Before tour with Sturgill Simpson, Tyler Childers to be in residency at sacred music venue
Well, it took Nashville long enough.
After a three-year stretch where Tyler Childers shifted his status from beloved regular in Central and Eastern Kentucky clubs to national country/Americana sensation, the famed Ryman Auditorium is inviting the Lawrence County native to sit a spell.
February will mark Childers’ first performances at the oft-called Mother Church of Country Music as a headliner. The shows, four total spread out over two weeks, are being promoted as the “Country Squire Residency” in honor of the songwriter’s third album.
Here’s the catch, though. If you’re one of the home state faithful planning on heading to Music City to support Childers and don’t already have a ticket, you can save your gas money. All four concerts, on Feb. 6-7 and Feb. 15-16, are sold out. Tickets went on sale back in August, a mere three days before the songsmith’s triumphant outing here in Lexington at the inaugural Railbird festival and less than three weeks after the release of “Country Squire.”
The February residency won’t serve as Childers’ actual Ryman debut. He has performed there previously as an opening act, most notably for a multi-night run by country renegade Margo Price in 2018.
Childers gets a full week off in the middle of the residency, although the Ryman won’t remain silent. The venue has The Beach Boys, Calexico with Iron & Wine, Tori Kelly and The Wood Brothers set to play there during the interim. That will serve as Childers’ last extended break for some time. Five days after the residency, he begins a three-month arena run with fellow Kentuckian Sturgill Simpson, who co-produced “Country Squire” as well as its 2017 predecessor, the breakout recording “Purgatory.” Billed as “A Good Look’n Tour,” the trek will take Sturgill and Childers to Rupp Arena on Feb. 28 before concluding at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville on May 24.
Childers has some business to attend to prior to the Ryman residency and his tour with Simpson, however. He will be vying for his first Grammy Award on Jan. 26 for Best Country Solo Performance where he is up against three warhorse veterans (Willie Nelson, Blake Shelton and Tanya Tucker) as well as a comparative contemporary (Ashley McBride, who will open Luke Combs’ sold out Rupp show on Feb. 14).
Should he win, Childers will have to accept from afar. The Grammy ceremony falls in between a series of Europeans concert dates – specifically, between shows in Norway and Germany.
All in all, 2020 is off to a hearty start for an artist who cut his musical teeth for years as a burgeoning songwriter on a club circuit that took Childers on regular rounds between Lexington and Huntington, West Virginia. But during a sold-out, two-night engagement at Manchester Music Hall in August 2018, the writing was clearing on the wall that Childers’ tenure as a regional club act had come to an end.
From my review of the first night of the Manchester run:
“If there was a moment last night at Manchester Music Hall that defined the transformation of Tyler Childers from home state songsmith to progressive Americana celebrity, it came late in the program following a jubilant roadhouse transformation of the breezy country reverie ‘Feathered Indians.’ As the music settled, the crowd roared. And roared. And kept roaring. This wasn’t just tipsy barroom acknowledgement of a favorite tune. What transpired was a full-blown acceptance of Childers as an artist of status that local clubs could no longer contain.”
Tyler Childers
When: 7:30 p.m. Feb. 6-7 and Feb. 15-16 for the Country Squire Residency
Where: Ryman Auditorium, 116 Fifth Ave. North in Nashville
Call: 615-889-3060
Tickets: All performances are sold out
Online: ryman.com
When: 7:30 p.m. Feb. 28 with Sturgill Simpson for A Good Look’n Tour
Where: Rupp Arena, 430 W. Vine.
Call: 859-233-3535
Tickets: $50.50-$90.50
Online: rupparena.com