Tyler Childers gets a helping hand from Sturgill Simpson on ‘Purgatory’

his friends. The album, co-produced by Mr. Simpson, is a deep dive into Kentucky culture stocked with songs like “Whitehouse Road” and “Universal Sound.” It went to No. 1 on the Heatseekers chart, No. 3 on Indie and No. 17 on Country.

Mr. Simpson brought his experience to bear on the project.

“He picked the band, for one,” Mr. Childers says. “He sat down and listened to my songs, he lent me an ear and listened to my catalog, and we took some time to talk about sound, what we were both wanting to see out of an album.”

It was recorded at the Butcher Shoppe with producer/engineer David Ferguson, who worked on all those Johnny Cash albums with Rick Rubin.

Clearly, they are good people to be around, the kind who aren’t trying to mold him into the typical Nashville product.

“I’ve been having a lot of pressure being molded into Tyler Childers,” he says.

Watching fellow Kentuckians Simpson and Chris Stapleton make it with a grittier sound has been an inspiration.

“Without a doubt,” he says. “I’ve been listening to Stapleton for a long time. He’s a hometown guy. I remember when I first heard word of him down there: songwriting and hearing those demos that were used for his publishing house and when he started Steeldrivers. It’s been cool to grow up following that story and seeing somebody make it, especially from back where we’re from. Sturgill, too. There’s things I want to do with my writing and have wondered, sound-wise, how to get it out of my head and out there the way I want to hear it, so when I listened to those Sturgill albums, I was like, ‘This guy gets it.’ I was lucky that I got to meet him and work with him, but even before that, it was inspiration to see that, especially from a fellow Kentuckian.”