Greater Cincinnati showed up for Kentucky native and singer Tyler Childers at his sold-out show at Riverbend Music Center Friday.
Childers is a seven-time Grammy nominee who rose to fame following the release of his critically acclaimed 2017 album, “Purgatory,” which earned him the title of Emerging Artist of the Year at the 2018 Americana Honors & Awards.
The tour complements his seventh studio album, “Snipe Hunter,” released on July 25. The album gave Childers his biggest debut week ever, landing at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, according to Rolling Stone. The album, which Billboard says, offers up a “wandering troubadour’s bounty of observations, lessons and musings he’s collected” from various international adventures, as he notes on songs “Down Under” and “Tirtha Yatra.”
Childers’ appearance was also preceded by singer-songwriter Hayes Carll, who held a show in Newport, Kentucky, the night before his supporting show at Childers’ sold-out Riverbend concert. Although I was unfamiliar with Carll before the show, he had the crowd moving and energized before the main act.
If you’re a Tyler Childers fan who couldn’t make it to his sold-out show at Riverbend, don’t worry. Here are three notable moments from the Kentucky native’s On The Road show Friday in Cincinnati.
The 3 biggest moments from Tyler Childers’ On The Road Tour show in Cincinnati
Tyler Childers says Riverbend Music Center is a place he’s wanted to play for a ‘long time’
During the middle of his concert, Childers discreetly made his way to the venue’s center stage, where four of the songs he performed are arguably the best songs in his discography: “Lady May,” “Shake the Frost,” “Nose on the Grindstone,” and “Follow You to Virgie.”
“I figured I’d just get a little bit closer,” Childers said to the sold-out crowd.[…] “Honestly, it’s cool to be here. This is a place me and the boys have been wanting to play for a long, long, long time.”
After bantering with the crowd and telling the sea of people how Cincinnati has been, including how the crew was “fed ice cream,” he broke into song with his love song, “Lady May.”
The crowd was silent as he sang. People rocked back and forth, some wiping tears with each passing lyric. For me, the highlight was “Shake the Frost,” which he performed next. It was quiet until he sang the famous line, “back home in old Kentucky,” to which the crowd roared.
I would be remiss if I said that portion of the show didn’t move me, and the people surrounding me, to tears.
He became the most relatable person while introducing his hit ‘Bitin’ List’
Before breaking into one of his more popular songs off his latest album, “Bitin’ List,” Childers took a moment to chat with fans about what someone might do to end up on another’s “Bitin’ List.” The Lawrence County native gave three prime examples: bicyclists who ride on the street instead of the sidewalk, people who talk during concerts and grocery shoppers who fail to return their carts.
“Quit it! Stop it! You push that thing around for the better part of an hour and a half. It was heavier, actually, at certain points in your trip and you just can’t take those last couple of steps to take it back? The shopping experience isn’t over yet, man!” he said.
“Those kind of people that just incessantly talk the whole entire time during a concert. Those people are aggravating, but I’m not talking about people who just aggravate you. I’m talking about those people in your life you just cannot stand. Just thinking about them like, ‘Well, there goes my day.'”
As Childers discussed what would land someone on his “Bitin’ List,” he received hoots and hollers from the crowd who related to the singer.
Childers encouraged ‘fellowship’ among his fans during the show
In an almost preacher-like demeanor, Childers spoke to the crowd about creating a “fellowship” among fellow fans in the audience, shortly before closing out his show for the night.
“I know there are 110 things that you could be doing with your evening, and this right here is the one that you chose to do, and that just makes us feel so special we can’t stand it,” he told the audience. “I hope that you have made your very first, most precious memory with your very new best friend, whom you met today at the Tyler Childers show.
Because surely in this sea of people – to your left and to your right – in front of you or behind you, there’s at least one person you have no idea who they are, and surely to goodness, you’ve taken one moment to extend a hand and introduce yourself […] The one important thing that you have an opportunity to do right now is a little bit of fellowship, and I want to feel a little bit more of that in this world, am I right?”
Childers continued his dialogue as the crowd took a moment to actually look around and introduce themselves to the strangers they’d been standing or sitting next to. The moment felt like watching a sermon. It took me back to the summers at my grandpa’s church in Tennessee, where, regardless of whether you’re a stranger, everyone took a moment to introduce themselves.
I believe that’s what Childers, with his deep Appalachian roots, was trying to convey. Reaching out a hand to a stranger, being kind, and showing camaraderie during a time when the country and world feel so divided.
My final thoughts…
Tyler Childers’ concert was everything fans could hope for. He played (almost) all his greatest hits and fan-favorites from “Snipe Hunter.” His show lasted nearly two hours, but if you were in the crowd, you wouldn’t know it. Time stood still when Childers was performing, especially when he gave fans in the lawn seats and the middle of the pavilion a more intimate performance.
I left the concert feeling fulfilled; however, I have one qualm. Childers did not play “Oneida,” one of his top songs from his new album. Childers has played the song live for years before finally recording a studio version of it, but for some reason, he opted not to sing the song, which portrays him trying to make a connection with an older woman who “references movies (he’s) too young to know.”
He also left “Universal Sound” off the setlist.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Tyler Childers moved fans to tears during sold-out Cincinnati show. Here’s 3 top moments
Reporting by Kaycee Sloan, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
