‘Snipe Hunter’ by Tyler Childers is an Appalachian revelation
By Stephen Baldwin, RealWV
It’s Friday night in Lewisburg, WV. My wife and I are getting dinner from the local Chinese buffet. They’ve been serving the same buffet for decades, and that’s just how locals like it.
The eight-by-10 checkout area in front of the cash register is packed tighter than our takeout containers. As I’m shuffling in between customers by the fish tank heading for the door, I see the familiar face of my friend, Charlie Hatcher,.
“How ya been, Charlie?” I ask.
“Just got back into town,” he replies. “Been out west for Tyler getting a guy he knows into rehab.”
Charlie works for Whizzbang Booking & Management and organizes Healing Appalachia, the uber-successful concert festival that donates all of its proceeds to recovery services across Appalachia. The “Tyler” he refers to is none other than the Country Squire himself, Tyler Childers.
“I heard he’s got a new album coming out,” I said.
“Gonna be gooooooddddddddd,” Charlie says. (If you know Charlie, you know the way I spelled it is exactly how he said it.)
Last Friday, Charlie’s prophecy was realized when Tyler Childers dropped “Snipe Hunter,” his seventh studio album. This one was produced by the legendary Rick Rubin, who has worked with everyone from The Avett Brothers to Aerosmith to Johnny Cash.
And as a long-time fan, I think it’s the most authentic portrait of Tyler Childers we’ve been blessed to see yet.
Because it’s not one thing, or one style, or one sound.
It’s all of Tyler Childers – all at once.
He’s part creeker, part preacher, part poet, part singer. And he’s made us all believers in his Appalachian gospel.
The title track, “Snipe Hunter”, begins with laughing and hollering in the background, just like any good snipe hunt would. Then the guitar riff hits, and you’re off on an adventure that lasts for 13 songs.
There are fan-favorite tracks along the way like “Oneida”, a love song about a younger man who falls for an older woman, and “Nose on the Grindstone,”, which harkens to hard livin’ in coal country.
Well daddy I’ve been tryin’, I just can’t catch a break,
There’s too much in this world I can’t seem to shake
But I remember your words, Lord, they bring me to chills
‘Keep your nose on the grindstone and out of the pills.’
While those tracks pull you in, the new ones keep you there. “Dirty Ought Trill” is a trip into holler life if ever there was one. The tempo is intoxicating, as Childers tells tale of a skilled hunter that will surely have fans singing along like it’s a gospel concert.
Ain’t a man in the holler like Dirty Ought Trill
Huntin’ them white tail ruttin’ on the hill,
Throwin’ that lead, layin’ ’em still,
Neath the trees when leaves all die.
Childers also manages to tap into a country mood with “Bitin’ List,”, a somehow light-hearted-yet-infuriated song about who you’d bite if you ever got rabies. A thought that had only come in dreams until you heard the song. Once it does, once it does, you’ll sing it to that person who’s high on your list over and over again.
“Down Under” and “Tirtha Yatra” detail Tyler’s travels to Australia and India.
I’d go to Kurukshetra.
You know, I couldn’t even tell you if I am or not pronouncin’ it right,
but comin’ from a cousin lovin’ clubfoot somethin’ somethin’ backwood searcher,
I would hope that you’d admire the try.
We do, Brother Childers. We do; because while we Appalachians are sometimes wont to go too far from home for various fears – not being accepted or turning from our roots – you make it acceptable to visit new cultures without losing our own.
Childers even takes care to visit the various cultures of his previous albums across the album, on which there’s not one skippable track. “Tomcat & a Dancy” takes you back to the traditional mountain music of “A Long Violent History”, for example. The recurring chants of “Hare Krishna” in the background of several tracks harken to the Grammy-nominated “Can I Take My Hounds to Heaven?”, while also reminding listeners that Childers seeks out God no matter where his travels take him.
GQ calls it “the most visionary country album of the year.” Rolling Stone gave it 4.5 stars. But more importantly to me–and probably to Childers–my friends in the hollers of West Virginia give it a grin. Because “Snipe Hunter” is an Appalachian revelation from one of our sharpest prophets.
It will hopefully net Childers another Grammy Award. But whether he wins it or not, we appreciate him sticking his neck out for us by simply being himself and sharing our culture. Because accolades and album sales
aside, Tyler Childers is the kind of guy who cares so much about his neighbors that he will fly his closest confidants across the country to help someone get into recovery.
Some folks say he carries the weight of Appalachia on his shoulders. I say he carries our spirit in his heart, and now the rest of the world gets to know its beauty.
