I’m from New York City. I grew up on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. When I was a kid, the hottest music out there was hip hop. 80’s and 90’s pop and rock were also big.
What most definitely wasn’t big was Bluegrass music from the Appalachian Mountains. But about six months ago, by chance I was surfing YouTube for music on my Roku, and I came across Tyler Childers, a Bluegrass and folk rock singer from eastern Kentucky.
Childers has a soulful, unique, almost cracking voice as he belts out lyrics about Appalachian mountain folks, coal miners, and their lives and struggles.
It’s powerful stuff. And at 27, Childers has a chance to really make a mark on folk, country, Bluegrass and rock.
Childers was named Emerging Artist of the Year for 2018 by the Americana Music Association Honors and Awards. His debut major label album, Purgatory, has been critically acclaimed.
But what I love about Childers is his emotion, his capacity for love, and his soul. When he belts out the words to a ballad or a folk rock song, you really feel something.
One of my favorite songs by Childers is from his self-released debut album, Bottles and Bibles, from 2011. It’s called “Hard Times,” and it’s all about the struggles of a coal miner in eastern Kentucky to make a decent wage and support his family.
In the opening stanza, Childers wails:
I bought a house at the mouth of the holler
A ring at the pawnshop and a crib for the kid
I heard some word there was work up in Hindman
I’m going tomorrow in hopes that there is
What make this passage so powerful is not only the desperation Childers describes, but also the edge in his voice and the pain he conveys. It’s a super powerful opening, and the rest of the song is just as good.
Another passage I love is from the second stanza. Childers cries out:
My sweat and my wages they don’t seem to weigh out
I’m getting more aches than I’m gaining in gold
Who ever said you could raise you a family
Just working your ass off
Knee deep in coal
Boom! Childers hits you right between the eyes with an armor piercing round of honesty and viral working-class rage.
Say what you want about Bluegrass, or Country, or Folk, or some combination, but in my mind it’s some of the best music out there. Period.
I’d put Tyler Childers up against Drake any day of the week. Plus he’s wicked good on the guitar, both acoustic and electric.
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There’s one other Country and Bluegrass artist I want to spotlight, and that’s a Canadian singer named Colter Wall. Wall is from Regina, Saskatchewan. He’s young, 23, but he’s got a boatload of talent.
He sings in a deep baritone, which he readily admits he concocted for himself as a stage persona to stand out.
Whether it’s his natural voice or not, I can tell you for sure that he sounds great. Similar to Childers, he sings country and folk tales of working-class people trying to get by, this time on the western plains of Canada.
My favorite song from Wall’s self-titled debut album is “Kate McCannon.” It’s a classic murder ballad, which is a type of song popular in Bluegrass and Country music. In a murder ballad, the lead character murders a lover, or an enemy, or just shoots the hell out of someone.
In the opening passage, Wall sings:
The Raven is a wicked bird
His eyes as black as sin
And he floats outside my prison window
Mocking those within
And he sings to me real low
It’s hell to where you go
For you did murder Kate McCannon
So right off the bat we know our man killed a woman name Kate McCannon. As the song progresses, we come to learn that he was introduced to Kate by her father, a fellow coal miner of the protagonist. He courted her, they had a relationship, and he was saving his coal miner’s salary to buy her a diamond ring, presumably on the way to marriage.
But then something horrible happens. Wall belts out:
Lord and one day I come home to find
My darlin’ angel’s not in sight
So I made for the creek
Where she and I did meet
Found her with some other lover…
And I put three rounds into Kate McCannon!
This last line is followed by several heavy, rhythmic Wall chords on the acoustic guitar.
It’s an incredible song, and it really makes you feel a sense of time, place, and emotion. Here’s a man who thought he had found the love of his life. He planned to marry her, only to find her cheating on him.
So he did what any good ramblin’ country man would do. He killed her.
That’s what a murder ballad is all about. A slow burn, then a build-up to a crescendo in which the sudden violence of murder rears its ugly head.
I really like this song. It’s just one of those songs that makes you feel something, in the same way Tyler Childers’ songs do.
Who knows whether Bluegrass, or Country, or Folk, will ever make the inroads they so richly deserve against top 40, hip hop and pop.
But for my money, it’s some of the best music you’ll ever hear.
I won’t kill you if you disagree with me. Because this isn’t a murder ballad.
It’s just my take on a powerful musical tradition, one I hope everyone can experience at some point in their lives.
Ok, after this lengthy PSA on Bluegrass and Country, I’m out.
Peace.
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