First time I saw Tyler he opened for Margo Price at the Ryman. He still had long hair, whole band is in Carhartt overalls/pants/shirts, and dirty work boots. The dichotomy between that and Margo with multiple wardrobe changes, her running trough the crowd, sliding across the stage was hilarious. He was so uncomfortable at this point. He walked out, didn’t say shit, immediately went into a song. When he finished people jumped out of the pews and he look surprised/scared as hell. He wouldn’t really talk and just very quietly would be “this is Feathered Indians/Follow You to Virgie/etc”. At one point he very nervously said “umm I have a friend ummm he’s gonna come ummm sing this with us. Sturgill Simpson” of course everybody jumped up clapping/screaming. He had that same shocked/scared look on his face. Seeing where he is now as an entertainer is night and day. He’s worked hard.
Gotta credit my parents here. I remember dad wearing out The Manhattan Years album when I was kid, cassette and then CD. I actually went to see Fleck/Corea with my mom.
Saw him at City Winery in Atlanta recently. He’s still got it. Big Paco de Lucia fan too. This is an absolute banger:
Since we're already on a tangent and we're on Hispanic guitarists, I gotta throw these guys out there
Reed Anfinson, editor of the Swift County Monitor-News, in Benson, Minnesota, population 3379 — which one would think should qualify as small. Creating An Unwanted Stereotype Of Small Town Spoiler By Reed Anfinson Publisher A country life promoter, supporter of rural romantic nights, farmers, the good life in a small town, and the value of America’s Heartland, Jason Aldean has earned a place in the hearts of country music fans. Like many music stars, he has the voice, musical talent, and stage presence to be the entertainer, but his music and lyrics are often written in collaboration with others. Songwriters Kelley Lovelace, Neil Thrasher, Tully Kennedy, and Kurt Michael Allison wrote the music and lyrics for his recently released “Try That in a Small Town.” The song debuted in May but only in recent weeks was it not only pushed to the top of the charts but also the editorial pages of newspapers and the online music critic sphere. It has divided musicians and fans who once supported his songs. It is the combination of the lyrics and music video that caused a “swift and severe (reaction) with CMT pulling the video mere days after it debuted,” Skylar Baker-Jordan, a graduate student in Appalachian studies and Aldean fan who lives in Tennessee, wrote in the Daily Yonder. His video highlights the lyrics, marrying each line with disturbing visuals: “Sucker punch somebody on a sidewalk Carjack an old lady at a red light Pull a gun on the owner of a liquor store Ya think it’s cool, well, act a fool if ya like Cuss out a cop, spit in his face Stomp on the flag and light it up ‘Yeah, ya think you’re tough Well, try that in a small town See how far ya make it down the road” ‘Round here, we take care of our own You cross that line, it won’t take long For you to find out, I recommend you don’t Try that in a small town None of us supports violent protests where rioters and looters smash store windows, start police stations on fire, take baseball bats to police squad cars, spit in the face of law enforcement officers. They are inexcusable acts. While the video has carefully excluded any images of race, you would have to be naïve to not see the connections. Mounted law enforcement officers, burning buildings, and confrontations with the police – we’ve all watched the scenes too often in recent years. Many have followed the shooting of another Black youth. Aldean sings the lyrics in front of the Maury County Courthouse in Tennessee. We’ve been told it was an unfortunate mistake. The music video’s producers say they had no idea it was where a mob lynched an 18-year-old Black youth accused of attacking a White girl in 1927. The girl never identified him as the supposed attacker. After a couple minutes of scenes of violence in big cities, we see the inclusion of images of idyllic country life. And, of course, men carrying guns and hunting. The visual emphasizes the lyrics: “Got a gun that my granddad gave me ‘They say one day they’re gonna round up Well, that sh… might fly in the city, good luck Defending his song Aldean says the song “refers to the feeling of a community that I had growing up,where we took care of our neighbors, regardless of differences of background or belief.” Aldean is hardly a small-town boy. He was born and raised in Macon, Georgia, a city of 150,000 people. He now lives in Nashville. Aldean’s fans and supporters of the song don’t see implied violence in its lyrics. They see it as a protest against vandalism, looting, crime in big cities, and acts they see as unpatriotic. “In the past 24 hours, I have been accused of releasing a pro-lynching song,” Aldean says. He has been accused of attacking the Black Lives Matter movement. “These references are not only meritless, but dangerous. There is not a single lyric in the song that references race or points to it,” he says. “As so many pointed out, I was present at Route 91-where so many lost their lives and our community recently suffered another heartbreaking tragedy,” he wrote, referring to the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas. “No one, including me, wants to continue to see senseless headlines or families ripped apart.” Out of tune Lyrics protesting violence with implied violence in return strike a sour chord. We believe it is out of tune with what rural America should strive for to not just survive, but flourish in the coming years. While Aldean’s lyrics may seem flattering to small towns, they do the opposite. They do damage to our efforts to be welcoming communities. The song doesn’t inspire, it divides. It doesn’t promote small towns, it stereotypes and diminishes them. Portraying small towns as “Full of good ol’ boys, raised up right” ignores the fact that our rural courts have their share of these “boys” charged with a wide variety of crimes. There are plenty of these “boys’ who show little respect for law enforcement, their neighbors, or their community. Those “gold ol’ boys” can be seen as a group of white males filled with prejudices and ready to run those out of town who disagree with them. “Small towns contain multitudes. Black people live in small towns,” Baker-Jordan writes. “Gay people live in small towns. Progressives live in small towns. They have never been the sole purview of conservative white men like Aldean who have an ax to grind against anyone who doesn’t believe just like them. Small towns belong to us all.” Small towns are changing. The infestation of our homes with televisions, computers, and smartphones has turned us inward. We interact with our neighbors far less than in rural America’s idyllic past. Our brothers, our son and daughter, who live in metropolitan cities have neighborhoods of their own. They have friends they can rely on. We certainly have pride in our small towns, but it isn’t built on threats of violence toward those who don’t act and think like we do. It is built on a welcoming and inclusive community.
Benson, MN is in the part of the state that would be considered the chuddiest, so yet another example of why Minnesota rocks even in the worst places.
In your love has 1.3 million views in a day on YT. I don’t know what’s normal for TC but I doubt it’s that. Good for him.
I’m at least four of those. That video is incredibly powerful. I absolutely love this song, and it makes me tear up a little remembering my grandmother from rural NC every time.
Just sent In Your Love video to my mom who is nursing my dad in hospice at their house. She is bawling and I am bawling and we are all bawling.
My personal fav TC song is Hard Times because it came out at a particularly difficult time in my life: “If the lord wants to take me I’m here for the taking, cause hell’s probably better than trying to get by.” Felt real prescient for the time.
charleston is a really gorgeous city (only driven by but it’s really beautiful as the highway wraps around it and the river) and i like blaring that while driving through wv is such a beautiful state
holy shit, thanks for the intro to Tyler Childers. I want this whole Red Barn Radio session on vinyl.
funny how libs on here trash aldean for a true american song when this lame thread laughing at him has introduced more people to their guy tyler childers hypocrites imo
smh stealing from a guy literally named The American Dream. that's the only Hard Times I know, daddy.
Is this someone’s tie dye? Anyway, after this thread I listened to the pizza tapes for the first time in a while. What a treasure that is. That led me to this article where I learned that Garcia and Grisman met at a Bill Monroe concert in 1964 in PA. https://relix.com/articles/detail/d...ny-barnes-and-three-decades-of-acoustic-disc/ Bill needs more love on this site. True pioneer of music.
Sitting in my garage, massive awesome thunderstorm rolling through, cold busch in hand, Tyler on the garage speaker.
Watching the Billy Strings live stream. They were in a rain delay. When they came out to start, Billy said God most be up there watching the new Tyler Childers video.