Tyler Childers has announced that he will be releasing his highly anticipated new album, Rustin’ in the Rain, on September 8th via Hickman Holler/RCA Records. Rustin’ in the Rain can be pre-ordered here, and is the follow-up to 2022’s Can I Take My Hounds to Heaven? which debuted in the top 10 of the Billboard 200.
Of the album, Childers shares, “This is a collection of songs I playfully pieced together as if I was pitching a group of songs to Elvis. Some covers, one co-write, and some I even wrote in my best (terrible) Elvis impersonation, as I worked around the farm and kicked around the house. I hope you enjoy listening to this album as much as I enjoyed creating it. Thank you. Thank you very much.”
To go alongside the album announcement, Childers has shared the album’s first single, “In Your Love.” The single is accompanied by a music video written and creative directed by Silas House — with a story idea by House and Jason Kyle Howard), while the video itself was directed by Bryan Schlam and stars Colton Haynes and James Scully, depicting a timeless love story of two men set in rural Appalachia in the 1950s.
House is a New York Times bestselling author, current Poet Laureate of Kentucky and recipient of the 2022 Duggins Prize — the largest award for an LGBTQ writer in the nation.
Of the video, he shares, “As a gay teenager who loved country music, I could have never imagined seeing myself in a video. That visibility matters. There have always been LGBTQ people in rural places and finally we’re seeing that portrayed in a country music video. Tyler and I both felt the attention to detail about rural life was very important, so we made sure that the house and the people looked realistic for the time period instead of the stereotypes of country people that have become so ingrained in the public consciousness. We used our own family pictures as references. We wanted to tell as complex a story as we could in four minutes, not only about a gay couple, but also about rural people. We wanted to show their joy and their sorrow—all the things that make up a complex life. Too often simplistic notions are pushed about both rural and LGBTQ people, so we did everything we could to make this story as rich and layered as possible.”
Watch the video for “In Your Love” below.
Childers and his longtime band, The Food Stamps — James Barker (pedal steel), Craig Burletic (bass), CJ Cain (guitar), Rodney Elkins (drums), Chase Lewis (keyboards) and Jesse Wells (guitar, fiddle) — are currently in the midst of a 30-date sold-out nationwide tour. Upcoming stops include two nights at Radio City Music Hall, Boston’s Leader Bank Pavilion, DC’s Merriweather Post Pavilion, two nights at Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre as well as two newly announced New Year’s Eve shows at Lexington’s Rupp Arena.
Tickets for the Rupp Arena shows will be available through a registration process hosted by Ticketmaster. Registration for pre-sale tickets is open now through Sunday, July 30th at 11:59pm ET (details here). Following registration, randomly selected fans will receive an access code for the pre-sale, starting Wednesday, August 2nd at 10am ET. General on-sale will follow Thursday, August 3 at 10:00am ET. Full details can be found here.
Tour dates:
