The Top 10 Tyler Childers Songs — Country Music’s Most Important Modern Artists [No. 14]

Tyler Childers first cracked country radio's Top 40 with "In Your Love" in late 2023. But he was already a superstar to legions of fans years before that, and his live shows were renowned for their cathartic, immersive energy.

His music gives voice to the Appalachian experience, and constantly challenges stereotypes and boundaries about what that experience might include.

Childers' discography ranges from tender love songs, to gospel and traditional fiddle tunes, to thorny, sharp lyrics about poverty and addiction. He's a steward of the rural Southern experience, and a talented enough lyricist to tell that story in ways people have never thought of it before.

Who is Tyler Childers?

Born in Lawrence County, Ky. to a coal mining family, Childers took up music as a teen and started generating buzz in Kentucky and West Virginia alongside his backing band The Food Stamps.

Purgatory marked his breakout album in 2017, earning Childers the Emerging Artist of the Year Award at the Americana Music Honors & Awards ceremony in 2018. During his time onstage, he criticized the term "Americana," saying he identified as a "country music singer" and that dividing music into sub-genres "is a distraction from the issues that we're facing on a bigger level as country music singers."

Nodding to his hit album, he added, "it kinda feels like purgatory."

To most fans, that was probably the first indication that Childers' career trajectory wouldn't be a typical one for an alt-country artist. In the years since, he's continued to consistently subvert expectations and expand on his musical identity, with the same sharp songwriting as a through line.

Tyler Childers' Best Songs:

Childers' 2019 follow-up to Purgatory, Country Squire, included a love song called "All Your'n" that earned him a Grammy nomination and showed the singer's talent for sweet, open-hearted love songs. He'd repeat that premise with "In Your Love" four years later, scoring his first major charting country hit and releasing a gripping music video that followed a gay coal mining couple in 1950s-era rural Appalachia.

In 2020, Childers surprised fans again: This time with a collection of traditional fiddle tunes called Long Violent History that closed with a spoken word title track addressing racism and police brutality.

Can I Take My Hounds to Heaven? was a gospel-leaning project that presented an eight-song track list recorded three ways (Hallelujah, Jubilee and Joyful Noise), and Snipe Hunter explored themes of psychedelia and unconventional spirituality. That album also includes "Bitin' List," which won Best Country Song at the Grammy Awards in 2026.

Keep scrolling for Taste of Country's list of the very best Childers' discography has to offer. These songs make a strong case for him as one of the most influential artists of country music's modern era.

Criteria: This list of the 25 Most Important Modern Country Artists was curated by Taste of Country staff, who considered hard data (charts, streaming numbers, ticket sales etc …), perceived influence, awards and recognition and (most important) recent releases. We zoomed in on who is shaping country music with popular releases today.

Artists who’ve not released an album or notched a hit song on airplay or streaming charts in the last three years need to show their influence in other ways. An example is Carrie Underwood, who’s not released a new album in four years but is the most influential voice on America’s most popular singing reality show.

No: 25 Riley Green's Top Songs | No. 24 Kelsea Ballerini's Top Songs | No. 23 Tim McGraw's Top Songs | No. 22 Blake Shelton's Top Songs | No. 21 Eric Church's Top Songs | No. 20 Jason Isbell's Top Songs | No. 19 Kenny Chesney's Top Songs | No. 18 Keith Urban's Top Songs | No. 17 Dan + Shay Songs | No. 16 Jason Aldean's Top Songs | No. 15 Megan Moroney's Top Songs | No. 14 Tyler Childer's Top Songs | No. 13 June 25 | No. 12 June 26 | No. 11 June 27 | No. 10 June 28 | No. 9 June 29 | No. 8 June 30 | No. 7 July 1 | No. 6 July 2 | No. 5 July 3 | No. 4 July 4 | No. 3 July 5 | No. 2 July 6 | No. 1 July 7