This was…underwhelming
Review of Tyler Childers’ Rustin’ in the Rain
Tyler Childers — Rustin’ In the Rain
Released September 8, 2023
I’m so invested in the careers of artists who challenge the status quo of Nashville. The outlaws, if you will.
When I was deep into my country music learning era (still kind of am, let’s be honest) and I was watching the Ken Burns’ Country Music documentary, all 16 hours of it, I was particularly taken with the story of Outlaw country, specifically Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings who broke away from the Nashville establishment. In doing so, they were able to make the music they wanted to make in the way they wanted to make it with the people they wanted to make it with. When Willie Nelson made Red-Headed Stranger, the label initially didn’t want to release it thinking that it would flop. But it took Billy Sherrill saying, “Let’s release it,” not because Sherrill believed in it but because he figured if they release it and it does flop, then Nelson would follow what they wanted to do. In the end, Sherrill lost that gamble and the album did extremely well and the label, and Sherrill, backed off and left Nelson to his own devices.
This outlaw tradition of going against the establishment and making the specific kind of music an artist wants to make has continued on and I see artists like Kacey Musgraves, Maren Morris, Margo Price, and Tyler Childers carrying the torch. In a Pitchfork review for this most recent Childers release, it was written that because of his tendency to go against the Nashville grain, “it’s tempting to see him as a break from the genre, rather than an artist working within a clear sense of tradition.” It’s not that I’m thinking of him as being outside of the country genre, he’s very much within the genre sonically and I think this album proves it. But there’s Nashville country, which tends to be the more mainstream, formulaic, pop-tinged country music, there’s Texas country which follows the Outlaw tradition of Willie, Waylon, and many more that have come after them, and then there’s some artists on the fringes who fall either somewhere between the two camps, or nowhere near them but are still country. It’s a wide spectrum.
All of this to say I like Childers generally because I do find myself often leaning towards the Texas country/Americana/anti-Nashville, anti-Music Row bents of country music. With that in mind, and even though this is a co-self produced record with himself and his own band, The Food Stamps and it was put out by his own imprint label, I just wasn’t wowed with this project.
For one, it was too short. I’m not saying I need every album to be a 31-song epic (Sorry Taylor), but 7 feels too short to call this an album.
I liked the writing of “Phone Calls and Emails,” but I do wonder what it would sound like if it were covered by another singer. Initially, I thought I could hear it in the voice of Tammy Wynette, but as she’s no longer here to sing it, I’d love to hear another outlaw or independent singer take it on, someone like Sierra Ferrell or Margo Price (who provides backing vocals on “Luke 2:8–10”), or even selfishly I’d love to hear Amanda Shires on a Childers’ penned track.
I was hardly very far into the record when he really lost me on track 3 “Luke 2:8–10.” I’m not religious, but I understand that gospel and Christian music are part of country music so while I’m not surprised that this song is here, I’m not exactly thrilled by its youth group core vibe. Another review called it “an ironic twist on a Nativity narrative,” but as I am unfamiliar with Nativity narratives and truthfully most Bible stories, it went completely over my head. It reminded me of when I was doing a Johnny Cash deep dive for a grad school assignment and in the middle of his discography are several albums of musical interpretation or just straight recitation of Bible verses. It seemed incongruous with the Man in Black persona Cash was so known for and this song feels incongruous with the outlaw image Childers portrays.
That song, paired with another on the record, and particularly the music video, I start to understand more of the vision I think Childers is attempting. The stand-out on this album, both personally and critically, is by far “In Your Love.” The writing on this song is the best on the album and confirms for me that Childers is at his best writing love songs. “All Your’n” and “Jersey Giant” are for me peak Childers and the genre is certainly lacking in queer love songs (as is the majority of mainstream music, regardless of genre but thankfully artists like Chappell Roan are starting to change that.) The video, which was conceptualized by writer and fellow Kentuckian Silas House, stirred up controversy for its portrayal of a queer romance storyline. It’s a gorgeous video and does as it was intended in showing Childers again at odds with the mainstream country establishment. Between “Luke 2:8–10” and the video for “In Your Love,” what I think Childers is trying to do is show those who might feel unwelcome by the mainstream country and conservative republican politics overlap that there is a place and a music for them too.
A surprise favorite for me was Childers’ version of the Kris Kristofferson written “Help Me Make It Through the Night.” Aside from Kristofferson’s stellar songwriting, the vocal performance by Childers has the tiniest hint of George Jones’ style while still sounding like himself.
If there’s anything about this album, I think it’s certainly traditional. You can’t accuse this project of being too pop-influenced. But yet I’m bored. Childers is a strong songwriter and a valiant artist to in his attempts to push the genre, but I don’t think the overall concept of this project feel fully fleshed out. Had it been longer, even if he were just to add another three tracks, they could all be covers, but to round out the track list to ten and even the choice in those covers would start to point us toward a general thesis to this record, but as it currently is, there’s just not enough there to pull out a strong message.
