Since the release of his excellent 2017 album Purgatory, Tyler Childers’ rise, from logging millions of Spotify streams to consistent sold-out tour dates around the country, has been one of the genre’s biggest success stories — in part because the Kentucky native did it all completely independently. On August 2nd, Childers will release his second LP, Country Squire, via his own Hickman Holler Records, under exclusive license to RCA Records. At RCA, he joins a roster that includes a diverse group of artists from Grizzly Bear to SZA to Cam. Like Purgatory, Country Squire was produced by Sturgill Simpson and David Ferguson, and was recorded at the Butcher Shoppe in Nashville. The album’s first single and video, for “House Fire,” is also available today.
Country Squire comprises other songs that Childers has honed on the road, including the title track, “Bus Route,” “Gemini,” “Everloving Hand,” “Creeker,” “Peace of Mind,” “All Yourn” and “Matthew.” In fact, every song on the album should be familiar to fans, proving that though Childers might now be signed to a major label, he’s clearly held on to artistic control. To support the album, Childers will launch the headlining Country Squire Run Tour.
“I’ve been writing a lot of road songs. Writing a lot of homesick songs,” he told Rolling Stone last year. “But once you start playing them out, it all ain’t no secret anymore. Everyone knows how you feel.”
The winner of last year’s Emerging Artist of the Year Award at the Americana Music Association Honors & Awards, Childers has gone from beloved local artist within Kentucky to internationally lauded Appalachian prophet, telling the stories of love, loss and the left-behind in forgotten America. But what has made his songs resonate far outside of his home state’s jagged borders is his emotional connection and his grasp at translating subtle feelings into gripping, resonating tales that unroll sometimes like a diary and sometimes like vivid snapshots from a movie. Whether about longing for his partner or envisioning the life of a blue-collar worker, they all ring true. “Songwriting is writing about the human experience,” Childers said.
