The 8 Wildest Lyrics From Tyler Childers’ ‘Snipe Hunter’ Album

You can’t accuse Tyler Childers of being lyrically boring.

Kentucky’s own hillbilly poet returned last Friday with his new album, Snipe Hunter, a project that feels like his most accessible yet to a mainstream country audience.

The album features live fan-favorites that he’s been performing for years — including a much-clamored-for studio recording of “Nose on the Grindstone” — as well as a song that seemingly lays out a thesis statement to explain his longtime social media hashtag, “Eatin’ Big Time.”

Snipe Hunter also sheds light on the life and interests of an artist who’s long been one of country music’s most enigmatic performers.

He sings of Indian landmarks, koala bears with sexually transmitted diseases, snake delicacies and hunting tips in this rollicking, humor-filled body of work.

That doesn’t do anything to downplay his artistic eccentricities. But it does provide a cohesive musical identity for an artist who’s long toed the line between underground and superstardom, traditionalism and experimentation, and who once declared the Americana genre “purgatory” — a reference to his Purgatory album — during a thorny acceptance speech at the 2018 Americana Music Honors & Awards ceremony.

Read More: 10 Essential Tyler Childers Songs

His career has included an album of fiddle tunes, a gospel project done three ways and a song release aimed directly at injustice and civil unrest (“Long Violent History”).

But through it all, one thing Childers has always been is a stellar, one-of-a-kind lyricists. His words are stark and unexpected, hilarious and biting, usually all at once.

That’s a trend he continues — and even amplifies — on his newest project. Keep reading for the wildest, wackiest and most downright unhinged lyrics on the singer’s Snipe Hunter album.