The first time I heard Tyler Childers’ voice I was riding in the passenger seat of a 15-year-old car late at night through the back roads of West Virginia.

It was 2019, and I was 17 years old. And even though my first encounter with Childers’ music was five years ago, his songs have continued to define my experience growing up in Appalachia. His songs became the soundtrack to breakups, late nights with my friends,…