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Tyler Childers Is Passionate About The Country Music Tradition

When you think of country music, what's the first thing that comes to mind? If contemporary country radio has you conjuring images of pickup trucks and red Solo cups, then that's exactly what Tyler Childers is not. His third studio album, Country Squire, was one of my favorites of 2019.

Born and raised in Kentucky, Childers' music occasionally gets lumped into the Americana category, but he rejects that label. He even spoke out publicly about being called Americana in his acceptance speech when he took home Emerging Artist of the Year at the 2018 Americana Music Honors & Awards. "I don't know what it's called but I've been calling it country," he explains in this session. "I think a lot of times it's become just a costume."

Tyler's passionate about what "country" really means, the true tradition and roots of the genre. To him, that means staying authentic and telling real stories. You can hear that mindset in his songs, many of which are based on real life stories. Hear today's session with Childers in the player above.

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Raina Douris, an award-winning radio personality from Toronto, Ontario, comes to World Cafe from the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), where she was host and writer for the daily live, national morning program Mornings on CBC Music. She was also involved with Canada's highest music honors: hosting the Polaris Music Prize Gala from 2017 to 2019, as well as serving on the jury for both that award and the Juno Awards. Douris has also served as guest host and interviewer for various CBC Music and CBC Radio programs, and red carpet host and interviewer for the Juno Awards and Canadian Country Music Association Awards, as well as a panelist for such renowned CBC programs as Metro Morning, q and CBC News.
Since 2017, John Myers has been the producer of NPR's World Cafe, which is produced by WXPN at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Previously he spent about eight years working on the other side of Philly at WHYY as a producer on the staff of Fresh Air with Terry Gross. John was also a member of the team of public radio veterans recruited to develop original programming for Audible and has worked extensively as a freelance producer. His portfolio includes work for the Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site, The Association for Public Art and the radio documentary, Going Black: The Legacy of Philly Soul Radio. He's taught radio production to preschoolers and college students and, in the late 90's, spent a couple of years traveling around the country as a roadie for the rock band Huffamoose.