Monday afternoon, Kentucky country songsmith Tyler Childers hosted a free pop-up show to celebrate his new album Snipe Hunter at East Nashville sandwich spot Turkey and the Wolf Ice House. Childers began the set with “Old Country Church,” a Hank Williams cover featured on his 2022 release Can I Take My Hounds to Heaven? that he told the audience was the first song he ever learned to play. Then, with the crowd-pleasing love ballad “Oneida,” he launched into a full playthrough of Snipe Hunter, which is available now via his RCA Records imprint Hickman Holler Records.
Fittingly, Snipe Hunter offers commentary on Childers’ skyrocketing to fame — these days, it’s rare to see him play anywhere smaller than a stadium. (Case in point: He’s set to play Oct. 10 and 11 at Geodis Park.) “Cuttin’ Teeth,” his love letter to longtime backing band The Food Stamps, hit home in the intimate, no-frills setting, as did the zealously delivered line, “Have you ever got to hold and blow a thousand fucking dollars?” from “Eatin’ Big Time.”
“Hosting a soft open for an album in a sandwich shop — that’s eatin’ big time, ain’t it?” Childers quipped between songs.
Offerings of the afternoon included ice-cold Budweiser, a merch pop-up from Childers’ Hickman Holler Hunting Club and a special limited-time-only sandwich. The Snipe Sandwich featured a helping of chicken-fried Spam, house-made hot English mustard, herbed mayonnaise, shredded lettuce, pickles, dill, red onion and hot sauce on a seeded Martin’s roll.
As Childers told the crowd, though, his usual Turkey and the Wolf order is the restaurant’s famous Collard Melt: slow-cooked collard greens, Swiss cheese, pickled cherry pepper dressing and coleslaw on toasted rye. Or in his words, “a whole bunch of green stuff.”
