Tyler Childers Puts Hickman Holler Relief Funds to Good Use

photo c/o Hickman Holler Relief Fund

If you’re wondering where your money is going if you’ve donated to the Hickman Holler Appalachian Relief Fund established by Tyler Childers and Senora May—either directly, or indirectly by purchasing and/or streaming his recent album Long Violent History—it has been announced that a portion of the proceeds have gone to establishing the Hickman Holler Appalachian College Fund to help underprivileged students in the Appalachia region.

Upon releasing Long Violent History on September 18th, 2020, Tyler Childers announced that 100% of the net proceeds from the album would go to the Hickman Holler Appalachian Relief Fund. The title sold 13,136 albums upon its debut week.

The four colleges that are participating in the Hickman Holler Appalachian College Fund are Berea College, West Virginia University, Ohio University, and Morehead State University. Morehead State is where one of the primary members of the Tyler Childers backing band The Foodstamps—fiddle player and guitarist Jesse Wells—is an instructor at the Kentucky Center for Traditional Music. Jesse Wells is also responsible for the Traditional Music Archives of the institution, and taught Tyler how to play fiddle, resulting in the Long Violent History album.

“It is inspiring to see this successful couple give back to the Appalachian region they call home,” says Jim Shaw, CEO of the Morehead State University Foundation. “We are thrilled to be selected as a University supported by this scholarship. Students from the MSU service region will greatly benefit from this generosity.”

The Hickman Holler Appalachian Relief Scholarship will benefit students who are incoming freshman with a cumulative high school GPA of 3.0 or higher. Students from Eastern Kentucky will receive priority, but students from the tri-state area who live in bordering counties of Ohio and West Virginia may be considered as well.

Tyler Childers was born in Lawrence County, Kentucky and grew up in Paintsville. He has regularly taken up for causes in the region, including the water crisis which has affected many in Eastern Kentucky and the West Virginia region. Senora May is from Irvine, Kentucky, which is also in the eastern portion of Kentucky.

For more information on the Hickman Holler Appalachian Relief Fund or to make a direct donation, visit hickmanhollerappalachianrelieffund.org

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