Review: Tyler Childers showcases a range of musical styles — and a range of emotions

If you were one of the people questioning who was paying more than $200 for a lawn ticket to see Tyler Childers at Skyla Credit Union Amphitheatre on Tuesday night, you weren’t alone.

Turns out it was everyone.

And by everyone, I mean all sorts of people. Men wearing cowboy, baseball, and trucker hats. Mullets and mops. Wrangler joutfits and Rhoback polos. Women wearing everything from sundresses to shorts that barely covered anything. And every variety of cowgirl boots.

Given the range of music performed by Childers and his seven-piece band — which ran from gospel to country to rock to bluegrass and blues — a motley crowd made perfectly good sense.

The surprisingly cool evening started with an impressive opening set by S.G. Goodman, who left Jason Isbell’s tour to join Childers and who wrote “Space and Time,” a song often played by Childers.

Then Childers and his band appeared on stage mirroring the eclecticism of their audience, with bass player Craig Burletic sporting an afro, guitarist Jesse Wells wearing glasses like those worn by Rip Wheeler in “Yellowstone,” and drummer Rodney Elkins looking reminiscent of Hank Williams Jr. They — along with Chase Lewis on keyboards, James Barker on pedal steel, and C.J. Cain on guitar and mandolin — helped Childers flow seamlessly through 22 songs from Childers’ varied catalog of tunes.

Childers opened the night with “Way of the Triune God,” which sounded like a mix of old-time, “Go-Tell-It-On-the-Mountain” gospel and country. He then transitioned right into rock and roll, covering Kenny Rogers’ “Tulsa Turnaround,” complete with dueling electric guitars. And then the band went right back into swinging country, highlighting the fiddle in “Born Again.”

Childers then slowed down the tempo and picked up the crowd with “All Your’n.” The song’s refrain — “I’m all your’n and you’re all mine” — had more than one nearby couple declaring it their song.

The first real screams from the crowd came during the first few bars of “In Your Love,” one of several songs about heartfelt devotion to a partner, but in this instance that between two men.

The relatable “Ford Country Squire” painted a mental image of riding around in a station wagon with a date, and allowed the band to cycle through fiddle and pedal steel solos.

Then Childers and his band settled into toe-tapping country with “Bus Route,” one of several references by Childers to growing up in a Kentucky holler. Stopping briefly to wipe sweat from his face, Childers reflected on a New Year’s Eve performance in Charlotte in the middle of an ice storm. This led to one of the longer breaks in the show for Childers to talk about living with his parents as a newlywed, trying to make a real run as a musician, and of course, burnt bridges. (If you’re not familiar with Childers’ music, redemption from what he calls “burnt bridges” is a common theme.) Childers also revealed that he wrote “Bus Route” while walking to the store to get snuff, which was really an excuse to get out of his parents’ house.

“I Swear (to God)” had the crowd clapping and shouting its most emphatic line — “G--damn, fire in the hole” — and during Childers’ soulful “Purgatory,” he sang “Catholic school pray for me” and paused to let the crowd finish the chorus — “You’re my only hope for heaven.”

“Cluck Ol Hen” featured Childers on the fiddle in perfect sync with Wells and one of several rotations through his band that included Lewis banging on the piano and bringing the crowd to a crescendo reminiscent of Page McConnell at a Phish show.

After “Whitehouse Road” and a cover of Hank Williams’ “Old Country Church,” Childers formally introduced each of his bandmates with a series of colorful nicknames and entertaining background stories. Then they rolled right into “Can I Take My Hounds to Heaven?,” an authentic tribute to his down-home upbringing, complete with smoking and rough and rowdy behavior. This was Childers at his finest — straight-up Americana that is as good as it gets these days — assuring the crowd that he would refuse to go to heaven without his favorite dogs.

From there, Childers slowed things down with “Anita,” a song about dating older women, which gave the men in the crowd a chance to put their arms around their dates and sway in the humid August air with a kiss or two thrown in for good measure. (NASCAR’s Bubba Wallace was seen smooching his wife, Amanda, between belting out lyrics and dancing in the aisle.)

“Honky Tonk Flame” gave Childers’ band members another opportunity to highlight their ability to jam on their chosen instruments, a performance in which Childers sincerely delighted. And the crowd did, too.

After the intense love song “House Fire,” Childers brought the crowd together for “Universal Sound,” a melodic and emotional ride touching on the vices he has seemingly overcome. “Heart You’ve Been Tendin’” highlighted vocal riffs by Childers.

In what seemed like a solo lead-up to an encore by the full band, Childers beautifully worked his way through “Nose On the Grindstone,” bathed in a single spotlight and accompanied only by his acoustic guitar. Looking around, it seemed like every phone was on record and every voice dialed up to 11, with the crowd firmly connecting with Childers and his song’s message. If they weren’t already, “Shake the Frost,” had the crowd singing in unison.

“Follow You to Virgie” seemed to be the song the audience had been waiting for the entire night. Childers laid open his soul, and the crowd walked right in, rewarding him with the loudest screams of the night. He then returned their admiration with apparent tears in his eyes.

“Pretty wild to get to do this for a living,” he said.

Childers talked about working in a sawmill for Mennonites and how his music career got its start — with a drinking buddy offering to be his manager and his girlfriend supporting his musical ambitions while working for AmeriCorps.

Childers closed the show singing about quitting that sawmill job, which provided a series of metaphors for “Lady May.”

The band never returned. There was no traditional encore. In the end, he was alone on the stage with his guitar, his voice, and his message — which seemed like the perfect way to end the night. For everyone.

(But in a way, there will be an encore after all: Childers is back on stage at Skyla on Wednesday night. As of Wednesday morning, the cheapest ticket for the sold-out show was a “verified resale” lawn seat going for nearly $250...)