As the rain and lightning came in waves recently outside the CFG Bank Arena, Tyler Childers and his band, The Food Stamps, kept things movin’ and groovin’ (and dry) for over two hours.
The Kentucky native brought his Mule Pull ‘24 Tour into Charm City following the release of the critically acclaimed Rustin’ in the Rain released last Fall. The album is that rare kind of magic that feels familiar but new often in the same song. Tunes like “Phone Calls and Emails” sound straight out of the Conway Twitty songbook but in the parlance of modern technology. And although the album, at seven songs and just under a half hour, is short, it packs a lot of emotional punch in that short time.
It seems like in such a short time, Tyler Childers has grown from playing small clubs to headlining sold-out shows at Merriweather Post Pavilion last year and arenas this year. In fact, it was just a handful of years since he was playing Baltimore’s own The 8X10 club. But there’s a reason for that rise in popularity. Childers delivers the goods time and again, and his May 27 showdate was no different.
Opening the night was the brilliant Allison Russell who put on a powerful performance. I hadn’t witnessed Russell before, but she left me wanting to catch her perform the next time she’s comes through town.
As the lights came up for Tyler Childers and The Food Stamps at CFG Bank Arena, the stage came to life with an old TV set in the middle playing bits of old Childers performances in between other parts of old shows. Then the band hit the stage and they started in on “Country Squire” from the 2019 album of the same name.
Childers has a way with words, and no more in “Whitehouse Road” from 2017’s Purgatory album when he sings, “Get me drinkin’ that moonshine / Get me higher than the grocery bill / Take my troubles to the high wall / Throw ‘em in the river and get your fill.” If it was just his songcraft, Childers would be a phenom, but he’s got a voice that can preach hellfire one minute and croon the next.
Watch the official music video for “Whitehouse Road” by Tyler Childers on YouTube:
The Hank Williams classic “Old Country Church” with that little bit of The Beatles “Let It Be” slyly sandwiched in between verses hit all the right spots. As images of animals making up a band inlaid in projected stained glass over the stage, the band rocked, heavy with organ and slide guitar.
One of the best covers I’ve heard live has been Childers’ version of Kris Kristofferson’s “Help Me Make It Through The Night.” It’s a tall order to take a song like that and make it your own, but Tyler Childers and The Food Stamps did that in style.
The whole evening was like a big sing-a-long with the audience knowing every word, but as the band started on the single “In Your Love” I looked around the crowded arena as the voices of the crowd filled the corners of the place, echoing those words “We were never made to run forever / We were just meant to go long enough / To Find what we were chasin’ after / I believe I found it here in your love.”
Starting the acoustic part of the evening, Childers told the crowd about if you didn’t have anything else in common with the person next to you, at least you had that shared experience, or as he called it “fellowship” with that other person. And there’s never been a truer statement. And to illustrate that point, everyone joined in as he sang “Shake The Frost.”
“I don’t’ think I really knew anyone from Baltimore… so it would have been really lonely here without you,” Childers told the crowd. In his trademark wit, he introduced “Born Again” as a “hillbilly commentary on reincarnation.”
Tyler Childers can get things hopping one minute and play just the most thought provoking lines with just himself and an acoustic guitar the next. Some of the strongest songs came from just his voice and that instrument of steel and wood. The best example was “Nose on the Grindstone,” a song I’ve always interpreted as being about the struggles of trying to do the right thing.
Watch Tyler Childers play “Nose on the Grindstone” live for Creek Sessions on YouTube:
The man has a disarming charm. Even when telling the audience that things were coming to an end, he did it with a wink and a rod before starting on “Way of the Triune God,” a rollicking foot-stomper.
But like any good show, it was the last two songs — “House on Fire” (literally, as the image of a country porch slowly being engulfed in flames until it was no more than a pile of tinder was displayed behind the stage) and “Universal Sound” — brought out the big spectacle with a veritable rainbow of spotlights and lasers lit up the entire arena.
This was an incredible performance that had fans dancing in the crowded aisles.
The setlist included:
Country Squire
Trudy (The Charlie Daniels Band cover)
Rustin’ in the Rain
All Your’n
Purgatory
Cluck Ol Hen (“Oh Christmas Tree” interlude on keys)
Whitehouse Road
Old Country Church (Hank Williams cover)
Can I Take My Hounds to Heaven?
Two Coats
Help Me Make It Through the Night (Kris Kristofferson cover)
In Your Love
Shake the Frost
Born Again
Lady May
Nose on the Grindstone
Follow You to Virgie
I Swear (to God)
Honky Tonk Flame
Percheron Mules
Way of the Triune God
House Fire
Universal Sound
Here are more photos of Tyler Childers performing at the CFG Bank Arena in Baltimore on May 27, 2024. All photos copyright and courtesy of David LaMason.
And here are more photos of Allison Russell opening at the CFG Bank Arena on May 27, 2024.
