SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — It was a moonshine-induced performance, involving a rubber chicken, an old-timey television set, a denim-clad outfit, and a whole lot of string instruments. Tyler Childers rocked out in front of a sold-out crowd at Saratoga Performing Arts Center on Wednesday night, and he did it his way.
As part of the “Mule Pull ’24 Tour,” Childers played a 23-song set, running just over two hours on the Broadview stage, showing off his vocal versatility and tapping into his musical roots.
The Kentucky native has carved out his own space in the country music world, combining folk and bluegrass with psychedelics and gospel. Childers put that on display early, opening the concert with his unreleased, slow-paced track “Her and the Banks,” before following it up with his honky-tonk style “Percheron Mules.”
Childers kept up the theme of toe-tappin’ country with his hit song, “Country Squire,” but eventually reigned in the feeling with the love song, “All Your’n.”
The 33-year-old gave listeners a peek into his inspirations on Wednesday night, performing covers of both Kris Kristofferson’s “Help Me Make It Through the Night” and Hank Williams Sr.’s “Old Country Church.”
While supporting musicians James Barker (keyboard/pedal steel guitar), Craig Burletic (cello/bass guitar), CJ Cain (guitar) and Rodney Elkins (drums) certainly played their part in getting the concert venue ‘screamin’ and a shoutin’,’ Childers took on a solo stretch of the act, giving the feeling that he was sitting on the porch, singing only to and for the listener.
“Lady May,” another love song coming from the standpoint of sorrow and remorse, opened Childers’ acoustic solos, followed by his darkly motivational, ‘Nose on the Grindstone.’ Before bringing all his compatriots back on stage, Childers ended the stretch with “Follow you to Virgie” – a song honoring his friend Cody’s late grandmother, who used to let Childers and his friends go to her house, play their music, and just hang out.
Childers roared into the home stretch of his concert, performing his anthem for a life hard-lived, “Whitehouse Road,” as well as the hymnal, “Way of the Triune God,” for which opening act S.G. Goodman returned to the stage to sing along with.
True to his word, Childers set SPAC ablaze with his penultimate song, “House Fire,” which was backed by visuals of raging flames, along with a banjo performance that just wouldn’t quit.
Childers, speaking directly to the audience, said there would be no encore act, “unlike some of those other guys that will leave and then come back out and play some more.”
“After this, we’re gonna be done and go (expletive) off to somewhere else,” he said to the erupting laughter of 26,000 fans. But before that, he closed with “Universal Sound” – a feel-good track about the benefits of just slowing down to listen to the music, in whatever form it takes.
Childers used an old-fashioned television set on stage, portraying grainy clips and footage of monumental points from the musician’s life. But at one point, to begin the concert, just one word was visible on its screen: ‘fellowship.’
“Some of you are going to leave here tonight and will have made friends for a lifetime,” Childers said to the audience. With a performance like that, Childers made a friend in Saratoga Springs.
