Review: Tyler Childers keeps sound firmly rooted in Kentucky

TYLER Childers is blazing trails in service to the spirit of country music.

With influences of bluegrass and folk, his offerings honour the rawness of experience through short stories sung about his life in Kentucky.

For this tour he has been playing with an ensemble of six, this motley band were very cohesive and attuned to their bandmates.

They seemed already seasoned and deeply enjoying playing music with each other.

They kept up high energy for an hour and a half with minimal pauses and breaks.It made for a very coherent fluid set, and also keeps the hecklers and hollerers to short bursts.

Tyler dealt exceptionally well with the deluge of song requests shouted and barked their way – he took it in is stride and made the quip that “yeah, I have heard of all those songs” then went on to play the one he had intended.

The tones of pedal steel guitar and fiddle were lush companions. The crowd was warm and friendly, excitable and considerate.

The bass and kick drum were prominent in the mix but certainly helped get the folks dancing. The floorboards were bouncing.

Enna Rose Andrews