Tyler Childers
15 vinyl records found
Tyler Childers is a Kentucky country singer whose songs blend country, bluegrass, and folk traditions with unflinching narratives about coal country life. His breakthrough album Purgatory showcased his gift for lyrical depth and working with producer Sturgill Simpson, establishing him as a significant voice in contemporary country music.
About Tyler Childers
Childers grew up in Lawrence County, Kentucky, where his father worked in coal mining and his mother was a nurse. He sang in church as a child and picked up guitar around age 13, eventually moving to Paintsville to finish high school. He studied briefly at Western Kentucky University and Bluegrass Community and Technical College before leaving college to pursue music full-time, playing clubs across Lexington and Huntington.
His 2017 album Purgatory, produced by Sturgill Simpson and David Ferguson at The Butcher Shoppe in Nashville, became a watershed moment. The record featured Simpson on guitar and backing vocals alongside Miles Miller on drums, Stuart Duncan on fiddle, and Russ Paul on additional instruments. It reached No. 1 on Billboard's Heatseekers chart and sparked Childers' win for Emerging Artist of the Year at the 2018 Americana Music Honors & Awards, where he notably criticized the Americana label as a distraction from country music's core identity. Country Squire followed in 2019 on his own Hickman Holler Records, again with Simpson and Ferguson helming production.
Childers' songwriting draws directly from his Kentucky roots and coal mining heritage, framing his narratives as counterweights to stereotypes about Appalachian life. He approaches songwriting like short story composition, prioritizing lyrical substance and specificity. The Groove Hunter currently tracks 11 editions of his work, including Country Squire, Snipe Hunter in its standard and Amazon Exclusive Edition pressings, Purgatory in its orange colored vinyl limited edition variant, Long Violent History, and various live and compilation releases.
