BOYD COUNTY — Tyler Childers, who began his music career in the Tri-State, will be headlining the Healing Appalachia concert on Sept. 19 and 20, along with Chris Stapleton.

Childers, a Lawrence County, Kentucky native, began his music career in 2011 when he was just 19. 

In 2013, he played the Appalachian Uprising concert in Scottown. He played at the first Valstock in Kitts Hills in 2016, the Paramount Arts Center in 2018, the Nelsonville Music Festival in 2019 and numerous gigs in this area from Huntington to Chillicothe. In fact, he’s played this area so many times that, in his song “Country Squire,” he mentions Chillicothe, Circleville and the Country Music Highway. In 2020, Childers name was added to the Country Music Highway sign in Lawrence County, Kentucky, along with Ricky Skaggs, Larry Cordle, Don Rigsby and Keith Whitley.

It was the Country Music Highway that brought Healing Appalachia to Boyd County from after the concert attendance outgrew the West Virginia State Fairgrounds where it had been held for the last five years. In its first year, the audience was about 1,500. Last year, it attracted nearly 20,000 music fans from 42 states and three countries. And the organizers decided to look for a bigger space along the Country Music Highway and decided on the Boyd County Fairgrounds.

Healing Appalachia co-founder and show producer Charlie Hatcher explains he originally envisioned the concert “like a Farm Aid that would move around Appalachia. Let’s not forget Appalachia is thirteen states and we love Appalachia whether you’re from New York or Mississippi.”

Healing Appalachia’s aim is to celebrate recovery and raise awareness of the opioid crisis in the region. In addition to its music acts, the event features speeches from those impacted by addiction, as well as resources and free Naloxone training.

The rest of this year’s lineup has yet to be announced, but “Blind Faith” tickets to the three-day show are on sale now at https://tickets.healingappalachia.org.

Organizations and businesses that would like to sponsor or partner with Healing Appalachia can email producer David Johnson at djohnson@healingappalachia.org.