If you’re not paying attention to what Tyler Childers has done for country music, both musically and with his commentary on the genre, you’re doing it wrong.
In an interview with The Guardian, Tyler lamented the current state of country music, referring back to his Americana Music Awards acceptance speech where he condemned the term “Americana” as a “distraction.”
“Americana started as a place to recognize 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.”
And where does bad country start? With bad songs.
“The problem with country is we’ve turned the props into the play. Let’s not just Solo cup and pickup truck it to death. Let’s handle this in a smart way.
Nobody is thinking about lyrical content, or how we’re moving people, or what’s going on in the background of their minds.”
A-fucking-men.
If you’re looking to cleanse your palate from all that “bad country” we keep hearing, make sure you get your hands on some Tyler Childers as soon as possible.