If you told Tyler Childers that he had to start his country music career in 2026, he’s not entirely sure that he could pull it off.
The country music star hailing from the hills of Eastern Kentucky takes pride in helping to keep the spirit of folk, bluegrass and the Appalachia alive. Take a listen to any of his projects – and especially his legendary albums like Country Squire and Purgatory – and that’s clear as day. He’s a gifted artist and a prolific songwriter.
Those two albums that came early in his discography helped launch him into country music superstardom. Since then, he’s maintained that level of artistry, and he hasn’t been afraid to ruffle some feathers with most recent projects: Rustin’ In The Rain and Snipe Hunter. It’s clear he’s in an era of his career where the creation of art is priority number one, and he’s thankful he has that luxury.
He even told Newport Folk Festival in an interview that he’s not sure he could make it today, if he started his country music career all over again.
When Childers was cutting his teeth in the 2010s, the path to being a popular country artist was more linear. He recognizes that, and highly doubts that things would work out for him if he had to launch his career in 2026:
“I wouldn’t even know where to start today if I had to start all over again. When I started, the only answer that I knew was, ‘I have to get out and gig. I just have to hit the road, and I have to meet people. I have to crash on couches and play this coffee house to then go play the brewery.’ There might be a clip that goes forth past that as a business card for me with some promoter on YouTube.”
Even though the process he details there was much more complex than going viral online, there’s a sense of a yearning for “simpler times” when he (and other artists) describe it like that.
Childers sees how the industry works now – especially the new artist and new music discovery portion – and he sees it all as a bit overwhelming. That being said, and as mighty as the algorithm is (or at least seems to be), he believes fans of music are correcting the trend themselves:
“Now there’s all of this other stuff, and I was really scared there for a while that like that was where we were going. In a lot of ways, that’s happening. But I think there’s a lot of people that are kind of getting tired of the superficiality of all of that.
I think that it’s kind of coming back where people are like, ‘I want to get out and listen to some music being thrown at me through some speakers in a sweaty room with a bunch of people.’ It will always remain that people need people, and people need music to be together around.”
In other words, nothing can replace the experience of attending a live show and being a part of something bigger than yourself.
You can hear more from Tyler Childers in the “Sea to Shining Sea” interview below:
