More than a love song to his wife.
Over the weekend, country fans and more gathered for the Healing Appalachia festival in Ashland, Kentucky. Healing Appalachia, the flagship production of Hope in the Hills, a West Virginia-based nonprofit organization operated by an all-volunteer board of directors committed to combating the opioid crisis and supporting recovery across Appalachia.
The festival’s headliners, Tyler Childers and Chris Stapleton, led to two incredible nights of music, and the support acts did not fall short either. Other performers included Molly Tuttle, Lukas Nelson, Blackberry Smoke, American Aquarium, The Infamous Stringdusters, Cole Chaney, Jesse Welles, Jonas Conner, Hill Country Devil, Corduroy Brown and The Montvales, Brad Goodall, Remi Wolf, Conrad Moore, Andy Frasco, Jeremy Short, and more.
In previous years, the festival was held in West Virginia, leading the second night’s headliner, Tyler Childers, to pay homage to the former stomping grounds of Healing Appalachia. During Childers’ set, he did a lot of talking ahead of songs, which led to some of Childers’ iconic monologues.
Fans got a few monologue moments during Saturday night’s performance, including him dedicating “All Your’n” to the never-ending road work up the interstate from Ashland, Kentucky, as drivers cross into the Mountain State.
“For those of you who have traveled from hither and yon, if you keep on going up the interstate, you will cross into West Virginia. As you are going on that river of highway, you see there are a lot of road cones. You’ll notice there is a lot of road work.
They’ve been working on that stretch of road since my mother and father were dating. In high school… in the late ’80s. So not only did I write a love song for my wife, but I wanted to note the road work with this next one.”
HA. The first few lines of “All Your’n” depict that exact road work that he highlighted in the song’s intro.
“Drivin’ through the roadworkOh, the work they took forever onThe road cones blur like memoriesOf the miles we shared betweenThe place you learned to say your prayersThe place I took to prayin’Loadin’ in and breakin’ downMy road dog door deal dreams…”
Well, fans… now we know precisely what stretch of roadwork Tyler Childers is referencing in this beloved song.
@crystal_6777 #TylerChilders #HealingAppalachia #kentucky ♬ original sound – crystalrn.77
It did not take long for fans to pipe up in the comments section, noting that this stretch of interstate is always under construction:
“64 will never be finished.”
“He’s not wrong, I’m in Huntington, West Virginia. They are still working on the highway.”
“Be like I-64 !! Never stop working on yourself!!! lol.”
“He ain’t lyin’.”
“He’s not joking about the roads.”
“Truth!!! We call those red cones WV’s state flower!!!”
At least you know he’s writing from the heart, referencing that piece of highway in his song. Nothing fabricated about the thoughts of the “All Your’n” first verse…
Fire it up before you go.
