Tyler Childers

Like many great Southern storytellers, singer-songwriter Tyler Childers has fallen in love with a place. The people, landmarks and legendary moments from his childhood home of Lawrence County, Kentucky, populate the 10 songs in his formidable debut, Purgatory, an album that's simultaneously modern and as ancient as the Appalachian Mountains in which events unfold.

The album, co-produced by Grammy Award winners Sturgill Simpson and David Ferguson, is a semi-autobiographical sketch of Childers' growth from wayward youth to happily married man, told in the tradition of a Southern gothic novel with a classic noir antihero who may just be irredeemable. Purgatory is a chiaroscuro painting with darkness framing light in high relief. There's catharsis and redemption. Sin and temptation. Murder and deceit. Demons and angels. Moonshine and cocaine. So much moonshine and cocaine. All played out on the large, colorful canvas of Eastern Kentucky.

Childers had been searching for a certain sound for his debut album for years as he honed his craft, and was finding it elusive when his friend, drummer Miles Miller, introduced him to Simpson, the Grammy Award-winning musician and fellow Kentuckian. Childers sent Simpson a group of his songs, then went to visit him in Nashville. "And he said, 'There's this sound. I know what you're trying to get at, the mountain sound,'" Childers recalled. "'So I asked, 'What are you doing?'"

Intrigued, Simpson enlisted the aid of Ferguson, the Grammy Award winning sound engineer. They assembled a band that included multi-instrumentalists Stuart Duncan, Michael J. Henderson and Russ Pahl, bassist Michael Bub and Miller on drums, of course, and helped Childers make a debut album of consequence that announces an authentic new voice. "I was writing an album about being in the mountains," Childers said. "I wanted it to have that gritty mountain sound. But at the same time, I wanted a more modern version of it that a younger generation can listen to -- the people I grew up with, something I'd want to listen to."

Past Shows


May
13
th
2020
Armory
May
13
th
2020
Armory
Cancelled

Sturgill Simpson

A Good Look'n Tour
with Tyler Childers
Apr
5
th
2020
Armory
Apr
5
th
2020
Armory
Cancelled

Sturgill Simpson

A Good Look'n Tour
with Tyler Childers
Nov
4
th
2019
Mainroom
Nov
4
th
2019
Mainroom

Tyler Childers

with Courtney Marie Andrews
Nov
3
rd
2019
Mainroom
Nov
3
rd
2019
Mainroom

Tyler Childers

with Courtney Marie Andrews
Aug
6
th
2018
Armory
Aug
6
th
2018
Armory

Jack White

with Tyler Childers
Aug
22
nd
2017
7th St Entry
Aug
22
nd
2017
7th St Entry

Tyler Childers

with George Shingleton
Mar
31
st
2017
Turf Club
Mar
31
st
2017
Turf Club

Mipso

with Tyler Childers

More Shows

Jun
3
rd
7th St Entry

The Burkharts

Jul
16
th
Turf Club

Hana Vu

with Babebee
Aug
3
rd
First Avenue

Hobo Johnson & The Lovemakers

Jul
28
th
Turf Club

Lambrini Girls