Tyler Childers with NewTown at The Mountain Arts Center in Prestonsburg, KY

I’ll be honest, going into this summer I wasn’t a very big bluegrass fan. After spending a weekend at The Master Musicians Festival listening to The Wooks, The Local Honeys and now NewTown I’m beginning to have a change of heart.

NewTown calls Lexington, Kentucky home but they play like they are from the hollow down the road! For those of you that don’t know where I live, I live in the Appalachian mountains of Kentucky. Saying they play like they are from a hollow down the road is definitely a compliment!! Kati Penn, JR Williams, Travis Anderson, Hayes Griffin and Mitchell Cannon entertained the MAC crowd with their blend of acoustic, bluegrass and Americana music. With songs like “Never Gonna Change” ”Feast of the Gryphon” ”Dublin Blues” “Gonna take a Train” and a super cover of Tyler Childers own “Harlan Road” which is also the name NewTown’s latest album. Pick one of their three albums up, you will not be sorry!

NewTown set list:
Never Gonna Change
Castaway
Feast of the Gryphon
Hard Times
Dublin Blues
Come back to me
Drifter Blues
Gonna Take a Train
Harlan Road
Water Under The Bridge

The main attraction of the night and what the sold out crowd at the Mountain Arts Center was here to see: Tyler Childers. This was the second time this year I’ve had the opportunity to photograph one of his concerts. The first which was also sold out was at a slightly smaller room in Whitesburg, KY at the Appalshop Theater. But the same energy that was in the smaller room was also in this larger venue. The feeling that we were about to witness something special and special it was. Capture Kentucky’s own Jonathan Newsome also photographed Tyler earlier this year at The Moonshiner’s Ball and he and a colleague had this to say about him, Jonathan described him as “a modern day, less nasally Bob Dylan” while his colleague described Tyler as an “Appalachian Bruce Springsteen”. When I read those quotes I thought that pretty much sums his sound up.

This was pretty close to a hometown show for Tyler Childers and his friends, family, and fans came out to support him and his new album “Purgatory” which is set to be released on August 4th. He played several tracks from the new album including “Feathered Indians” “Born Again” “Banded Clovis” “I Swear (To God)” “Lady May” and “Whitehouse Road” he also performed many of his other songs like “Rock Salt and Nails” “Nose on the Grindstone” “Bottles and Bibles” “Follow You To Virgie” and a couple of great covers “I’m so lonesome I Could Cry” and “I got stoned and I missed it” After about 2 hours of playing, singing and telling stories Tyler left the stage to standing ovation and calls for him to come back out. So he did. He brought David and Teresa Price (Luna and the Mountain Jets) up on stage to sing “That Thing You Said” with him. That closed out a very special night at the Mountain Arts Center.

I’ve seen this said on many websites and music blogs; if you’ve not heard of Tyler Childers you’re fixing to!

Tyler Childers set list (he doesn’t use a set list on stage, so this is a list of songs he performed. They are not in order and may not be complete but this is what I could remember.)
Nose On The Grindstone
Lady May
I Swear (To God)
Feathered Indians
I Got Stoned and Missed It
Bottles and Bibles
Rock Salt and Nails
Follow You To Virgie
Cinder and Smoke
Redneck Romeo
Whitehouse Road
Charleston Girl
Banded Clovis
Messed Up Kid
Honky Tonk Flame
Bus Route
Going Home
Shake The Frost
The Wonder And The Why
I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry
Encore- That Thing You Said