Tyler Childers Says Avoiding Nashville Is Key to His Songwriting
The magic of what makes Tyler Childers able to write country songs that seem to resonate so deeply with listeners is not rocket science. The reason Tyler Childers and other Kentucky-born songwriters are currently acting like the spearhead in the effort to save country music is because they’re singing what they know about. While the rest of the world rabidly works to modernize and gentrify, much of The Bluegrass State, for better or worse, seems to be stuck in time, and the rural traditions are still alive in the hills, hollers, and valleys.
Even if you don’t live in the country and are surrounded by the tall buildings and outstretched concrete of a big city, the perspective and authenticity that Tyler Childers captures in his songs still speaks to you because it’s so true to itself, and helps transport you to a time and place apart from the mundanity of everyday life. While so many of the contemporaries of Tyler Childers—including quite successful ones that listeners also connect with deeply—have chosen to move to Nashville because that’s where the business and opportunities are, Tyler Childers has elected to remain in Kentucky.
In a recent interview with Spotify, Tyler Childers explained the logic behind his decision to not move to Music City, yet is still able to be successful enough to score a #1 album with his most recently release, Country Squire.
“If I’m writing for a place specifically, then I need to be fully immersed in that place ’cause there’s little things, turns of phrases, and nuances of a lifestyle that if you’re off six, seven hours away in a big city, how do you get to witness that if you’re not there? Nashville’s an extremely necessary place for what we’re doing, being in the music industry. But as far as if you’re just wanting to write songs, and country songs especially, why would you move to the largest growing and developing city in the nation to write ‘country’ songs about rural life? Once you’re immersed in that, then there’s just a disconnect to the reality of what country life is.”
This is a similar philosophy to one Tyler Childers has shared before. Right before the release of Country Squire, Tyler said, “The problem with country is we’ve turned the props into the play. Let’s not just Solo cup and pickup truck it to death. Let’s handle this in a smart way. Nobody is thinking about lyrical content, or how we’re moving people, or what’s going on in the background of their minds … It doesn’t make sense to move to one of the biggest-growing cities in the nation (Nashville) to sit in a room with 12 people and write a country song. They’re all singing songs about ‘the place down the road’, but what is that place now?”
Being a full-time musician, Tyler Childers can’t spend all of his time in Kentucky. “There’s being on the road and playing my songs, and having to be out there because that’s where the work is,” Tyler says. “But then as fast as I can I’m turning around and coming back here. This is where I want to be.” That is also what gives you confidence that unlike some other artists that as soon as they find some success, seem to hopscotch away from their country roots, Tyler Childers will stick close to them.
Also part of the Spotify feature, Tyler Childers gives a tour of the actual “Country Squire” travel trailer that the new album is named after, and where he wrote the song of the same name (see below).
Being a country fan these days can sometimes feel like the life of a jilted lover. You’re just waiting to be let down when your favorite artist decides to veer off the page. But with Tyler Childers, he’s insured that he will stay grounded to his country roots, and hopefully will continue to release songs that speak deeply to them, and speak deeply to all of us regardless of where we live for years to come.
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Spotify came to my crib to see what is up with my pad. This is what is up
October 8, 2019 @ 12:02 pm
One word, Authentic.
Don’t forget his new album coming 10/18- Reimagined
October 8, 2019 @ 12:08 pm
***With accompanying behind the scenes Film.
October 8, 2019 @ 1:20 pm
Not sure I want to tout it as a new album. It appears it’s going to be a short, behind-the-scenes film, and then likely some acoustic versions of “Country Squire” tracks, all exclusive to Apple Music. I’m taking it as something similar to what he did with Spotify here. When you give these streaming companies exclusive content, they boost you in their recommendations, and so goes the business of music. Still could be cool though.
October 9, 2019 @ 7:03 am
Agree, somewhat, as intelligent people are allowed to do 🙂 If this “re-imagining” of Country Squire is anything like what he did with Live at Red Barn Radio…it may put this kid in the stratosphere. Regardless, as you said it best (as usual), it should be cool!
October 10, 2019 @ 11:31 am
Yup, I wouldn’t mind hearing a better quality stripped down faster version of Piece of Mind like the one that has been floating around YT for about a year now.
October 8, 2019 @ 12:32 pm
A brother.
October 8, 2019 @ 3:31 pm
take this blog n shuv it I aint comentin here no more
October 9, 2019 @ 3:54 am
There’s a process to songwriting, and his makes as much or more sense than anyone’s. I think we all have a sense that it’s more than just the big city lights that blind you in Nashville, so double the reason not to get stuck in that quagmire.
Kris Kristofferson wouldn’t need to live in a cave to write a song about being a hermit, but I get what he’s saying. Nashville is a nice place to visit.
October 9, 2019 @ 6:12 am
Well that’s silly….
October 9, 2019 @ 7:06 am
How so?
October 9, 2019 @ 6:29 am
I just hope he doesn’t spend much more time alone in hotels, those songs I can do without
October 9, 2019 @ 6:41 am
He is right, to an extent. As a songwriter, I do write what I know, but I seldom if ever write about ME. When I was in my 20s and 30s, Iiving in Central Ohio, I wrote what all the others wrote about. I could write a commercial sounding song in 20 minutes. I’m 56 now, and I’ve gone back to my roots. My mother was raised up a holler in Logan, WVa. I’ve never lived there, but I have absorbed so much from her and from my family, and from frequent visits, that I can write a pretty authentic song about the place and the people. If I get it wrong, i have kin who will correct me, and they won’t be subtle. Having said all that, if i could do it, I’d move to the place i write about and happily live there till i die. Like i said in one of my own songs.. in the end we’re laid to rest in the same dirt we sprang from.
October 9, 2019 @ 11:58 am
If you’re going to look at rural life with the kind of intensity that he does, it makes sense to live rural. That being said, some people have a tendency to write from a nostalgic perspective, and that thin veil between experience and memory is part of what lends some songs their power. That open ending–it’s very postmodern. I think that style of writing is actually helped by a separation between where you are and what you’re writing about.
In the end, though, I doubt he lives in a quiet place because he’s a songwriter. I would bet he lives in a quiet place because a loud, creative mind will drive you crazy in the constant stimulation of a city. Some people are wired with the need for peace and quiet. Some need that constant noise.
October 9, 2019 @ 8:12 pm
Is it just me or have many people who have been supportive and positive in regards to Tyler suddenly changed their opinion on him? I’m seeing many comments on this post and previous posts talking about him negatively. Is it because he is more widely known now? Is it because he’s on a major label? Has the fact that Sturgill has been veering away from country music made you suddenly unhappy about his producer role? Has his more conservative haircut turned you off for some reason? It’s just odd seeing comments early on complaining about how he wasn’t bigger or more well known, but now that he is, they’re upset. It doesn’t make any sense.
October 10, 2019 @ 7:12 pm
I sat under a bridge on the Ohio River with about 5 other people circa 2013 and listened to Tyler Childers play an impromptu solo set at a festival in the rain. He had just finished his scheduled full band set where less than 20 people half assed payed attention. I was mesmerized by the raw intensity and sincerity of his music. Think Chris Knight’s “Trailer Tapes’ times 10.
I had first heard him on WBs Old Soul Radio Show about 6 months prior and Bottles and Bibles was on constant rotation. I bought T shirts, music, and personally doubled and tripled YouTube views on his channel.
The years passed as Tyler honed his songwriting and vocal skills. Each new song was a progression and a gift from the country/folk/etc heavens. He sang because he needed to. He sang because he couldn’t help it.
Then 2016 came. Miles Miller introduced Tyler to Sturgill Simpson, who fast tracked him to stardom. In the blink of an eye, Tyler’s shows seemingly became a formality and his songs would be recorded karaoke-style with a group of session players and one too many corny production effects. The disenfranchised Luke Bryan fans donned their square toed’s and fleeced Cummins and ran up ticket prices, drunk-yelling all the lyrics while grinding on their boy toys.
In summary, pure grit songwriting like Tyler is capable of will outlive fads and phases if it doesn’t succumb to them. As an “OG,” I long for the old Tyler. The Tyler who sang because his soul was stirred. I have no use for the slick production and the pseudo-psychedelia and the anti hero vibes. I count it a shame that he seems to have abandoned his old ways in favor of the fame and questionable guidance he’s garnered recently. But that’s just one asshole’s opinion.
October 10, 2019 @ 11:04 am
“The problem with country is we’ve turned the props into the play.”
Probably the most succinct and astute evaluation of why so many contemporary country songs ring false. The greats like Merle, Loretta, Willie, Dolly etc. don’t even appear to be trying to write country songs, just great songs that are being written by country people.