It’s Been a Little Quiet on the Tyler Childers Front

On Wednesday (5-19), a 9-minute video of Tyler Childers performing acoustic renditions of his songs “Lady May” and “Creeker,” and telling the stories behind the songs in the studio with producer David Ferguson dropped via YouTube (see below), exciting lots of Tyler Childers fans who’ve been somewhat starved for content or info from the Kentucky star since he released his last album Long Violent History in September of 2020.

Though some were probably duped into thinking the video is something new, it is taken from Tyler’s Reimagined EP and short film released exclusively through Apple Music in October of 2019, reprising some of Tyler’s songs in live studio takes. There was also the release of a video of Tyler performing “Nose On the Grindstone” at the Rupp Arena in Kentucky on February 28th—a year to the day after it was recorded, and right before the pandemic shut everything down, and a couple other streams of archived performances over the last year or so.

But except for that, it’s been curiously quiet on the Tyler Childers front for about a year now. Yes, he released an album in that time (Long Violent History), but that was a surprise release, and aside from the accompanying video explaining the album, there were no interviews, no live stream performances, nothing more than the material itself. And even throughout the summer of 2020 heading into the album release, it was radio silence from Childers.

Tyler Childers was never a butterfly on social media necessarily, but up until late May of 2020, he would make regular posts on Instagram, and sometimes Facebook about whatever little things he was involved in, including his #eatinbigtime hashtag. His wife Senora May even released a new album in February called All of My Love, and we didn’t hear a peep. Only merch updates populate Tyler’s Facebook feed. Perhaps Childers getting sober in 2020 has something to do with it.

Also, as many artists and bands are now filling up their calendars with tour dates now that everything is opening up, Tyler Childers has still not released anything. In fact the only two dates he currently has on his calendar are the Under the Big Sky Fest in Whitefish, Montana July 17th and 18th, and the Hinterland Music Fest on August 7th in Iowa, and these are rescheduled dates Tyler Childers committed to before the pandemic.

Hopefully Tyler Childers is holding back, writing songs, perhaps recording them as well, and getting ready for some big announcements, not that he’s due for a new record or anything. After a rather remarkable run for his album Purgatory where it remained virtually a perennial in the Top 20 of the Billboard Country Albums chart throughout the pandemic, it’s starting to now slowly creep down into the perennial Top 25. In fact it’s probably smart for Tyler to take some time away from the spotlight, and let folks recharge their batteries so he doesn’t burn out the appeal, while recharging his own batteries as well.

But make no mistake, Tyler Childers is the biggest non-radio artist in country music at the moment, and would likely sell out arenas if he announced a tour of them as the headliner. Just seeing him talk about his songs in the re-released Reimagined footage is reminding folks just how much they crave his music, and what it’s meant to them, especially helping to cope through the last year.

Hopefully some big Tyler Childers news is coming soon. The calm before the storm.

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