Whether you’re a fan of Tyler Childers or not (you totally should be), you cannot tell me that he isn’t unequivocally one of country music’s most prolific storytellers right now.
Weaving together vivid stories of country life, both in the nuanced simplicity of everyday living and in the complex human emotions of the characters he illustrates, nobody has the ability to immerse you in the story quite like Tyler does. It’s just a fact.
That being said, in this interview with Spotify, Tyler explains why his songwriting has been able to remain authentically rooted in Appalachia, rooted in the real people and the real stories of country living.
Quite simply, it’s because he actually lives there.
He’s actually living and breathing the country songs he’s writing.
“If I’m writing for a place specifically, then I need to be fully immersed in that place. Because there’s little things, turns of phrases and just nuances of the lifestyle that if you’re off 6-7 hours away in a big city, how do you get to witness that if you’re not there?
Nashville is an extremely necessary place for what we’re doing being in the music industry, but as far as if you’re just wanting to write songs and country songs especially, why would you move to the largest growing and developing city in the nation to write country songs about rural life?
Once you’re immersed in that, there’s just a disconnect to the reality of what country life is.”
Once again, some words of wisdom from the great Tyler Childers.
And whether you agree with him or not, it’s pretty damn hard to argue with the results.
Watch Tyler perform “Tattoos” live from Red Rocks Amphitheatre:
