re a tool because they think of all the shit in the mainstream and on the radio.
October 17, 2019 @ 4:11 pm
Well, now that I have permission, Sturgill Brown’s… I mean Zack Simpson’s new album is garbage. I agree with Tyler but, in my mind, his producer is the single largest transgressor. Only real difference between Sturgill and Zack is Sturgill used to be something really special but, anyone who goes from covering Ralph Stanley to making hentai surely cannot be Tyler freaking Childer’s mentor anymore. This whole thing is getting ridiculous. The “shitty” music is what is going to be headlining the next Tyler Childers tour. I take no joy in pointing that out. Love both those guys.
October 17, 2019 @ 6:27 pm
As a fan of Zep, Sabbath, Cream, and all of those gritty sludgy psychedelic 60s and 70s rock bands, Sound and Fury comes off very hokey and “try-hard.” I don’t feel the soul and the anguish of the delta blues that inspired those classic albums, I hear a 40 year old bitching about first world problems behind a wall of muffled pseudo noise-rock. Pardon me if my analysis isn’t spot on as I could not bring myself to give this multiple listens.
Sturgill once said something to the effect of “no matter what music I make, it’ll always come out country.” He’s right. And you know what sounds like shit, Sturgill? Alan Jackson trying to bark out a Misfits song, or Mark Chesnutt doing an Alice Cooper cover.
I don’t hate him for making the art he wants to make. But I don’t think he makes a very good champion for real county music anymore, and his production work comes off as very “phoned in.”
As for Ty, I sincerely hope his last two efforts were done the way he truly heard them in his head. I honestly never considered Childers to be true, traditional country back before he got big. When he was road dogging as a solo act and cranking out songs, he sounded much more Prine/ Van Zandt than Jennings/ Jones. More “Americana,” if you will. No doubt he has a wide swath of influences but jacking off and reincarnation aren’t exactly traditional country subject matter. He can call his music whatever he pleases, but smearing pedal steel and honky tonk keys over folk songs doesn’t automatically make it “traditional country.”
I agree that Americana is a catch all, miscellaneous bin for roots acts who don’t fit in, but I never understood why a guy like Tyler was so vehemently opposed to the idea. Oh well.
October 18, 2019 @ 7:49 am
“As a fan of Zep, Sabbath, Cream, and all of those gritty sludgy psychedelic 60s and 70s rock bands, Sound and Fury comes off very hokey and “try-hard.” I don’t feel the soul and the anguish of the delta blues that inspired those classic albums, I hear a 40 year old bitching about first world problems. . . .”
That’s my biggest gripe about Sound & Fury as well. I’ve always loved hard rock and metal (and all the bands you mentioned), but what Sturgill did, ain’t that.
If Sturgill is so pissed off about the state of country music, then shown us the way! Give us the best country album you can make, as an example to the world, not a small-scale approximation of rock angst that’s been done better, and done to death for decades.
The reason why you (and me) perceive the album as having no “soul” is because the lyrical subject matter is so alien to us. The concerns aren’t universal, they’re selfish and petty, and apply only to Sturgill’s experience as a musician who seems to hate a world the rest of us can only dream of.
Make art not friends? How about make art AND friends. It doesn’t have to be one or the other. I’m not a high school drama kid in fishnets and Doc Martens, so that isn’t a sentiment I identify with.
That said, I still believe Sturgill is one of the more important musicians (in any genre) to have popped up in recent years, and he was more or less my starting point as a fan of country, so he’ll always have a special place in my heart and in my record collection. Respect where it’s due.
October 18, 2019 @ 5:22 pm
Good points. I do think it is always worth clarifying that these criticisms aren’t coming from a place of hatred for Sturgill Simpson as a human. There are most certainly worse things happening in country music that I never complain about because I simply don’t care. If he wasn’t the real deal at one time, I simply wouldn’t care. I do however, care about my culture and my mountains and the people that represent my way of life. Just as a stranger saying something terrible about me doesn’t hold the same weight as a friend or neighbor saying the same terrible thing, Jason Aldean doesn’t have the same power to upset me as a Sturgill Simpson. High Top Mountain was the real deal. Metamodern was the real deal. As for rock, “Sometimes Wine” and Sunday Valley was the real deal. Sturgill Simpson was the real deal. I am disgusted with him for that very reason, because his early work still plays at my house, its undeniable. However, I feel as though WE appointed him our spokesperson based upon his campaign to serve as such. Now that we put him in that role he’s behaving in an almost treasonous manner in direct contravention to the supposed truths he once sang so proudly. Couldn’t be disappointed if I didin’t care but, couldn’t be more disappointed. As for Tyler, I prefer Purgatory but, liked the new album and still proudly endorse him as a representative of my way of life and culture. Even if we prefer one track to another, there’s no denying that everything he’s written has been very real.
October 17, 2019 @ 10:32 pm
As someone who is disappointed Sturgill’s last album wasn’t country and had mixed feelings about it as music in general, I think you’re being a little too harsh on Sturgill here. “Purgatory” and “Country Squire” were both well-produced records, and just because Sturgill may not be releasing country himself at the moment doesn’t mean he doesn’t know what it is, and how to get the best out of a studio of guys. Don’t let your opinion on Sturgill bleed over into what Tyler Childers is doing. That’s completely unfair to Tyler. He owes a good portion of his career to Sturgill, and country fans should be grateful for that.
October 18, 2019 @ 6:17 pm
I’m not holding it against Tyler except insofar as to decline to attend his next tour because I can’t stomach the second half of the show. I didn’t say Tyler’s albums were bad, to the contrary, both are great. Tyler said something to the effect of “if music is shitty, I’m going to say so” in proactively and aggressively defending the music he loves. If I’m to follow his lead and defend my music then, I think its absolutely worth pointing out that Sturgill’s new album is every bit as terrible as the music Tyler’s discussing.
I don’t blame him for his blind loyalty to Strugill but, to say Strugill isn’t detracting from the message Tyler is attempting to convey would be incorrect. It is easy to say Zack Brown is trash right now, its easy to say “Old Town Road” is garbage, its easy to say “screw Nashville” (whatever that means nowadays). What clearly isn’t easy to say is that Sturgill Simpson is now the same as that trash because we love him but, frankly, it needs to be said if anyone ever wants to hear good music from him again.
The reality is, aside from some bluegrass covers on the Opry and “the dead don’t die” (which even that requires squinting very hard), Sturgill hasn’t released anything truly good since Metamodern. That was 2014. I simply will never believe that people who truly felt those first two solo albums to their core actually like his recent music. Instead, I am certain they like the idea of Sturgill Simpson telling everyone to go to hell and, just as I was with “a Sailor’s Guide,” are in denial that he no longer backs up that bad attitude.
I don’t think he knows country music anymore. point blank. He’s gone. You cannot appreciate John Prine, Ralph Stanley, etc. the way he once did and then make this garbage unless something snapped. I heard more of Sturgill Simpson’s bad ears in “Country Squire” than I did in “”Purgatory” and I think he is cancer to Tyler Childers at this point. I’m not criticizing Tyler, I’m trying to stop the bleeding and save what’s left of country music. I don’t believe for a second, as some seem to take as conclusive evidence, that Sturgill’s assertion that he “was randomly turning knobs pretending” in the studio with Tyler just because he said so, probably high as hell, on a Joe Rogan podcast (which I didn’t listen to). He’s getting an undeserved free pass from a community that would burn anyone else at the stake for making this crap because we can’t let him go. Frankly, while I respect your decision to do so, I think you’re giving Sturgill a courtesy you wouldn’t provide hardly any other artist Trigger. I’m not saying you didn’t give a compelling and honest assessment of his new album but, I do think you desperately want him to be someone he no longer is. Hell, I do too. Unfortunately, he’s proven for years now he isn’t. The fact that he hasn’t ruined the magic of Tyler Childers (yet) is not a criticism of Tyler Childers in any way. Frankly, its more a testament of how great Tyler is given his producer at this point. Screw “country music,” I’m protective of my culture and its representatives and thus, protective of Tyler Childers from Sturgill Simpson. Respectfully.
October 21, 2019 @ 7:53 am
I think I just figured out why all the leniency this morning. I will say that the leaked song sounds much better and the musicianship is good. I will happily eat my words if he pulls this off and hadn’t expected it at all. Can’t say I understand why he did it this way and can’t say I’m entirely convinced yet but, I will happily concede that song is a nice change of pace. It didn’t stop me in my tracks like he once did but, I’ll happily admit I was irritated by something that may have been an intentionally false perception and may not be as receptive as I otherwise would be. I suppose Tyler’s privy also and the jokes on me. I do wish Sturgill the best, even if I’m unable to get back on board entirely. I do think that part of what made everyone pull so hard may be gone now even though steel guitar alone will most certainly generate excitement for a while. Here’s hoping he’s been sitting on some great music that stands the test of time because, I think he’s going to need it to win some of us older guys back. Here’s hoping you make me look dumb though Sturgill!
October 21, 2019 @ 7:58 am
Screw it, I’m excited. This could change everything.
October 21, 2019 @ 10:39 am
Never mind, there was a reason I got excited and liked the song I just heard. It was an old song labeled as “leaked” and re-released. Just goes to show how good he was. I was really hoping he was going to make me eat my words. I desperately want to be wrong here. Oh well
October 21, 2019 @ 1:15 pm
Yes, I’ve seen some folks passing around that leaked song. Sounds to me like it’s from the “High Top Mountain” era. Not sure where it came from, and I understand folks will be curious, but if Sturgill doesn’t want it out there, I think we should ignore it.
October 21, 2019 @ 2:16 pm
Yes, it’s from “Bastard Children,” and some dude on YouTube is just trying to generate views. Not sure why Sturgill pulled the Bastard Children EP, but it happened year back.
https://savingcountrymusic.com/sturgill-simpson-releases-two-new-bastard-children-songs/
October 18, 2019 @ 12:13 am
Then count me as one who loves shitty music. Can’t wait to hear it live next year!
October 19, 2019 @ 5:54 am
I’m glad I’m not the only person who has been turned off of Sturgill big time. I loved High Top Mountain, I listened to it all the time. I liked a lot of Metamodern Sounds. After that, I’ve not really liked anything he’s done. I saw him at a show with Willie, he played rock and roll the whole time and I left. I didn’t like Country Squire at all. There’s a couple songs on there that are okay, but that’s it. Everything on Purgatory was great. I know a lot of people I’ve talked to feel the same. I’ll listen to everything on All Damn Day by Nick Dittmeier and the Sawdusters a thousand times before I listen to Country Squire a dozen
October 17, 2019 @ 5:46 pm
You need to come to terms with Sturgill. He is a musician. Not necessarily country or anything else. He is doing what he enjoys. Who are you to tell that man that his art ain t worth a damn . If you don’t enjoy it don’t listen. Ole boy aint trying to please you.He’s doing what he feals .
October 17, 2019 @ 5:54 pm
Hey AndrewEsq how do you get off telling a man what type of music he should be making. Sturgill never said he was here to save country music. The man is making music he enjoys and believes in, if you don’t like it don’t listen. Do not compare him to Zack Brown
October 17, 2019 @ 7:56 pm
If the world just played loops of Whiskey Myers, Dallas Moore, Cody Jinks, and Tyler Childers, the planet would be just fine
October 17, 2019 @ 8:42 pm
Country squire is 100% what sturgill Simpson thinks we should want country to be.
Sturgill has dragged Childers along for the ride.
October 18, 2019 @ 6:11 am
So many great quotes and points made. It’s like he is putting into words what so many of us are feeling! I am thankful for his music and that he’s not afraid to take a stand.
October 18, 2019 @ 8:41 am
Love everything that Tyler and Sturgill have put out and I think they’re both better live that on record. I wish they would go ahead and announce the Tyler/Sturgill tour already. Easily the most anticipated live show for 2020.
October 19, 2019 @ 2:11 am
Hey Kyle, speaking of Kelsey Waldon, are you going to review her new album?
October 19, 2019 @ 8:57 am
It has been a very busy time with releases lately, and I’m doing the best I can to focus on each album and do it justice with a review. Kelsey Waldon is definitely on the list.
October 19, 2019 @ 10:25 am
Cool – you’re doing a great job with this site!
October 20, 2019 @ 10:08 am
I just watched the Jimmy Kimmel performance of White House Road and it was really good. The band sounded tight and it was mixed well. It was so much better than the Jimmy Fallon performance of House Fire. I would have rather watched an actual house fire than that horrible performance.
October 20, 2019 @ 9:52 pm
I can’t stand dis type of silly anti-pop-country publicity bull crap. As if he’s somehow better than the gigantic superstars. He just knows his target audience all think it’s cool to waste away the hours bashing pop country. I have not yet given this Tyler guy a listen. But I personally already have a thick hatred of him an sickened by his pure ignorance of country music an what it is and should be these days. I’m a little late to comment here, but feel free to get mad at me. But for him to say that there is such a thing as “shitty country music” is just disgusting and I have zero respect for anyone who feels like that about any country music ever made. I don’t get on this site often, but I only see pure ignorance in people who bash pop country. I feel it gives country music as a whole a bad reputation. I mostly love the classic country, however from ALL the decades. An pop country ain’t a new idea. But I’m so passionate about my love for country music, that I keep an open mind with how song’s sales progress naturally according to USA an what the country folks wanna hear. An I am pretty optimistic, but know what’s better than some, but I myself love pretty much any tune thats labeled country or comes on modern country stations. My attitude is you can’t only like “some country music”, but then turn around an waste hours claiming you can’t stand so so much country. Sounds to me like u don’t like country music. Taylor S. sang it best when she abandoned her country stardom an hi day smash pop anthem, “haters gonna hate”. How I think of anti-pop-country nonsense. Y’all are simply overall country music haters, an guess u just gotta waste yur time away do yur hatin to somehow get yur kicks. I’ll leave a seperate comment once give dis Childress guy a fair chance. But if he is lumped in “Americana” & he begs & pleads that he’s ‘real’ country but he’s lucky to fill up a bar show, then I’m guessing ahead of time that he simply ain’t got very good singing skills an chances r his lyrics don’t fit in with how country music is supposed to be written. An I mighta seen his silly cartoon album cover, an aint he a redhead? Yeck! Those guys are usually crazy silly freaks. I wonder if he’s even a pure bred country boy! I’ll chime in soon after I give him a few fair listens, but he needs to shut his damn mouth with his total jealously trip an simply go to a actual pop country show. He needs to look around at the crowd an maybe he’ll start to not be so damn ignorant bout who pop country’s huge gigantic fanbase is mostly made up of. They definitely don’t read GC or give a damn bout Tyler Childress. He needs to shut his mouth and just understand his target audience is one or two or so generations older than the pop country fanbase. So why does he give a damn? Pop country fanbase nowadays is all about teenage girls and college age girls. They are the ones jam packing the arenas every night an loving all the bonfire songs an tailgate songs. Who gives one damn whatsoever? I’ll teach this lesson again plenty more on this site, just until hopefully the whole anti-country-music fad starts to go away. The meme makers are the worst, an I insist they hate more country than they actually enjoy. An I just know stars like Blake an Kane, an Luke, an FGL, all just giggle at y’all pop country haters as so many of their hit songs again an again are written by such skilled expert teams of writers that repeatedly songs to break new records an get listened to in the hundreds of millions of listens on just streaming sites alone. That’s not a bad thing, it’s a good thing. An don’t claim it ain’t “real” country music. What a load of bs. No one on entire earth can make the decision of what real country actually is. No such thing as real an fake. It’s whatever country audiences of the time say it is, an it’s never all sounded the same all at once. Perfecto normal for a non-pop country act to make the charts. There’s always been new acts cropping up an new styles of country tried out. Probably all just a total publicity stunt worked up by Tyler’s publicist. “Yeah, go on a pop country hating rant in that interview, we gotta present you as the real deal! The older crowds and yuppie boneless guys will eat it right up, and not realize your songs don’t get played on thousands of country stations for a reason, but as long as we can keep you playing bars an try to sell your no-hit album.”
October 21, 2019 @ 11:51 am
I couldn’t respect any valid points you may have made once you started dissing Tyler Childers because of his hair color. Like him, don’t like him, I really don’t care, but why even bring his hair color into it? It just makes it seem like you are here to criticise any and every aspect about him regardless of how relevant it is and means I can’t take any of it seriously. Personally, I don’t care how Tyler (or anyone else) chooses to present theimselves, what I do care about is music and Tyler’s music just happens to be something I enjoy listening to. You wrote in your third sentence that you have not listened to Tyler’s music. I suggest that you do before complaining about things that have nothing to do with how good or bad his music is.
October 22, 2019 @ 1:09 am
I gave him a try. He sounds simply like roots rock or Americana. He ain’t country cuz band and production too loose, sometimes thin, or sloppy. I didn’t have time to hear out whether his lyrics are any good. But definitely way too many different computer effects on each songs vocal takes. The fact he couldn’t just put more gut and volume to his young squelling. But maybe no studio vocal takes were good enough so they thought they’d give hip vocal effects muffled some, an distort for some , an click on computer for megaphone for another, I don’t know, maybe they were just wantin to make him sound like tough guy, rough around the edges. Weak singing don’t last you long if you tryin to be country. Anyway, I gave him a chance, but I’m actually still so bitter towards his sick cocky attitude and complete total young dumb ignorant millennial stuck up hipster foolishness of some what he said, So early in his career he sudddenly finds success that’s not just showing up on usual Americana charts he’d expect, but his fanbase is growing fast as so many enjoy his new stuff I guess. He is such a kid in his 20’s thinking he can claim his opinion is somehow better than the millions of music listeners all across the USA. But that’s usual tiresome pop country rant seen in thousands of waste o time anti-country meme’s. I might have to design a meme saying “I Hate Pop Country So Very Much That I’ve Designed So Many More Memes About It, Then Actual Country Songs I’ve Ever Listdned To In My Life”. I think Tyler probably actually got sad shock, when he realized he don’t keep that #1 spot too long. But him ranting how he feels when he sees who he is sharing upper parts of charts with. That’s when what he says is simply overly extreme obscure so very far an distant from reality, I aint clicking to go to article. But am I reading his quote right? Basically he’s saying something like “We (?) now must share the chart space That’s Been Taken Over — Infiltrated, it seems by pop Country… and I’m here to get the lunch table back!!“. Oh my lord, how can one online magazine decide to borrow that as a sample? Childers maybe needs to stop gettin wasted, catch up with how stuff works. Upbeat and heavily produced Pop country started always topping country charts probably at least 40 years ago. And the superstars of such pop country hits he see’s by his name? Charts aren’t even important cuz to them, they all have built proven perfect repeated pattern of gettin sure sell hit songs. They dont sit at no lunch table like him. They often if not touring, own 3 or 4 different country homes an collect nice boats an whatnot with their millions and $$$’s they stack up from being so skilled for their Particular years, an sing an entertain to some of the biggest country crowds ever in history. Alright, I gotta stay off this site. LoL But just to help disprove the fake news. Toby Keith’s Red Solo cup was a pop country smash back before Tyler was even old enough to buy liquor. And such modern hit singers like Jason Aldean recently was recognized as artist of the decade of this here century. Even pop country stars Brooks And Dunn are getting much deserved HOF induction. Hope best for this newer young act. But anti-pop country fad is waste of listening time. An did y’all know basically every up and coming songwriter or new young singer wantin to make it in Nashville always sing mention of credit out to same guy nearly every pop country big act finds a song to send tribute out to HANK. He is one who pointed country toward upbeat fun tunes, bout having good time, which all got us to today’s acts playin for the all the kids out there nowadays. And last time I checked “pop” is simply short for Popular. Glad Country Of any type of fashion can attract so many more to the best overall genre possible. Nothin to hate bout somethin’ so good.
October 22, 2019 @ 10:26 am
Tyler Childere can do no wrong in my eyes, especially when he goes and speaks the damn truth.