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Tyler Childers at Madison Theatre on Thursday, March 28, 2019. Photos by Saraya Brewer.
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Tyler Childers at Madison Theatre on Thursday, March 28, 2019. Photos by Saraya Brewer.
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Tyler Childers at Madison Theatre on Thursday, March 28, 2019. Photos by Saraya Brewer.
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Tyler Childers at Madison Theatre on Thursday, March 28, 2019. Photos by Saraya Brewer.
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West Virgina's Larry Keel opened up for Tyler Childers at the Madison Theatre on Thursday, March 28, 2019. Photo by Saraya Brewer.
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Photo by Saraya Brewer
In case you've been hiding under a rock as far as local or regional music is concerned, eastern Kentucky songwriter Tyler Childers is on a bit of a roll. A few short years ago, you could have caught the Lawrence County native performing at an open mic or half-empty Lexington venue such as The Green Lantern or Al's Bar. Last night, he wrapped up a run of three sold-out shows at the 1000-plus capacity Covington, Ky. venue Madison Theater – and with an ambitious summer touring schedule that includes headlining spots in a handful of regional music festivals, the Tyler train shows no sign of slowing down any time soon.
As his shows tend to be, Thursday's set was a barn burner, chock full of fan favorites from "Messed Up Kid" and "Charleston Girl" to "Whitehouse Road" to "I Got Stoned and I Missed It," a Shel Silverstein cover that blends seamlessly with Childers' catalogue of brilliantly written originals, which strike a subtle and perfect balance of playfulness and poignancy. From honky tonk party ballads like "I Swear (To God)" to cerebral nocturnes and dewy-eyed love songs like "Lady May" and like "Universal Sound," the range of Childers' talents as a songwriter are blazingly apparent on his esteemed 2017 album "Purgatory" (produced by Sturgill Simpson). His live shows touch on many of those songs, of course, but he keeps his sets interesting by throwing in a healthy selection of covers, unrecorded songs and lesser-known songs from his "Live on Red Barn Radio" EPs (recorded live at the Lexington-based radio program in 2013 and re-released last year).
In Covington this week, Childers was backed by his mostly Huntington, West Virginia-based band The Food Stamps (Rod Elkins, Craig Burletic, James Barker), Kentucky fiddle player Jesse Wells and drummer Miles Miller, a fellow Kentucky native and "honarary" member of the band. (Miller performed on "Purgatory" and also drums for Simpson, and is known for introducing Simpson to Childers.) This weekend, the band is headed to Peoria, Ill., for a sold-out Saturday show, and Bloomington, Indiana on Sunday before heading west for a 5-show Texas run that includes two appearances with Willie Nelson & Family.
Kentucky fans who missed this week's shows (or are yearning for more, as Tyler fans tend to do) can catch Childers at two major festivals in the state this summer – Louisville's Forecastle in July and Lexington's inaugural Railbird in August.