Opening on the Watson Stage with a rocking rendition of “Baby, Baby, Baby,” David Childers and the Serpents knew they could expect some of their fans in the audience, as well as many festival goers unfamiliar with his music. He served up a good mix of his originals, including “Don’t Be Scared,” one of Childers’ songs covered by the Avett Brothers, and the all-too-timely “Moscow Radio.” They also played “Run Skelton Run,” the title track from his 2017 album. He was joined by the members of his band, his son Robert Childers on drums, Korey Dudley on bass, Geoff White on fiddle. Both of the guitarists who play on the road joined him at MerleFest: Dale Shoemaker on the electric guitar and David Niblock on acoustic.
The performances at MerleFest on Friday—on the Hillside Stage and then the Watson Stage—marked his second time to play the festival, appearing first on Sunday morning back in 2014. However, he notes, “We aren’t playing gigs like MerleFest very often, where we’re on a big stage and people are there to pay attention. A lot of time we’re playing in breweries or restaurants where people have no idea we’re even there. They show up, and we engage them.”
Living in Mt. Holly, Childers finds himself at home in his native state. While he has had the opportunity to record elsewhere, he chose to stay in North Carolina, not just to live but to record, instead of going to New York City or Nashville. He did record an album in Nashville in 1997 with what he considered fine studio musicians, but he decided he could get the kind of experience he wanted in a recording closer to home.
Childers said, “I knew that we had the same technology down here and very experienced sound people, so it just makes more sense stay home.
With his band, The Serpents he also prefers playing closer to home. “I don’t like all that traveling and staying in hotels and hauling stuff around. I do it, but generally I like to leave here, go somewhere within three hours, play the gig, load up and come home, and then sleep in my own bed,” said Childers. With plenty of venues in Charlotte, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Henderson, and Hickory so close, that is a regular option.
His last album Interstate Lullaby: Lost but Found was released in 2020, a project headed by his son Robert Childers and Dolph Ramseur, and he has a new album in the works that should be out within the next year.
“It’s not a rush anymore,” says Childers. “We just want to get it right.”
Not only does Childers like to play around his home, but many of his songs are steeped in North Carolina lore. Ironically, the lyrics for “Belmont Ford,” about the 1916 flood, was brought to him by a woman from Michigan.
“She wrote lyrics and brought it to me; I put it to music and changed some of the words around. I was aware of flood, but it took a lady from up north to make me aware of it even though it There are songs about the Johnstown Flood, the Galveston Flood, and the Great Flood in the Bible,” he noted. “If you live by a river, that’s going to happen sometimes,” he added.
When he’s performing, says Childers, he doesn’t think much about whether he’s playing one of his songs of someone else’s. His MerleFest sets were a mix of his own songs and those of others that suited the crowd.
“I don’t even think about it when I play live. I find that what works in my heart works for other people—because it’s not coming from some phony, manufactured place. When I’m playing, I’m feeling it. That’s what people connect to.” He tends to record his own songs, although not exclusively.
“On this next record, for example, we’ve done a song that Prince wrote and one by John Prine. I’ve recorded Hank Williams and Bob Dylan,” says Childers.
While he admits that he does expect to make records that will sell a million copies, he has been able to retire from the legal profession and devote more time to music. He nurtures a “just folks” image that belies his wide range of interests. He once considered becoming a professional poetry, something he considers “a ridiculous idea.” However, he says that from reading such poets as Bukowski, he developed his own voice.
“I’ve got a label that nurtures me. They let me do what I want within reason,” he says. He has also taken up painting as well, selling some of his finished pieces. “I’m still able to do what I want to do, go out and play for people and paint. I have a very rich happy kind of life with my wife. I’m a lucky dude.”
http://www.davidchilders.com
