At least you can’t say the Americana Awards are biased.
These days, it’s hard to have a conversation about the state of country music without bringing up the name Tyler Childers. Beyond his legendary discography that contains the likes of “Feathered Indians,” “Lady May,” “Nose On The Grindstone” and his latest viral hit, “Bitin’ List,” the Kentucky native has influenced a countless number of today’s hottest alt. country stars, ranging from Zach Bryan, Wyatt Flores, Charles Wesley Godwin and more.
With seven studio albums filled with nothing but gold, six certified platinum singles and a whole bunch of underrated deep cuts, Childers has risen to God-like status in today’s independent country scene. This, of course, is for good reason. In a time (especially during Purgatory’s release in 2017) where mainstream country music has become so homogenized, safe and, quite frankly, bad, Childers breathed life into the genre with world-class storytelling, classic instrumentation and a tangible edge to his style. Now, here in 2026… we’re in a MUCH better place, and it would be hard to argue that Tyler didn’t have anything to do with it.
Unsurprisingly, he’s racked up quite a lot of awards and nominations at the likes of the Americana Awards and the Grammys. This is highlighted by his 11 nominations at the Grammys since 2020 and his first-ever win for Best Country Song with “Bitin’ List” back in February.
The Americana Awards, in particular, have shown Childers a lot of love, frequently nominating him for each and every year. This year was no different as he took home his second-career Album of the Year win last night for 2025’s Rick Rubin-produced Snipe Hunter, marking his third award overall.
While it should seem like a no-brainer that Childers has been rewarded for his incredible discography at the Americana Awards, if you remember what he said about the show and the genre as a whole, it seems a bit surprising that the association continues to show him so much love.
If you recall, back in 2018, the “All Your’n” singer took home Emerging Artist of the Year. Prior to stepping foot on stage, the host for the evening mispronounced his name multiple times, which did not lead things off on a strong note. When Childers (pronounced Chill-ders, not Child-ers) stepped up for his speech, he was not afraid to let people know not only his name, but also what he thought about the term “Americana.”
“It crawls up my spine… my name is Tyler Childers. I am an Appalachian artist from the foothills of East Kentucky and I play country music.
As a man who identifies as a country music singer, I feel Americana ain’t no part of nothin’. It is a distraction from the issues that we are facing on a bigger level as country music singers. It kind of feels like ‘Purgatory’.”
With that, he said goodnight and goodbye and walked off the stage.
After the awards show that year, he sat down with World Cafe and discussed his speech. Knowing that Childers has always marched to his own drum, no one changed his mind about how he categorizes his sound.
“It was at the Ryman which is the Mother Church of Country Music and they’re holding the Americana Awards which I feel is a big hindrance in maintaining more true-to-roots country music.
And everybody always talks about the state of country music and puts down commercial country and says ‘somethings gotta be done’ and ‘we need to be elevating artists that are doing more traditional country’ but then were not calling those artists country artists, they’re getting put into this Americana thing.
It is what it is, and I don’t really know how to define what Americana is. We’re our own thing; it’s a new time, and I don’t know what it’s called, but I’ve been calling it country, you know? I think a lot of times it’s kind of become just a costume.”
Sturgill Simpson, who co-produced Tyler’s iconic Purgatory album, had a similar sentiment in 2021, famously saying he “never played a note of Americana” in his entire life:
“The last thing music or musicians need is another “genre,” … especially one defined by empty semantics that throws us in an industry gutter appropriating any and everything with the slightest amount of steam for its own self-promotion/membership fees all while simultaneously placing a glass ceiling on our careers.
I love all types of music and I mostly sing and play country, bluegrass, & rock n’ roll music… but I have never played a note of Americana in my entire life.”
In an undeniably biased music business, continually propping up industry favorites and artists who keep their heads down and maintain the status quo, it’s fascinating to see the Americana Music Association continually reward Childers, who publicly criticized their place in country music and abroad.
If it says one thing about the Americana Awards, unlike popular country music associations like the CMA and ACM Awards, they will reward artists based on their music alone and not on any extraneous factors, comments or even their attitude towards them as an association.
And funny enough, Tyler wasn’t even there to accept the award…
Snipe Hunt Tour Dates
September 30 – Sacramento, California – Golden 1 Center – with Wednesday
October 2 – Seattle, Washington – Climate Pledge Arena – with Wednesday
October 3 – Portland, Oregon – Moda Center – with Wednesday and Scott T. Smith