Preach it, Zach.
Zach Bryan has spoken quite a bit about his admiration for fellow singer and songwriter Tyler Childers, and the inspiration that Childers has served as for Zach’s own career.
And this week, Tyler Childers finally scored his first EVER charting hit at country radio with “In Your Love” from his latest album, Rustin’ In the Rain.
Think about that: The Kentucky native has been selling out arenas and amphitheaters for years, has easily been one of the biggest names in country music for nearly half a decade now…and just got his first charting single at radio.
Insane.
And I’m not the only one who thinks so.
Zach Bryan took to social media to weigh in on Childers finally cracking the radio charts:
Couldn’t agree more.
And he also took somewhat of a shot at country radio for their choices in what to play:
“Imagine being radio (whoever the hell that is), hearing Shake the Frost and being like ‘no no let’s go with the Applebees song’”
And Zach is spot on. I mean, think about some of the absolutely incredible songs that Childers has already released in his career. “Shake the Frost,” “Universal Sound,” “Follow You to Virgie,” “Lady May,” “All Your’n”…I could sit here and name pretty much every one of his songs and make a case for it being a hit at radio.
But instead, we get “Fancy Like” by Walker Hayes twice an hour on country radio.
Seems odd, no?
Zach clarified that his comments weren’t a shot at Walker, but more just a joke about what radio chooses to play:
Of course there’s a lot more that goes into deciding what gets played on radio than whether a song is good or not. There’s a lot of politics from the labels, and Tyler’s always been a notably independent artist.
But he signed a publishing deal with Warner Chappell Music Nashville in 2021, in addition to having a deal with Sony’s RCA Records, which is in partnership with his imprint Hickman Holler Records. The record deal is more of a distribution agreement, if you will, as Tyler maintains creative freedom with RCA and does still have ownership of the songs since they’re still releasing via Hickman Holler.
So ultimately, it’s not surprising that Tyler is just now breaking onto the country radio charts. But it’s definitely a disappointing commentary on the state of country radio these days.
