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Tyler Childers has been quite an anomaly in modern country music. The Kentucky-born singer-songwriter has achieved massive success – his 2017 full-length debut album Purgatory reached number one on the Top Country Albums chart. But perhaps what is most notable about Childers is his refusal to conform to modern country music stereotypes. 

Though Childers frequently performs in Nashville, he resides in his Kentucky cabin with his wife and young son, keeping close to his roots. While this might seem unremarkable, in an age where all popular country music stars are basically expected to make the move to Music Row, it’s a quiet defiance on Childers’ part that proves you don’t have to conform to what everyone expects you to be in order to create something that can be meaningful and well-received. 

In a feature in GQ, writer Marissa R. Moss puts it aptly: “His music is a soundtrack and a lifeline for a generation of Appalachian, Southern, and rural people who finally feel seen through his words, and offers a new way for them to be seen and understood by everyone else.”

It’s evident that Childers has never really given a damn about what Music Row thinks his music should sound or look like. He released three versions of his 2022 album Can I Take My Hounds to Heaven?, each containing different remixes of the eight gospel music songs; his fourth studio album Long Violent History centralized around the title track that was a protest song against racism; and the music video for 2023’s “In Your Love” featured a relationship between two male coalminers. 

What makes Childers such a remarkable artist is that he stays true to his roots and writes the songs that he wants to sing. While it may sound simple, it’s an element that is really quite difficult to find in modern music. 

With the release of his seventh studio album, Snipe Hunter, Childers once again surprises his fans by not giving them exactly what they want. Instead, he delivers a boisterous album that touches on everything from the tried-and-true subject of hunting all the way to Hinduism. 

A weird, wonderful album 

As far as the inspiration for the title goes, Country Central notes that a snipe hunt is a “prank where the trickster sends their unsuspecting victim out into the woods to hunt for a massive bird that doesn’t exist. It’s part joke and part rite of passage. Tyler Childers’ latest album, Snipe Hunter, seems to do just that for the faction of fans still clinging to the rowdy, whiskey-bent boy who sang ‘Feathered Indians,’ eight years ago. Instead of a return of the ‘old Tyler,’ we got something stranger, sharper, and more sober.” 

Snipe Hunter begins with “Eatin’ Big Time,” a rowdy, slightly erratic album opener that sees Childers discussing the process of hunting and gutting prey. He sounds angry and gluttonous, singing, “Keep my time on my Weiss / Ya goddamn right, I’m flexin’ / ‘Cause a thousand-dollar watch is fine enough flex for me / Have you ever got to hold and blow a thousand f-cking dollars?” 

A calmer, pedal-steel led “Cuttin’ Teeth,” follows. The track centers around a country singer in the early days of fame and Childers’ tone is always wistful, as if he too wishes he could go back to such a time. “Fronting him a country band / Roaddoggin’ in a stripped out van / Bummin’ powder in the barlight / When they were cuttin’ teeth,” he sings in the chorus. 

Two of the album’s songs, “Oneida” and “Nose on the Grindstone,” are beloved mainstays of Childers’ live set and both were released as singles prior to the full album. Both songs are obviously a bit different in the newly recorded version than in previous live performances, and many long-time Childers fans had a lot to say about that. 

“Bitin’ List,” is a hilarious and creative middle finger to the singer’s foes. The song is petty and punchy, just as you’d expect it to be. “To put it plain, I just don’t like you / Not a thing about the way you is / And if there ever come a time I got rabies / You’re high on my bitin’ list,” Childers croons in the chorus. If there’s a lesson to be learned here, I guess it’s don’t cross Tyler Childers.

Another element that sets this album apart is the fact that it’s produced by Rick Rubin. And if for some reason you think you’re not familiar with that name – think again. Rubin has produced hit records for acts across all genres – from pop to hip hop to hard rock and heavy metal. He’s been behind albums by the Beastie Boys, Adele, Metallica, AC/DC, and Johnny Cash.

Rubin’s production on Snipe Hunter is unexpected. Some tracks sound almost too clean and overproduced, while others warp and leave the listener feeling slightly amiss. It might sound disjointed at the start, but I think these decisions were intentional. 

Prior to releasing Snipe Hunter, Childers took a pilgrimage to India for Maha Kumbh Mela, the largest Hindu gathering in the world. The feature in GQ says that Childers “dipped in the river, he prayed, he walked in huge crowds of people, some atop elephants, all searching for the same thing.” 

Pieces of this trip are scattered across the album. In “Tomcat and a Dandy,” there is a Hare Krishna chant (a religious sect based on the name of the Hindu god Krishna), and Childers recounts his pilgrimage on “Tirtha Yatra.”

Taken as a whole, yes, the album is weird, and yes, it will not necessarily appeal to fans who yearn for Childers to return to his drug-addled, whiskey-induced sound that catapulted him to fame with Purgatory. However, that’s not to say that this album doesn’t also have a meaningful place. Childers is growing, changing, and traveling, both personally and sonically. We should be grateful that he’s willing to share that with us. 

Listen to the whole album below: