One of the more surprising cultural shifts in the musical world took place in about 2022 when legions of 18-to-24 year olds suddenly started screaming every word to songs by Americana singer-songwriters to whom these kids would have theretofore paid no attention at all. That Swiftie-style allegiance got a big boost when these young listeners discovered Zach Bryan, a gateway drug to other rootsy troubadours like Noah Kahan, who now plays stadiums, and Tyler Childers, who sold out Hollywood Casino Amphitheater Thursday night in St. Louis for the second time in four years.
Childers was already big in Americana/alt-country circles before that: His breakthrough album Purgatory came out in 2017, Country Squire in 2019, and songs such as “Feathered Indians,” “Lady May,” and “All Your’n” already had a strong fanbase. But once those songs, plus “Shake the Frost” and later “In Your Love,” started circulating heavily on TikTok and Reels, Childers started, in his parlance, eatin’ big time, graduating from clubs (like a packed show at The Pageant in 2018, played while a blizzard roared outside) to amphitheaters like Thursday’s 18,000-seat Hollywood Casino and even to stadiums: Childers plays Chicago’s Wrigley Field this weekend.
Thursday’s concert was attended by a mix of fans old and young, some old-school alt-country dudes who’ve been swearing by Tyler since “Whitehouse Road” first turned their heads as a savior of gravel-road Southern-twang and a revivalist of druggy outlaw country brimming with Willie whine and Waylon thump. But the vast majority in attendance were the TikTok kids and younger fans who discovered Childers when “Lady May” turned up on Yellowstone. Many of the latter group were girls in sundresses and cowboy boots who spent the pre-show and opening-act hours posing on the lawn for their Insta-shots; once Tyler hit the stage just before 9 p.m., these girls proved, however, they weren’t mere pretenders—they knew all the words…