Dear Timmy Tyler…
Year after year, you continue to amaze your fans with your prolific songwriting, captivating stage presence, and perseverance in honest-to-God country music.
With your songwriting talent come many songs that have yet to see the light of day and a hefty collection of unreleased beauties. However, unlike some artists who don’t play their unreleased songs on stage, you perform quite a few of them and make fans fall in love with these tracks. While I could make a long wish list of songs that you have yet to release that I’d love to see on a streaming platform one day, there is one in particular that I (and many of your fans) hope and pray will be released one day.
I vividly remember stumbling upon the 2013 video with WCHQ 100.9 FM, where a baby-faced Tyler Childers performed the song. At the time (I want to say it was 2017-ish), I was diving into your catalog after becoming a fan of your music. I clicked on this video for the first time, having no idea that this song would consume my thoughts for the next 2,511 days.
Before picking up the guitar, you talked to the radio host about your songwriting before diving into a new one you had been working on. That new one was “Her And The Banks.” I knew I would like this song from the first notes, but the catchy guitar riff hooked me before the second verse.
However, the chorus made this song one of my all-time favorites. Your tender lyrics perfectly capture the feeling of being young, in love and doing stupid things with that person. I remember feeling warm and fuzzy inside when the chorus came around, knowing that these words are what true love feels like.
“And her love makes me feel like I’m home
Keeps me good comp’ny wherever I go
When I’m smilin’, it’s her and the banks
The Big Sandy River that colors my face…”
Since that first listen, I have fallen deeper in love with the song whenever I hear you sing it on stage or watch a concert clip.
Given that you are still performing “Her And The Banks” on stage today, I think it’s time we kindly ask you to consider releasing it to us fans as a single or perhaps including it on your next record. Either option works, really.
It’s been 10 years and 10 months since you said it was a “new one,” and I think there is no better way to celebrate this beautiful song’s upcoming 11th birthday than to gift it to your fans. I know I am not the only one in this boat, wishing and praying nearly daily that it won’t stay in the vault forever.
tyler childers need to drop her and the banks rn
— alyssa 🩷 (@lysworley) September 12, 2021
Tyler Childers needs to include Her And The Banks, Honest Work, & Heart Of Stone on his new record.
— Wild Bill (@Unlistenable) January 14, 2021
WHEN IS TYLER CHILDERS GONNA RELEASE HER AND THE BANKS?!?!
— Rach 🦦 (@rach_esmeralda) January 6, 2022
I just need to know when Tyler Childers is going to put an acoustic version of her and the banks on iTunes. That’s all I want from 2023
— Mojo (@Miss___Molly___) January 5, 2023
Ngl bro I won’t be happy if Tyler Childers and his wife divorced but I certainly will enjoy and pray he releases her and the banks, Oneida, jersey giant, and a song while you’re away.
— Jackson (@Wake_OG) September 6, 2023
(Proof I am not the only one who has hoped for the song to come out over the years.)
We hope that you take this thoughtful request into careful consideration, Mr. Childers.
Signed,
A Whiskey Riff writer and a collection of fans who also adore “Her And The Banks”
And more recently from his New Year’s Eve show at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky:
