Tyler Childers' Nashville concert makes powerful case for why he may be America's next favorite country artist

It's becoming apparent that by the end of 2024, everyone in America will have a favorite country music artist.

After a two-and-a-half-hour set at downtown Nashville's Bridgestone Arena on Thursday evening, it was also apparent that many Americans' favorite country music artist will be Tyler Childers.

That's the most powerful takeaway from the 32-year-old Lawrence County, Kentucky native's first of two nights playing in front of five times as many people as he's played in front of at country music's "Mother Church," the Ryman Auditorium, located only one block north of the home of the National Hockey League's Nashville Predators.

A night of fellowship between 'friends and strangers'

It'd be easy to believe that his 2023-released album "Rustin' In The Rain"—the one from which concert opener "In Your Love" is currently a top-ten selling mainstream country song achieving moderate success on country radio—would've keyed such a powerfully emotional performance event.

However, Tyler Childers instead emerged in Nashville as a confident arena superstar after an hour of settling in and playing songs of his writing or of Country Music Hall of Fame-level progeny as many as eight decades old.

Typically, the most successful commercial anthems, the kind that sell people Ford trucks or bottles of whiskey, ring from the rafters of Bridgestone Arena.

On Thursday evening, songs with more humble aims were played. Childers on Thursday evening offered "fellowship" between the thousands "friends or strangers" who had come together for a shared musical experience.

'All Your'n'

There's a peculiar community that coalesces when thousands of people shout along lyrics written about the joys of discovering love while dining on fried wild mushrooms and living in a neverending series of cheap hotels.

At Bridgestone Arena, that song, the 2019-released "All Your'n," also included friends and strangers reciting the following refrain:

"So I'll love ya 'til my lungs give out / I ain't lying / I'm all your'n and you're all mine / There ain't two ways around itThere ain't no trying 'bout it / I'm all your'n and you're all mine."

That song was preceded by what was essentially a Northern European drinking song-as-folk ballad ("Creeker"), a Mississippi River basin farm-work song ("Percheron Mules") and a rootsy rockabilly jam (a cover of Kenny Rogers and The First Edition's "Tulsa Turnaround").

Delivered as guided by mastery of a style of live performance that now shows itself as capable of working in American Legion halls or sports arenas, these songs could've existed in 1771 or 1971 or, as will likely happen, be played in 2071 to recall the power of Childers and his band's artistry.

'Purgatory'

As expected, the night's ultimate moment was watching "Purgatory," the title track from his 2017-released breakout album, unfurl into sanctified, honky-tonk gospel funk that awoke the standing-room-only front section's dancing feet.

Hearing Childers sing, "Catholic girl, pray for me / You're my only hope for Heaven / Do you reckon He lets free will boys / Mope around in purgatory?" brought forth the disillusioned, estranged, rebellious, teenage and early 1950s-style rock 'n roller that lives inside the modern-day country performer.

Eventually, Childers—who was less steely-eyed Johnny Cash in a denim work suit and more 2024's unlikeliest pop star on Thursday night—finally smiled and let out a wail onstage. Then, he took a sip of water, smiled relaxedly and rosined up his fiddling bow.

Anyone less aware of how commonplace the moment is in his performances would call it cinematic in its power. However, elevating it higher than the functional station every part of the moment served would rob the moment—and Childers' art, at large—from always landing as more function than form and arriving as a tool for surviving life's most difficult of eras.

Songs that 'occurred before [he] was born and will occur long after [he's] dead'

There are so many moments when Childers—or his openers, Russell County, Virginia natives 49 Winchester—play songs that shock and awe minds unaware of just what's happening in the Appalachian hills and hollers between national forests named for Daniel Boone and George Washington.

In a 2022 Tennessean interview, 49 Winchester's lead singer Issac Gibson characterized those sounds as ones that "occurred before [he] was born and will occur long after [he's] dead."

That means "hillbilly" rock tempered by folksy blues, arriving at songs like 2022-released standout "Russell County Line." For Childers, it's a more adventurous notion.

He and his band's skill at musical reinterpretation and revival allows Miley Cyrus' "Wrecking Ball" to kick into the Charlie Daniels Band's "Trudy," a cover of Hank Williams' "Old Country Church" to feature elements similar to the timeless Presbyterian gospel hymn "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms," or for "Way of the Triune God" to edge into stylings akin to deep Southern folk songs with roots almost half a millennium old.

Deeper still, the night drawing to a close with "House Fire" turning into a clapping and stomping sing-along similar to any time anyone hears John Denver's "Thank God I'm A Country Boy" or "Can I Take My Hounds To Heaven" album track "Heart You've Been Tendin'" sounding like a soulful contemporary rock radio song expand this notion.

Childers' mushrooming popularity

Childers told the crowd that he "played ... around this town (in Nashville's suburbs) -- to earn the chance to play in this town. Steps away, the city's juggernaut live music scene raged lower Broadway, which currently houses a dozen honky-tonks affiliated with five decades of mega-stars from country music's mainstream and occupies a half-million square feet of space on 50 floors of downtown property.

Country music's modern-era commercialism and stereotyping make being a folk-imbued traditionalist with grander visions of pop music's countrified humanity a difficult row to hoe. However, baked within those stereotypes is the idea that Music City is a "ten-year-town" that breaks down as many stars as it breaks out.

For Childers, testing the mettle of his empathy and digging ten toes deeper into the soil has allowed his sound to root itself in popularity and growth.

"Is this not crazy? This is pretty awesome," stated Childers about his successful night at Bridgestone Arena as he took another sip of water during his set.

Then, as if making a more significant point about how well grounded he is in his growing popularity, he reported that a recent mushroom-finding expedition on a day off from tour found his son discovering four mushrooms in the soil near their home.

"Four mushrooms, y'all!"

Sometimes, a mushroom is more than a mushroom.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tyler Childers Nashville concert showcases mushrooming popularity