Consumer Guide Album

Tyler Childers: Rustin' in the Rain [RCA/Hickman Holler, 2023]
A mere seven songs lasting a mere 28 minutes, this is the album the no longer merely "promising" 32-year-old lassos and rides back to the barn. It's also the greatest album ever to include a song about percheron mules ("Percheron Mules," it's called) or to the best of my knowledge a secular song that quotes all of Luke 2 8-10, which might time out rather well as a Christmastime hit. "Help Me Make It Through the Night" cover--right, been done before, but not a whole lot better. Not done before is a song to someone--a male buddy, sounds like, maybe "I consider us friends" indicates otherwise and maybe it doesn't--who's stopped answering his emails. In case you're wondering what his singing's like, as by now you should be, well--high, intense, committed to a natural drawl he may exaggerate an iota or two that just makes the music more compelling. Final song begins: "I never want to leave this world/Without sayin' I love you." As someone who knows that feeling, I'm convinced he lives it. A