Review: Tyler Childers charms Rupp crowd in first of two sold-out shows

Once the hero’s homecoming welcome subsided Saturday evening at Rupp Arena, Tyler Childers settled into a three-song solo acoustic set — a staple component of his live concerts, but one usually presented as an interlude of sorts late into his performances, not as a show-opener. The offering of “Nose on the Grindstone,” “Lady May” and a reflective “Follow You to Virgie” served as an intimate affirmation of his Eastern Kentucky heritage, not to mention as a wind-up for the sort of electric commotion his Food Stamps band were moments away from detonating.

Off to the stage right side of the lower arena, though, a fascinating sight unfolded — a sign language interpreter joyously presenting the lyrics to Childers’ songs for patrons near her. Who knows what level of hearing they possessed, if any, but they seemed transfixed. That begged a bigger question.

How much of a performance so auditory in design could hearing impaired fans truly absorb and enjoy?

Judging by the looks on their faces and the celebratory mood of the sold-out crowd of 15,000 that surrounded them, the answer was immediate: Quite a lot.

Tyler Childers, Food Stamps play two-hour set

Needless to say, the temperament was heightened further once Childers’ six-member Food Stamps joined him for “Country Squire,” initiating a two-hour, single set, encore-less performance that boasted love songs both mischievous and delicate in nature alongside rural anthems that ran from the darkly revealing to the joyously honored. Setting all of that ablaze was considerable stylistic gusto underscored by refreshingly honest country and Appalachian inspirations.

That Childers is a keen and insightful songsmith is hardly news, although fresh listens to the evening’s versions of “Deadman’s Curve” (“You can go to hell, my dear; you’d probably like it better there”), “In Your Love” (“We were never made to run forever; we were just meant to go long enough to find what we were chasin’ after”) and especially “Universal Sound” (“My mind’s a mile a minute, and my thoughts they bark like hounds; I focus on my breathing and the universal sound”) simply reaffirmed such command. His works aren’t merely country songs. They work as poetry that links a rural and seemingly uprooted culture to the outside world.

In performance, what astounds beyond that is the vocal artillery Childers possesses. Gospel is in the DNA not only of his compositions, but his singing. That explains the kind of testimony he conjured during “Way of the Triune God,” a true revival of a tune to begin with. With the vocal charge as a catalyst, the Food Stamps summoned a firestorm jam to ease the tune into the giddier “Tulsa Turnaround,” a tune first cut by Kenny Rogers in 1971 that has long been covered in Childers’ performances.

Memories of Lexington include Shriners, bars and clubs

Perhaps expectedly, Childers was generous with his personal and professional recollections of Lexington through the years during the concert (the first show in a two-night engagement at Rupp.) Between-song stories detailed foot surgeries at Shriners Hospital as a child as well as early career club shows in intimate haunts like Al’s Bar and the Green Lantern, many accompanied by guitarist and current Food Stamps bandmate C.J. Cain.

There were humorous turns, as well, including using a snippet of Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball” as a subversive intro to another cover that has been integral to Childers’ shows through the years — “Trudy,” a 1974 ball of Southern rock revelry penned by Charlie Daniels.

The gleeful jam that erupted out of the latter underscored the instrumental vigor of the Food Stamps. Through out the evening, James Barker’s solos and breaks on electric and pedal steel guitars framed the band’s overall drive while multi-instrumentalist Jesse Wells again proved a resourceful utility man. His fiddle runs on the show-closing “Heart You’ve Been Tendin’” countered one of Childers’ wilder vocal turns of the evening.

The show’s overall staging was simple by arena standards. The lone theatrical set piece: a vintage television that faced the audience and remained on for the entire concert. Fittingly for Rupp, it showed mostly basketball footage.

Opening act: Shovels & Rope

The Charleston, S.C., husband-and-wife duo Shovels & Rope opened the evening with a playfully rustic 45-minute set that drew on a variety of folk and Americana influences. Primarily utilizing Michael Trent as guitarist and Cary Ann Hearst as drummer, it was easy to view Shovels & Rope as a White Stripes variant. The coarse electric make-up of the set’s opening tunes, especially “Colorado River” (one of several new and unreleased tunes performed) played into that comparison. But then the two traded off instruments, with whoever landed in the drum chair doubling on basic keyboard orchestration. It was enormous fun, but no one seemed to be having a bigger time than the happy couple onstage.

“Here is a song about a midlife crisis,” Hearst said at one point. “But not the one currently playing out in front of you.”

Tyler Childers with Shovels & Rope

When: New Year’s Eve, Dec. 31 at 9 p.m.

Where: Rupp Arena

Tickets: The concert is sold out.