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Photo by David McClister
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Photo by David McClister
Born to a coal worker and nurse in Lawrence County, Kentucky, Tyler Childers’ upbringing was similar to many in the commonwealth. He attended church twice a week, where he recalls playing with Hot Wheels during sermons while admiring the gospel-like hymnals, which helped to foster his passion for music. When he was 13, he started playing guitar and writing songs.
After 13 years of writing and playing regularly – but falling short of successfully putting out a record – Childers has at last escaped his musical “Purgatory.” On Aug. 4, the Lexington-based songwriter released an album of the same name that has garnered acclaim from a bevy of national outlets, including Rolling Stone, NPR and Noisey.
Childers described the coming together of “Purgatory” as the “perfect storm,” helped by the production hand of red-hot Kentucky native Sturgill Simpson as well as renowned producer Dave Ferguson, who worked with Simpson on his Grammy-winning 2016 album “A Sailor’s Guide to Earth.” Childers says he met Simpson when he and drummer Miles Miller, who also appears on “Purgatory,” came to one of Childers’ shows in Nashville, Tennessee. Childers recalls speaking to him afterward, with Simpson telling him that his songwriting was stellar but that his sounds and instrumentation needed work.
The first album Simpson has produced aside from his own music, “Purgatory” has Childers walking a fine line between bluegrass and county – genres he developed an affinity for from listening to and carrying around fistfuls of cassettes as a child, including a lot of Ricky Skaggs. Prior to assembling the band lineup that appears on the record, Childers performed with The Highwall, which included Jesse Wells and Arthur Hancock of The Wooks along with fellow Lexington musician Scott Wilmoth and others. For the record, he parted ways to pursue a more up-tempo sound.
“It was too ‘grassy’ for me at the time,” Childers said. “I wanted something a little more ‘get-up-and-go’ honky-tonk with pedal steel, so I started playing with the guys I’ve been with for the last few years, but at the same time there was a part of me that wanted a bit of my grass back,” Childers said. “With this album, I got to go into the studio and bang out an album with the perfect combination of both.
“I got to chase a sound that I’d always wanted to get but time hadn’t brought to me,” he added.
A month into the album’s release, it appears Childers’ patience has paid off – the record debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Heatseekers Albums chart, which the magazine puts out to highlight new and noteworthy artists. The album also landed at No. 17 on the Country albums chart and No. 4 on the Americana/Folk albums chart.
Currently on an extensive tour in support of the album, including a recent hometown show at last month’s Moontower Music Festival, Childers plans to ride the success of “Purgatory” back to the Bluegrass this month at Irvine’s Kickin’ It on the Creek, a festival he has performed at since its 2014 inception.
Childers’ relationship with the festival and its founder, Byron Roberts, blossomed shortly after Childers’ move to Irvine in 2013, thanks to a rescue mission. Childers and his brother had gone out ridge riding and got stuck. With only a slimmer of cell phone service, they were able to reach Roberts, who quickly arrived on the scene and brought the two to safety in his Jeep. They ended up going back to Roberts’ home, where they talked for the rest of the evening, quickly becoming close friends.
The following year, Kickin’ It on the Creek was born, as part birthday celebration for Roberts’ son Kenton and part album fundraiser for Childers, who recalled the first gathering consisting of only three bands and roughly 250 attendees. The festival has grown exponentially, hosting over 30 bands and 1,500 attendees in 2016 and forecasts suggesting 2017 will see the biggest attendance yet for the event, which will take place Sept. 15-17 and features over 40 bands, including fellow Lexington acts The Wooks, Born Cross-Eyed, Justin Wells, Newtown, Driftwood Gypsy and others. Childers will also share a bill with Drive-By Truckers at The Forum in Hazard, Kentucky, on Sept. 24.
Despite his newfound success, it doesn’t appear Childers will be forgetting about his old Kentucky home anytime soon, and the Irvine hometown show is a way to give back to the community that raised him and the event that helped support the record in its infancy.
“We’ve all made a lot of sacrifices with the hopes that our hard work would pay off,” he said. “For a time there, it did feel like we were stuck in purgatory, but I think we’re in the clearing and on the other side of things now.”