Tyler Childers (photo: William Wayland) Here’s something I didn’t realize until last Friday. Tyler Childers is a heartthrob. The guy who stands at the microphone like he just got off a backhoe makes his lovesick fans swoon. And that makes sense. Even with its share of whooping and hollering and falling-down drunk into the arms of the Oakland Police Department, what I saw mostly at The Fox Theater was couples with their arms around each other singing the words to every song (and taking videos, of course, to prove that they were there). Just as Bruce Springsteen can’t be separated from [...]

Tyler Childers (photo: William Wayland) Tyler Childers released his breakthrough album, Purgatory, in August 2017. Even before I had listened all the way through I had tickets to see him a week later at Hotel Utah. Playing before a capacity crowd of 90 people, I predicted that someday the 60,000 people across town at Outside Lands would wish they had been at Hotel Utah that night with me. So it was interesting to see Mr. Childers play the Fillmore a year later, before a sold out audience more than 10 times the size. The 2017 crowd was quiet, listening to every one [...]