Ladies and gentleman, Tyler Childers is fixin’ to save 2020.
Tyler, who’s been spending most of his quarantine sawing away on the fiddle and healing up from a busted collarbone, just dropped a surprise album titled Long Violent History.
The album is completely instrumental save for the final title track, and features a heavy dose of old fiddle tunes that may or may not be Tyler himself. After all, he’s been working to fine tune his fiddle skills recently so I would imagine that you’re hearing him saw away.
The final song, “Long Violent History,” finds Tyler tackling issue issues like racism, protests and police brutality, ultimately asking the question: what would happen if white country boys were getting shot in the streets by police?
“How many boys could they haul off this mountain
Shoot full of holes, cuffed and laying in the street
Til we come into town in a stark ravin’ anger
Looking for answers, and armed to the teeth.”
“.30-06s and pappa’s old pistol
How many you reckon would it be, four or five
or would that be the start of a long violent history
of tucking our tails as we try to abide.”
Heavy stuff.
Leave it to Tyler to drop a surprise album of mostly instrumental fiddle tunes and then just when you’re nice and comfortable, he smacks you in the head with a thought-provoking song about the current state of racial injustice in the United States. The man is on another level.
And if that wasn’t enough, 100% of the net proceeds from this album will benefit the Hickman Holler Appalachian Relief Fund, which, established by Senora May and Tyler Childers, aims to bring awareness and financial support for philanthropic efforts in the Appalachian Region.
