When he rose to prominence in the late 2010s, the hype around this young Kentuckian who defied the conventions of mainline country music but regularly outstreamed its biggest stars was palpable. Purgatory was regarded by many as a generational debut, and Tyler Childers felt like the young hero who would lead “true country fans” to the promised land and deliver them from the illusion of choice that was syndicated country radio. Its follow-up, Country Squire, wasn’t quite as memorable, but the commercial impact of “All Your’n” seemed to cement him as the independent A-lister so many had been waiting for.
In the four years that followed, as country music took a sharp turn towards tradition, Tyler seemed to reject the crown that was thrust upon him by so many legions of loyal followers. On the niche, gospel-infused Can I Take My Hounds To Heaven? and the soulful, woefully short Rustin’ In the Rain, he made it pretty clear that he’s not one to be pigeon-holed into one format, no matter how much his fans yearn for it.
With these contrary efforts, Tyler Childers had mostly shaken off the sky-high expectations that Purgatory saddled him with so many years ago. At 34 years of age, he had almost settled into legacy act territory, where fans appreciated his old records but stopped expecting him to outdo himself. That was, until he shared the lead single of his fifth LP (sixth if you count Long Violent History), a freshly recorded version of his classic song “Nose On the Grindstone,” that immediately recalled that long-haired upstart we fell in love with in 2017.
With more intrigue around the Appalachian icon than ever, Tyler Childers is heading into Snipe Hunter with some legit expectations; we’re breaking down a few of those below!
- Fewer Instruments Overall
The pure simplicity of “Nose On the Grindstone” may be the biggest reason to look forward to Snipe Hunter’s release. Tyler Childers’s best work has never been with the backing of a jubilant eight-piece band, but a bare-bones outfit to complement his unpretentious persona.
Childers is one of the great solo writers of our time, and with a powerful set of pipes to ace any vocal assignment, he’s proven over and over that his best work doesn’t come alongside a large supporting cast. Indeed, Childers may be haunted by the same ghosts that forced his friend and mentor Sturgill Simpson mostly out of the limelight at the peak of his powers.
By and large, their fans are looking for a dirty, down-to-earth alternative to Nashville’s polished products, even something different from the youthful crop of sad-boy singer-songwriters ushered in by Zach Bryan. Ultimately, Tyler Childers’s recent forays into big-band soul-rock have impeded the dusty edge that made “Whitehouse Road,” “Feathered Indians,” and “Lady May” so awesome.
If “Nose On the Grindstone” is any indication, he has a chance to recapture that old magic and take listeners back to the days when they first fell in love with Purgatory’s uncomplicated, imperfect beauty.
- More Country Music, Less Other Stuff
If there’s one thing that’s hurt Tyler Childers’s personal brand in the 2020s, it’s been his slow abdication of the “Country Music Savior” title that so many christened him with early on. Just a few short years after standing defiant on stage at the Americana Music Awards, self-identifying as a “country music singer,” it’s felt like Childers has been less interested than ever in continuing to be one, at least exclusively.
Sure, his flirtations with old-school pop and soul have endeared him a lot more to the cosmopolitan media that loves to chide and belittle country music from on high (despite lacking much real enthusiasm for it). But in turn, he’s lost a lot of credibility as the blue-collar Appalachian folk hero who earned him such an avid grassroots fan base early on. And to be honest, his career hasn’t been any better for it.
To earn back that lost goodwill, the plan is simple: strip things down (as previously stated), and get country. As one of those aforementioned, agrieved fans, I’ll speak for everyone when I say this: if we hear Tyler snarling against a plucky mandolin and whiny fiddle again, all of his recent, unsatisfying side-quests will be immediately forgiven. The fact that he’s gone back to his older songbooks for Snipe Hunter’s source material bodes very well; we need to see him come through with that same old twang we all know and love.
- (At Least) One Dynamite Love Song
In the Appalachian music scene, most of the biggest stars are known for one special quality; to name a few, Sturgill is a raconteur, Billy Strings is a musical prodigy, and Charles Wesley Godwin is a lyrical portrait painter. In Tyler Childers’s case, it’s tough to argue that there’s a stronger troubadour on the scene than he. He only has a few true love songs to his name, but just about all of them are the stuff of songwriting legend. Heartfelt confessions like “Lady May,” “All Your’n,” “In Your Love,” “Shake the Frost,” and “Feathered Indians” may well comprise the five best songs of his career overall.
If Snipe Hunter has just one song of that calibre, it will check an essential box for this to be a landmark Childers album. His magic combination of poetic expressions and fervent performances makes him the ultimate troubadour. Aside from the morally dubious “Oneida,” there isn’t really a love song amongst the five older cuts that made it on Snipe Hunter, which heightens the intrigue for such a ballad even further.
- Bonus Tracks (Or At Least One Very Specific One… Pretty Please?)
You know it. I know it. We all want it. And when Snipe Hunter’s tracklist dropped this past week, we all thought it: “WHERE THE @#&% IS JERSEY GIANT???” For any other fandom, it would be patently unconscionable for one of the most iconic standards in an artist’s catalogue to go unreleased for the better part of a decade. Adding salt to the wound, Tyler Childers got our collective hopes up when he started mixing it into his setlists this summer, and it felt like he might finally pay off the hype and give “Jersey Giant” the proper studio release it so richly deserves. But alas, we’ll have to go on wishing awhile longer.
With no release date still in sight for this iconic track, I want to take the remainder of this article to address Tyler Childers on this point personally:
Tyler, you know how much we love you. You were the reason that many of us got excited about country music again after years in the dark, waiting for the blight of bro-country to pass. You’ve given us a lot, but we’ve given you a lot too. We stuck with you through your oddball gospel project and humbly accepted whatever you saw fit to release, even if it was a ten-track collection of fiddle solos with only one song with actual lyrics.
As fans, we’ve grown to be happy without wanton fan service, but we’ve been extremely patient with you waiting for one thing: “Jersey Giant.” It can be a bonus track on Snipe Hunter, a live cut, an acoustic worktape, anything. Let’s just finally give it the release it deserves in your discography and celebrate this song as it deserves to be celebrated. I know that if you didn’t feel this way, you wouldn’t perform it live, so what do you say? Let’s finally give the people what they want and cement “Jersey Giant” as the generational folk song it is.
Signed, millions of eager fans.
