Can I Take My Hounds to Heaven?

Tyler Childers

Pubblicato il 30/09/22 su Hickman Holler Records - RCA Records
Artisti principali: Tyler Childers
Genere: Country

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Lingua disponibile: inglese

Kentucky singer Tyler Childers is often described as playing neotraditional country—but he's really part of a small group of artists redefining what outlaw means: Along with peers like Sturgill Simpson, Jason Isbell and Margo Price, he's blurring the lines of country, soul and rock and speaking up for equality and inclusion. In 2020, Childers released A Long Violent History, a collection of mostly traditional and instrumental fiddle songs save for the closing title track: a true protest song and call for empathy for victims of police violence and racism. On his fifth album, he imagines heaven as a place where all good people are welcome. "There's Hindus, Jews, and Muslims/ And Baptists of all kinds/ Catholic girls and Amish boys/ Who've left their plows behind/ Up there in the choir/ Singing side by side/ Wondering why exactly/ They been fussing the whole time," he sings on the fiery country-blues power ballad. Childers has said he "grew up Baptist and I was scared to death to go to hell." The album is his way of "filtering through that and trying to find the truth, and the beauty … and expelling all that nonsense." It is also, he has said, his effort to show that the divisions of race and creed are not as important as the things that unite us as humans. While just eight songs long, the album is ambitious. In what Childers has said is a nod to the Holy Trinity, there are three versions of each track: Hallelujah, which tends to be the most country and features just Childers and his band The Food Stamps; Jubilee, which is lush with horn and strings; and Joyful Noise, a wild-card collection of remixes. But it's not always that cut and dried, and Childers & Co. effortlessly show how lines are blurred. The track list is split between traditionals, such as "Two Coats" and "Jubilee," and originals. "Old Country Church," composed by gospel writer J.W. Vaughn and previously recorded by Hank Williams, is presented for Hallelujah as greasy Southern blues rock; it's a tent-revival hymn if the tent was a barroom. (The Jubilee version, meanwhile, feels like Memphis soul, and Childers absolutely belts both.) The Hallelujah take of "Purgatory" rides a down-home, Humble Pie-style funky groove and adds horns—as brassy and bright as high noon—for Jubilee. "Way of the Triune God" is a delight in all three ways. "Old-time screaming and a-shouting/ Go up tell it on the mountain/ Faith too strong to be left out/ The way of the triune god"—a reference to the Godhead, or father, son and the holy ghost—Childers wails on Hallelujah, with its knockout barbershop harmonies in the vein of Oak Ridge Boys and classic mountain church choirs. (Jubilee welcomes New Orleans style horn and Joyful Noise layers an Andy Griffith Show sample onto speakeasy jazz.) If you're not moved by the spirit, check your pulse. © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz