“This Is About Lovin’ Older Ladies” – A Look Back At “Oneida,” The Unreleased Song Tyler Childers Fans Are Raving About

“This is about… lovin’ older ladies…”

Tyler Childers made a number of headlines this morning, first by performing “Long Violent History” for the first time ever at the Hollywood Bowl last night, but then in the wee hours of the morning, dropped a cryptic new teaser what is safe to assume will be his next album, or at least, a new single.

Featuring our old friend Casey, who has starred in a number of Tyler Childers music videos, there seems to be a handful of potential Easter Eggs in the video, including “Nose On The Grindstone” playing in the background and some kind of weird looking chicken at the end (that’s not a Jersey Giant for everybody freaking out about it). To be honest, it doesn’t look like any kind of real bird so maybe it’s a reference to “Snipe Hunt”? Snipes are real birds though so not entirely sure I understand the origins of that joke…

But the big one is that the girl waiting to get her hair done is named “Oneida,” and that has fans convinced Tyler might finally be recording it.

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So… let’s dive into this unreleased fan favorite:

“Oneida”

Quite a few years back, fall of 2016 to be exact, Tyler Childers made a return visit to Red Barn Radio where he brought out a song that had been “collecting dust” in his catalog, as he put it, since back in 2013 when he wrote it. Called “Oneida,” it’s a top-notch story of a younger man entranced by an older woman. And in pure Tyler Childers fashion, the writing is superb.

Just take a look at the first two verses:

“Back before birthdays were something she dreads
Back before children had settled her friends
Back when the radio spoke to her heart
Oh, girls they wanna have fun

I lay here awake and I laugh at her jokes
She is referencing movies I’m too young to know
And I’m letting her lead as we dance in the dark
Oh girl, I’m falling in love”

At that 2016 Red Barn Radio session, Tyler confessed that he had only played it a handful of times, and even to this day, it’s at the bottom of the list. According to Setlist.com, he’s only performed it about a dozen times over the course of his career, and many of them have been in the past few years. His first full band performance of the song came just a few years ago in 2022.

Tyler Childers is unquestionably the type of artist who has an innumerable amount of awesome, uncut songs in his back pocket, many of which, will never ever see the light of day. But given the fact that he’s working on a new album with Rick Rubin, a man who is famous for pushing artists out of their comfort zone, wouldn’t he be the perfect producer to capture the magic of some of these old songs? Might be…

RCA Chairman and CEO Peter Edge, said it should be coming out in the next few months, and it defies expectations:

“I’m really excited about Tyler Childers’ new album, which is produced by Rick Rubin. He defies expectations, and this new album goes even further. The great thing about Tyler is that he does it the way he wants to do it. He’s playing giant venues, and he’s making the music he wants to make.”

To be fair, I don’t think Tyler will be recording a full album of these long lost gems, and I’m not even 100% convinced that he recorded “Oneida.” It just seems so unlike him, but then again, working with Rick Rubin also seems so unlike him, so it’s anybody’s guess. Generally, when it comes to musical releases like this, it’s not the most obvious answer that is correct, and in this case, a studio recording of “Oneida” seems like the obvious answer to this teaser.

I suppose we’ll just have to wait until tomorrow morning to see…

For my money though, out of all of these unreleased songs that we’ve come to know and love over the years, “Oneida” is one of his best.

The post “This Is About Lovin’ Older Ladies” – A Look Back At “Oneida,” The Unreleased Song Tyler Childers Fans Are Raving About first appeared on Whiskey Riff.