Childers puts spin on heartfelt rural anthems
Just don’t call songs about racial inequality, queer love ‘courageous’
There are parts of Kentucky where the ground is pruned and prettied, and there are parts where the grass just grows. During the early days of his career, Tyler Childers had one foot in both — as a kid from rural Lawrence County doing landscape work for a Lexington mill while he played country music for whoever would listen. One night, his worlds converged. Asked to perform at the office Christmas party, he dressed up in a tie and good shoes. He thought he looked sharp until an older man stopped to crack a joke.
“He told me, ‘You look like a mule looking over a picket fence,’ ” Childers, 32, said in a recent interview. It was midday in a borrowed Nashville, Tennessee, living room; Childers, despite his growing success, has resisted a move to Music City in favor of staying anchored in Kentucky. “I thought, ‘I’m a mule.’
I’m a poor working man’s animal, and I’m looking over the fence in somebody else’s yard. Do I even belong here?”
Childers proudly poses with a mule on the cover of his new album, “Rustin’ in the Rain,” now available. It’s a flip on that fateful moment, turning the animal (and the people who rely on it) into something powerful and graceful. Childers’ music, from his 2017 debut “Purgatory” and beyond, has always done this work: rewriting and recontextualizing rural and Appalachian America and the folks within it, and spreading their stories wide.
In the past few years, he has sung about racial inequality (“Long Violent History”), made a music video telling a queer love story (“In Your Love”) and explored the possibilities of an inclusive faith on
“Can I Take My Hounds to Heaven?” His songs with roots in bluegrass, Southern rock and Appalachian tradition have pushed the boundaries of country music and even his own fan base, while cementing him as one of the most successful touring and streaming artists in his field — without the aid of radio. Earlier this year, he played two sold-out shows at Radio City Music Hall in New York. In December, he has a pair booked at Lexington’s Rupp Arena.
Childers grew up in East Kentucky in the shadow of the Baptist Church.
His father had a job in the coal industry, and his mother worked at the health department. While the family had a doublewide trailer with running water and electricity, the neighbors didn’t, so he and his sibling were acutely aware that they were “one bad decision” away from disaster.
At 15, Childers moved to a new school, where he coped with being the new kid by spending his lunch playing guitar. Eventually, his classmates took notice. They invited him to sing at parties and introduced him to some new music.
“Drive-By Truckers became the soundtrack to my teenage angst,” he said. He started writing his own music, and quickly built a following across Kentucky and West Virginia — country fans were eager to hear fiddle and steel guitar, and his voice carried that lonesome sound of someone who had studied both Ricky Skaggs and Kurt Cobain. When he sings live, his eyes burn with the ferocity of a preacher, and fans hang on to every word.
When “Purgatory,” co-produced by another Nashville boundarypusher, Sturgill Simpson, was released, things happened fast. Childers went from opening shows with his band, the Food Stamps, to headlining the same venues in a little more than a year. In 2020, he made his first overtly political statement with “Long Violent History,” an album fueled by his rage over the police killing of Breonna Taylor, a fellow Kentuckian. He wanted to be explicit, releasing the title track with a video statement in which he spoke directly to his white rural fans, telling them, “We can stop being so taken aback by Black Lives Matter.”
“I felt compelled,” he said, leaning forward in his chair and stiffening up as he talked. “I started looking at the people listening to me, and I was listening to them. I wasn’t stretching out in some weird, forced way — I wrote that song in 10 minutes.” Now he sees it as a responsibility not just to speak for his people, but to grow with them. “There are a lot of artists out there trying to do the work,” Childers said. “Every little effort to give someone a glimpse into that light helps put water on this fire before it boils over into white-hot rage.”
The video for “In Your Love,” the new album’s first single, features a love story between two male coal miners in 1950s Appalachia. The inspiration was personal. When Childers asked a gay cousin to be the best man at his wedding to singer-songwriter Senora May, he started to hear rumblings about “what kind of man Senora might be marrying.” Childers welled up recounting the story, never once trying to wipe a tear or hide his watery eyes — he’s sober now, free of alcohol since 2020, and emotions come fast and easy.
To create the treatment for “In Your Love,” he turned over control to the Kentucky poet laureate, his friend Silas House.
“That’s unheard of,” House said in a phone interview. “The very first thing Tyler said to me was, ‘I want to make a video for people who have never seen themselves in a country love story.’ ” He added, “It was only ever about telling another rural story.”
Childers has long told rural stories: about people trying to get by with poisoned water or blackened lungs, about drug addiction and the impact of corporate greed on the people who tend the land — but also about the sheer beauty of these places, too, and the love within them. His allyship, especially for marginalized people out in the country, is a natural progression. He stays deeply connected to the place where he was raised: hunting, gardening, tanning the hide after he cans the meat. “I’m a dial-up man,” he said, “in a 5G world.”
“Rustin’ in the Rain” is a succinct seven songs, which is very intentional. Childers’ albums “are getting shorter as they go,” he said. “A countdown.” What happens when he gets to one? “I go home,” he said — to his mules, his wife and their baby boy, and to his farm. To his own rural story.
Just don’t tell him that his videos and country songs about racial inequality and queer love are “courageous.”
“People are like, ‘Oh, you are so brave,’ ” Childers said. “I think it’s sad that’s a brave thing. To me, it’s just about love. And that’s all it ought to be.”
OPENING The Art of Watercolor:
Work of William Christine, Arlene Ginsburg, Sook H. Kim, Anne Landis, James Maria, and Frank Wengen. Opening reception, 2-4 p.m. Oct. 1. Through Nov. 8. Bethlehem Town Hall Rotunda Gallery, 10 E. Church St., Bethlehem. bfac-lv.org.
ONGOING ARTHAUS, 645 W. Hamilton St., Allentown. Somnia Terra:
Denis Aumiller’s group of playful, surreal images he calls “Somnia Terra,” Latin for“Land of Dreams.”The 16 quirky, imaginative images evoke mystery that gets deeper the more one ponders them. Through Oct. 14.
ALLENTOWN ART MUSEUM, 31 N. Fifth St., Allentown. 610-432-4333. Conectando Intenciones (Connecting Intentions):
Artist, educator, and Allentown Art Museum Community Art + Action Fellow Daniel Djuro-Goiricelaya weaves his personal artistic exploration with works of collaborative community art. Works use the language of color, natural materials, textiles, light, and performance to explore political, social, aesthetic, and universal issues. Through Oct. 15. allentownartmuseum.org.
AMERICA ON WHEELS, 5 N. Front St., Allentown. 610-432-4200. Celebrating 70 Years of Corvette:
Corvettes produced from the very first production year, 1953 (C-1), through 2023 (C8), plus a very special 1963 Grand Sport. Through Oct. 15. americaonwheels.org.
BAKER CENTER FOR THE ARTS GALLERIA, MUHLENBERG COLLEGE, 24th and Chew streets, Allentown. 484-664-3100. Glut and Guzzle:
Ashe Kaye’s exploration of how gender norms and the visual language of advertising infiltrates daily lives and the harmful effect of media and religion on shaping and reifying identity and gender roles. Through Nov. 10. muhlenberg.edu.
BAUM SCHOOL OF ART DAVID E. RODALE AND RODALE FAMILY GALLERIES, 510 Linden St., Allentown. Mystical and Realistic: Ramon Peralta and Ismael Checo, oil painters from the Dominican Republic. Workshop with Ismael Checo, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Oct. 14 ($200); artist reception, 6-8 p.m. Oct. 19. Through Nov. 2. baumschool.org.
EAGLE NEST GALLERY AT NAZARETH AREA HIGH SCHOOL, 501 E. Center St., Nazareth. 610-759-1730. Jeffrey M. Green:
A colored pencil artist, Green’s work fosters tranquility, as an inspiring interlude to our modern stress-filled world. Reception, 6-8 p.m. Oct. 4. Through Oct. 31.
HISTORIC BETHLEHEM MUSEUMS, Bethlehem. 610-882-0450. Unspun:
Stories of Silk: Three-part exhibit organized by Historic Bethlehem Museum and Sites examines the local impact of the textile from its beginnings with cocooning attics, where raw silk from silkworms was spun to becoming a leader in the fashion industry in the early 1900s. Begin the journey at the Moravian Museum of Bethlehem, 66 W. Church
St. with a replica of a 1750s coccoonery, learn about the early Moravian’s experiments with silk in the attic of the Brethren’s House, follow the legendary stories of Moravian women and silk, including the Single Sisters’ secret gifts to notable historical figures and try your hands at silk embroidery, as it was taught at the Moravian Ladies Seminary. The journey continues at the Kemerer Museum of Decorative Arts, 427 N. New Street with dresses, undergarments, and housewares, more.
The exhibition concludes at the National Museum of Industrial History, 602 E. Second St to learn the stories of the women who worked in the factories that mass produced the products of the silk industry and their place in the push for workers rights. Through Jan. 28. historicbethlehem.org.
JAMES A MICHENER ART MUSEUM, 138 S. Pine St., Doylestown. 215-3409800. Never Broken:
Visualizing Lenape Histories: Considers the power of art to create, challenge, and rewrite history through a display of contemporary art by Lenape (also called Delaware) artists in conversation with historic Lenape ceramics, beadwork, and other cultural objects and representations of Penn’s Treaty by European
American artists. Through Jan. 14. michenerartmuseum. org.
LEHIGH UNIVERSITY LINDERMAN AND FAIRCHILD-MARTINDALE LIBRARIES, 27 Memorial Drive West, Bethlehem. Where Do We Go From Here?:
Maps and atlases from the Duncan Payne and Lehigh Libraries collections. Unique hand-colored maps in Linderman Library and reproductions of 30 city views from Braun’s atlases displayed in Fairchild-Martindale Library. Through Dec. 20. lehigh.edu.
LEHIGH VALLEY CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE ARTS, 321 E. Third St., Bethlehem. 610-868-2971. The Shapes in Things:
Ken Kewley’s collage, paint, and mixed media works that explore the interplay of color, shapes, and abstraction. Reception, 6-8 p.m. Oct. 6. Through Oct. 13. CharterArts. org.
LOWER MACUNGIE LIBRARY, 3450 Brookside Road, Macungie. 610-9666864. Christine Thatcher: Through Oct. 31.
MARTIN ART GALLERY, MUHLENBERG COLLEGE, 2400 Chew St., Allentown. 484-664-3100. How do we survive? Everything happens at the same time:
Rhonda Wall creates hybrids of factual and fictional subject matter in her work to transport the viewer to another place an invented world where past, present, and future events merge into one, where everything happens at the same time. The paintings were made immediately before, during, and
after the COVID-19 pandemic (2019-2023) and reflect the public discourse surrounding a worldwide crisis. Through Oct. 6. Onirica: An exhibition comprised of digital prints and motion art, is named for a Spanish adjective that means “of the dream or related to the images and events that are imagined while sleeping,” an apt description of Maria Belen Irusta’s celestial, hypnotic works. Through Dec. 15. muhlenberg.edu.
MENNONITE HERITAGE CENTER, 565 Yoder Road, Harleysville. 215-256-3020. Wonderful Words of Life:
The Fraktur of Roma Ruth: A self-taught artist, Roma follows in the footsteps of the eighteenth-century schoolmasters at the Salford and Skippack Mennonite Meetinghouse schools who created rewards and illuminated texts for their students. Many of her designs are based on motifs used by the early schoolmasters which she interprets with her own sense of color, vitality, and joy. Through Oct. 9.
MERCER MUSEUM AND FONTHILL CASTLE, 84 South Pine Street, Doylestown. 215-3450210. The Dusty Road to Doylestown:
The Early Years of the Village Improvement Association. Celebrates the centennial anniversary of Doylestown’s first hospital and the vital role played by the Village Improvement Association and the VIA’s founding women in its formation. Through Dec. 31. mercermusuem.org.
MUSEUM OF INDIAN CULTURE, 2825 Fish Hatchery Road, Allentown. 610-797-2121. Native American Beadwork:
Evolution, Economics, and Artistry: The exhibit traces the progression of imported glass beads as a medium of trade, artistic expression, and identity for indigenous peoples throughout North America. Through April 27. museumofindianculture.org.
NATIONAL CANAL MUSEUM, 2750 Hugh Moore Park Road, Easton. 610923-3584. Coal Country Portraits:
Photographs, artistic works, and personal memorabilia to illustrate the stories of miners and their families who are representative of the many whose work helped drive the industrial development of our region. Through Oct. 17. canals.org.
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF INDUSTRIAL HISTORY, 602 E. 2nd St., Bethlehem. 610-694-6644. New & Improved! The Age of Convenience in the Home:
Exhibit examines what it means to strive for the American Dream following World War II through the end of the 1970s. Through June 29. nmih.org.
NEW ARTS PROGRAM, 173 W. Main St., Kutztown. 610-683-6440. The Early Years, 1974-1981: Artists John Cage, Philip Glass, and 36 others. Through Dec. 10. newartsprogram.org.
NURTURE NATURE CENTER, 518 Northampton St., Easton. 610-253-4432. Slow Time:
Musician Dan DeChellis has been creating music for decades. The pieces he wrote during the pandemic reflect a period when things closed and time seemed to slow down. The low drone of his music reflected this feeling of slowing down and inspired a new focus painting. The music and paintings go hand-in-hand in this exhibit, each feeding into one another. Through Nov. 15. nurturenaturecenter.org.
PENN STATE LEHIGH VALLEY COMMUNITY GALLERY, 2809 Saucon Valley Road, Center Valley. Heidi Hooper and Marissa Grello: Two artists who use their debilitating medical conditions as inspiration for their art. Through Nov. 4. lehighvalley.psu.edu.
PENNSTATE LEHIGH VALLEY, 2809 Saucon Valley Road, Center Valley. Eudaimonia:
Cultivating mindfulness, acceptance, purpose, skill mastery, and positive relationships, or Eudaimonia is a state of well-being, very different from the feeling of pleasure deemed as happiness.
Artists Michelle Neifert and Sasha Meret, who live with a disability, have connected to this positive and divine state of being, authenticity, meaning, virtue and growth through their art practice, inspiring their own state of eudaimonia, as well as to that of others who hear their story. Through Dec. 2. lehighvalley. psu.edu.
PENNYPACKER MILLS, 5 Haldeman Road, Schwenksville. The Ladies of Pennypacker Mills:
Virginia, Josephine, Anna Maria, and Eliza have a fascinating story that continues beyond the Pennypacker family name, learn a more intimate history of each of these amazing women through letters, family scrapbooks, photographs, and more. Through Oct. 11. montcopa.org.
POTTSGROVE MANOR, 100 W. King St., Pottstown. 610-278-3000. The Social & Medical World of Dr. Jonathan Potts:
Discover how physicians treated patients in an age before modern healthcare. Through Nov. 5. montcopa.org.
STUDIO B FINE ART GALLERY, 39A E. Philadelphia Ave., Boyertown. What Inspires You?:
Artists consider the many sources of inspiration: music, nature, culture, color, patterns, smells, temperature, art supplies, trends, Instagram, literature, history, cars, for example. Through Nov. 5. studiobbb. org.
THE GALLERY AT ST. JOHN’S, 330 Ferry St., Easton. 610-905-1767. Ode to Plaid: Works of fine art in any medium. Through Oct. 15. elca.org.