Honest to Goodness: Tyler Childers’ “Country Squire” Cuts Deep
“Oh the days are dark down in the holler / Waiting for the sun to shine / On the back you’ve been breaking / Trying to earn peace of mind “
I’ll do my best here to not regurgitate what has already been said about Tyler Childers’ music. Another ‘savior in the saving of country music’…you know, things like that, do of course, carry a large amount of truth and weight to them in respect to the singer songwriter. Such a statement is pretty damn bold, but if you have experience his music and felt “that thing” that creeps up your spine when the first crackling breathe of fire leaves Tyler’s mouth, you know how much water it truly holds. But there is something that runs so much deeper throughout the lines of the songs on ‘Squire’.
A tight 9 tracks is all that is needed to make you believe. Literally from the first line of the record you are gripping the dashboard in front of you on on a trip through dusty, lonesome landscapes and shitkickin’ stories of sin and redemption. I’ve long been a fan of EPs or full lengths that don’t have a need to fill out 15 songs, because when the shorter track listing commands as much force and sheer power, you don’t need to buffer it out with a couple more. On more than one occasion I’ve seen Childers refer to himself as a country musician, he’s also very adamant about what “country music” truly is and being pigeon holed into what we now refer to as ‘Americana’, a wide umbrella that he feels has more detriment than positivity. In an interview with The Guardian he recent said that Americana was once “a place to recognise people being ignored by their own genres, but now it’s a hindrance. The stuff we used to call ‘good country’ is now getting called Americana. We’ve not fixed the problem of bad country.” Country Squire helps us parse out the gold from the dull river pebbles.
Leading in with the title track we know where we are heading. It’s hard to not see the autobiographical nature of his songs, but the writing is portrayed in such a way that the unfeigned nature of his lyrics are so relatable…with a hell of a chorus hook. He is a storyteller through and through and a music hero for everybody. Of the mission behind the album, Childers comments, “I hope that people in the area that I grew up in find something they can relate to. I hope that I’m doing my people justice and I hope that maybe someone from somewhere else can get a glimpse of the life of a Kentucky boy.”
I think where a lot of folks may have had concern with Squire was Childers’ move to a major label and there is a certain polish to the tracks here, but it’s never a detriment to the songs and trust me, it’s all about the song. Bringing in a cast of all stars for instrumentation contributions, there is a clean and tight structure to the arrangements. This, however, only further punctuates the real and raw nature of Childer’s writing and voice. It cuts through all the din and does what country music is absolutely supposed to do, weave a narrative of a life lived and experienced. Its fucking beautiful how he commands each and every word.
And the richness of his words and stories are only matched by the pure emotion injected in each line. “Gemini” is a prime example. A two stepper, its compelling rhythm like a virus for your ear canals. It embeds itself deep in there. And the balance, the temperance of the songs with the aforementioned and “Matthew”, taking on an almost foggy Scottish highland field vibe with its distant fiddle intro. Tyler’s voice crying out in a way that pulls your heart strings so hard you can feel the literal strain in your chest as the story unfolds.
But it always the truth and realness to his words that I return to. We live in a musical landscape where it can be truly difficult to sift through the shit to find the true gems, the songs that hit the hardest and slice the deepest. And Tyler’s words do just that.
Childers has an uncanny way of tempering humor with the heartfelt and sheer power and genuine passion with delicate sincerity. I mean, who else could write such a sweet and deeply felt song about jacking off in a hotel room. Seriously, it’s a tear jerker.
Country music is meant to be sung and performed with a certain sense of conviction and fuck if you don’t believe and feel every word that the Kentucky born songwriter sings. And while Tyler and the band are undoubtedly one of the tightest bands touring out there today, it’s the inescapable fact that the stories and manner they are delivered that is the start of ‘Country Squire’. Zero apologies, candid and frank songs that cut deep down to bone and leave their mark for a long while after the last note fades.
photo by David McClister
